My friends at the Speedy Reedy triathlon store tell me they sell 80% to 90% full sleeve wetsuits to their mostly experienced triathlete customers. Here at Everyday Athlete however, we sell about 80% sleeveless suits. Weird. My best explanation is that we sell mostly to runners converting to triathlon and to mostly beginning triathletes who don’t want to spend $600 after just forking over three house payments for their bicycle.
A full suit is of course a little bit warmer and it gives your body a smoother “keel” so you glide faster and farther with each stroke. In the real world however things are a little messier. A sleeveless suit always offers more free arm movement and for swimmers with big shoulders or big…chests, and this is very important. Beginners can feel overwhelmed by the cold, crowds, waves, and black scary depths of open water swimming and the last thing they need is to feel like they have a monkey on their back squeezing their shoulders. Top-of-the line suits can have more stretchy shoulder panels aiding flexibility, but that comes at a steep, steep cost. The basic Blue Seventy full suit is $300, while the top of the line Helix is twice that much!
Also, most triathlets have a sloppy leading edge (they don’t swim like Michael Phelps) so the smooth arm-pit of a full suit will make little difference. Our experience as shown us that beginning swimmers with inefficient strokes and non-olympic shaped bodies generally like a sleeveless suit over a low-end full suit.
I recommend simply trying out a suit before you buy it. Take it to a pool and swim a few laps in a long sleeve suit and if you feel restricted then try a sleeveless. Don’t get a full suit because it is “supposed” to be faster. Try it out and see for yourself.
