Zoot Wetsuit

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while… I’ve had a mental block and didn’t know what to write about.

Steelhead Ironman is under two weeks away, and I finally decided on a wetsuit and it arrived today. I went with the Full Zoot Z1 Wetsuit.

It has a protected rear zipper reduces water entry. It also zips up for closing and has a Velcro collar to make the suit watertight.

The suit is supposed to be one of the fasted suits around and it’s designed anatomically through the hips and shoulders for a man’s specific build. (They also make them for woman’s build as well.)

One thing I can tell you is that once I got the suit out of the box I was somewhat surprised how small it was. My wife thought that it was way too small. I looked at the tag and it read L, which should have been the correct size. I looked at it carefully and as I unzipped the suit, I was having trouble getting the suit unzipped. As I looked at it again, I noticed that they shipped the suit inside out. It’s a good thing because I was not too impressed with the sleekness of the suit. Once I turned the suit inside out, the wetsuit glistened and all of the seems were hidden. It looks fast… I can’t wait to get this thing in the water to see how it does.

I put the suit on… If you have never put anything on like this, get ready to be compressed. It is very tight fitting throughout the body and it is very form fitting. The wetsuit has variable thickness on torso and upper legs that is supposed to help maintain the perfect positioning in the water. It is also thinner in the side torso and underarm panels, which I was glad that it allows full chest expansion, arm extension and shoulder rotation.

One thing I do like about the suit is that it has a textured forearm catch panel, which increases stroke efficiency by helping you "grab" more water per stroke. As I am an arms swimmer, this should help a lot.

I’m going to try it out tomorrow in the pool. I will need to do a little research to see how to take care of it once it is in chlorinated pool water.