TYR Aquashift

Recently I purchased a TYR Aquashift Zipperback Short John swimsuit in the hope that it would provide some additional benefit in non-wetsuit swims. Having had an opportunity to use it at the local Virgin Active, I thought I would share my review with the readers of this blog

First up it must be stated that the ITU and WTC have different rules regarding the use of an additional swimsuit in non-wetsuit events. The ITU states that if an athlete chooses to wear a second swimsuit then they have to do so for the entire race. WTC doesn’t seem to have a rule but given that most the pros used a second suit for the swim leg only at Kona , I am assuming that it is acceptable.

The Aquashift makes use of Tripwire technology which basically consists of strategically placed strings along the chest and buttocks which are designed to keep the water flow as close to the body as possible. The nett effect is that you glide further on each stroke which translates to less effort or more speed.

What it doesn’t do is offer any bouyancy like the Blue Seventy PointZero3 but by virtue of the fact that you expend less energy you also can maintain good body position for longer. I would imagine that even the best swimmers suffer fatigue which translates into reduced efficiencies in terms of body position and stroke so this will be of benefit to everyone.

I was certainly impressed and found that there was at least a marginal increase in speed for the same effort. Can this be down to the psychological effect of using a new piece of equipment, maybe but overall I do believe that there is an advantage to be gained and since these are hard to come by in the pool (compared say to cycling), I will take whatever I can get.

As for the ITU ruling, well I would consider using the Aquashift as my trisuit for sprint and Olympic races, if I did them, but I have no information on the durability of the construction or the materials used and it may prove to be an expensive choice.

I must take a few lines to commend the people at Action-Ize\TYR Sports for processing my order and getting the suit delivered from Cape Town in 2 days. This level of service should be expected but is rarely received and it will go a long way to ensuring that I purchase from them again.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 18th, 2007 at 1:22 pm and is filed under Action-Ize, Aquashift, Frankland Robin, ITU, IronCrazy.com, Ironman, Robin Frankland, TYR, article, blog, blogging, blogs, experience, information, money, non-wetsuit, olympic distance, race, review, rules, short course, sprint, sprint distance, standard distance, swim, swim start, swimmer, swimming, swimsuit, triathlete, triathlon, triathlon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.