A few years ago Blue Seventy, a company known for its swimming wetsuits, set out to design the fastest, FINA legal swim suit in the world. In order to be FINA legal, FINA is the governing body for international swimming (world championships, Olympics, etc...) the suit cannot provide buoyancy to the swimmer. Therefore the suit they designed is neutrally buoyant and extremely hydrodynamic: The PointZero3, a swim suit, or speed suit, with a coefficient of drag equal to .032 (50 times lower than the drag of your skin).
I'm not a paid athlete of Blue Seventy, I'm not sponsored by them, and I actually paid full retail for this suit. It's one of the more popular speed suits on the market and also one of the most affordable at $225. Additionally, it's legal to wear at triathlons which don't allow wetsuits (if the water temp is able 78 degrees, wetsuits are not legal); Ironman Hawaii in Kona is one of those such races.
I've been a competitive swimmer since I was 7. In high school I posted a 50 free of 21.8, a 100 free at 48.7 and a 200 free of 1:48, so I'm not the fastest guy in the water, but I'm pretty quick and have millions of yards of swimming under my belt. Also, my fastest Ironman swim time is 51:58 which puts me up there with the faster swimmers in triathlon.
I tried the suit on at home prior to heading to the pool and the fit seemed a little snug in the chest, I have a larger than average chest for a guy of my height and weight (5'8" - 160lbs), so I figured it would feel similar to the constriction that a tight fitting wetsuit provides. I wasn't excited about this fit, but figure that I'd get used to it after a few hundred yards and wouldn't even realize it, hopefully.
Immediately upon diving in the pool, the suit expanded and felt extremely comfortable. On each wall the suit would let in a little bit of water through the neck and arms upon push off, but this wouldn't be a problem in open water. If I were using this suit for shorter, swimming events (500yds or less), I'd size down, but for open water and triathlon, the sizing is perfect (Men's Medium - I'm 5'8" and 160lbs...remember).
After a 50 I decided to count strokes, 12. I kept counting for about a 200 and each lap was at 12, usually I'm in the range of 13-14 strokes each lap. So yeah, the suit is faster and more efficient just based on stroke count, which for a swimmer like me is a pretty dependable measurement (over a 3000 yard workout that single stroke decrease per lap translates to 120 fewer strokes or a 250 yard increase in efficiency). The question still remains, HOW much faster is the suit? Blue Seventy claims 3-5% faster.
The workout was a good test for gauging pace times as it involved 100s and 50s with quite a bit of rest after each interval (about 30 seconds). Overall my times were not only faster, but I felt less fatigued at the end of the workout. At the beginning of last week, before I packed on the swim yardage, I was swimming fast 100s at 1:03-1:04, today I swam my fast 100s at 1:00-1:02 or about 5% faster. So it's not very scientific, but it's for sure faster and since more than half of the athletes at Ironman will be wearing one, I will be too. After the 1hr+ workout, the suit was still extremely comfortable with only a slight increase in body temp and a small section of chaffing on the right side of my neck (I'm a dominantly right side breather). A little cooking spray will solve the chaffing problem and the water temp in Hawaii is usually at 79 degrees (a degree or two cooler that the DU pool)
The PointZero3 speed suit allows me to wear my 2XU tri suit under neath, therefore once I get out of the water all I have to do is take off the PointZero3 speedsuit and I'm already in my gear for the bike and the run. It's extremely difficult to put on a spandex tri suit when you are wet, so being able to wear the suit under my speed suit will save another minute or so over the savings that I will get in the water.
In recap, the Blue Seventy PointZero3 is a well designed and extremely fast product for warmer water races. I will even be wearing this suit in future races where the water temps are wetsuit legal, but on the warmer side of being legal (78 degrees of below is the legal water temp). Wearing a wetsuit is fast, but there are trade offs as they can cause you to overheat at borderline legal water temps; the speed suit will be great for races where the water is 74+ degrees. The stated increase in speed of 3-5% seems valid in my experience, and the increase in efficiency will be huge for Ironman. I now understand why so many swimming world records have fallen in recent months. In a sport that is measured in hundredths of seconds, a 3-5% decrease in times is ridiculous; the Speedo Lazr suit (worn by many swimmers in Beijing) is a product identical in purpose to the PointZero3.
If you are considering a speed suit to add you your triathlon swimming arsenal, the Blue Seventy PointZero3 is a great suit and the pricing is better than any other speed suit out there. For those looking for a race suit for pool competitions, the Blue Seventy Nero is specifically designed to meet the needs of the pool swimmer and was used in the Olympics by many of the non-Speedo sponsored athletes...all 4 of them...
I love tapering.
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