Triathlon Swimming Q&A: My Wetsuit is filling with Water

Q: How do I keep my wetsuit from filling with water?

A: Having a little water flow through the suit is to be expected.  It is a wetsuit after all, and not a dry-suit.  But, it gets to be a bit much when you feel the suit spread away from you like a balloon at the torso because of all the water coming in.  I have personally had this happen in a triathlon race, and it is always a bad moment.  This excessive water fill occurs because the fit isn’t quite right and there is a gap somewhere.  This is much more common with full-sleeve suits than sleeveless, simply because a full-sleeve suit has more places for gaps to occur. 

If you are stuck wearing a wetsuit you know is going to balloon out, here are a few things you can do on race day.  None of these will stop the flood completely, but they will reduce the amount of water that comes in.  First, minimize dolphin diving and don’t do any underwater dolphin kicking at the start.  The undulating motion does a great job of opening gaps in the suit, especially at the neck where water flows through. 

The second thing you can do is pull the wetsuit tight to the shoulders, and a little loose to the inseam.  A tight fit to the shoulders tends to seal off the neck which holds the floodwaters back a little. 

The third thing you can do is get in before the race start with wetsuit and swim with it until it balloons out with water.  Then get out, stand on the shore and wait until the water drains out of your legs.  As the water exits, it creates a little suction and pulls the suit tighter around you, which decreases gaps and makes leaks less frequent.

None of these options are a good substitute for wearing a wetsuit with a proper fit so that it doesn’t act like a sieve in the first place.  Do try on a wetsuit before you buy if you can find a store that will let you.  You want a full-sleeve wetsuit to feel tight all around your upper torso, almost taking your breath away as you put it on.  The fit doesn’t have to be as precise with a sleeveless wetsuit, but you should make sure the fit is snug in any case.  Hope this helps.  Until next time, happy training.

Click here to view previous questions.