Tech Suit Review
It’s short course championship season! You know what that means. Taper time, meets, and fast suits! Here is a short review of all the fast skins I have ever raced in. The first three are for more competitive swimmers, and I would recommend the last for a younger or less experienced swimmer.
For the More Experienced
Arena Powerskin Carbon Flex, Limited Edition, Open Back ($475 $380)
This is my latest tech suit purchase. I wore it at high school district finals and regionals. I bought this over the other (cheaper) members of the Arena Carbon family, because it offers the right balance of the compression of the Pro without being too stiff and offers the flexibility of the Air, in addition to its energy-return tape system. I’d been wanting to try it out long before my club team, Longhorn Aquatics, became sponsored by Arena, because this is the “it” suit for breaststrokers with not-so-curvaceous bodies, like me. Unfortunately, I purchased a size too big and didn’t realize this until I had already warmed up in it, so I was unable to return it. However, I did enjoy the buoyancy the suit brought to my hips and it’s hydrophobic qualities (sheen when initially entering the water and beading). The fabric held up well as far as water repellency, buoyancy, and compression, but I did find (this may be due to poor sizing) that the upper body was too large in the lat area, and is geared towards swimmers with bigger shoulders and wider backs than mine (and my back and shoulders are by no means small). Another thing I particularly found pleasing was the strap design. Although they’re no Speedo Comfort Straps, they only caused mild pain after long periods of wear. Easy solution to shoulder pain, though: put on a Jolyn and remove tech suit shoulder straps.
I’d rate this suit an 8.5/10 (imagining that I ordered the correct size) and I would recommend this suit to breaststrokers and IMers, especially, and anyone with a muscular, straighter, taller body shape.
Suits pictured above (left to right): Arena Carbon Flex, Arena Carbon Flex, Speedo LZR Racer Elite 2
Speedo LZR Racer Elite 2, Comfort Strap, Closed Back ($449)
I bought this one on sale (you’ll find that’s will be a recurring theme- me buying discounted tech suits). The closed back makes taking the shoulder straps off harder, but the comfort strap design puts very little acute pressure on any part of the shoulder and therefore causes little pain. The upside to a closed back suit is that more fabric means more speed. Technical suit techology has advanced to where material scientists have made these fabrics more hydrodynamic than skin, which, combined with the added compression and buoyancy of the additional fabric to your core, reduce drag and help you swim faster. The downside to the closed back is that I found that it did not usually touch the small of my back and there was almost a gap of air, and this slowed me down. However, this may be a result of poor sizing. Speedo sizing is generally for girls with more curves, and while the suit measured correctly around horizontally around the core, my torso length was longer than the suit is intended to fit, but it was mostly compensated for by my smaller hips and chest. This suit’s water-repellent qualities (sheen) have probably lasted longer than any other suit I have worn, and the compression is there at first, but is lost more quickly than the Carbon Flex’s but slower than the Avictor’s. After a while, the hips stretch out really big and you get loose folds of excess fabric in the area. I do prefer the paneling inside this suit to the Carbon’s, because though it is “less modest,” it covers what needs to be covered and leaves no room for air bubbles to form in the front panels (as opposed to between the Flex’s double layer).
Rate: 9/10 for versatility
Strokes: butterfly, freestyle of any distance, backstroke and IM
Body Types: curvy, short
TYR Avictor Prelude, Open Back ($384 - $480)
This suit came to be mine by sheer luck. I actually got it for free from an Instagram contest, and I have “no ragrets.” The suit is the least compressive of these first three, more high end, suits and and the most flexible. Despite the weaker compression, this suit is suprisingly buoyant and has very tight bottom-of-leg elastic. It loses beading the after the least amount of wears, but does not lose shape quite so easily and the sheen is still sort of there for a while. This suit probably has the lowest back of the three suits but it easily has the longest leg coverage. The front paneling is similar to the LZR, so I do appreciate that this suit does not have large air bubbles. Major style points to TYR, too. This suit comes in a pretty wacky pattern, but the colors make it all the more fun to swim in. The construction of the straps does not spread the pressure out well over a large area like on the LZR and Flex, but because the suit is not as compressive, or perhaps because the straps are slightly longer, there is not a painful amount of pressure on the shoulders. My favorite features of this suit are probably its painless wearability (which lets you wear it comfortably for extended periods of time like long meets) and its flexibility/freedom of movement. My only complaint is that the arm holes go way down. Like, WAY down.
Rate: 7.5/10
Strokes: butterfly, distance freestyle, breaststroke
Body Types: tall, slender
For First-Time Tech Suit Owners
Rocket Science Sports Rocket LIGHT2, Open Back ($285 $186)
This is first tech suit I ever wore. This suit is by far the most economical of all the suits in this post, retailing at under $200. Designed in Austin, this suit has hometown pride written all over it for me. Similar to the Carbon Flex, this suit has a double layer in front, but the fabric is most like the LZR in texture and weight. Because it is thinner than the Flex, the double layer does not bubble as much. This suit is light and thin, but it is durable. It’s straps have a similar feel to the Avictor, but they do dig in slightly more. There is nice beading and sheen when initially worn, and the suit offers great buoyancy to lift your hips up. My main complaint, though, is that the elastic at the bottom of the leg openings is less sticky than the Avictor and significantly less so than the LZR and Flex.
But for any younger age group swimmer or for your first championship meet suit, this is a great choice in terms of relative cost and speed. As far as I can tell, a reason for the significant markdown of this suit is just that the brand is less well known in the swimming world, as the brand focuses more of its resources on developing products for triathletes.
Rate: 9/10 (relative to cost)
For: Any swimmer looking for a more economical option or a suit for their first championship meet.
