Q: Do you have any advice for open water/ocean swim with only speed suits allowed? My previous IM’s have all been wetsuit legal but I am doing IM Hawaii this fall.

A: In ocean swimming, you do float a little better and so you can expect to maintain more buoyancy compared to swimming in a pool with a regular swimsuit.  However, without a wetsuit, you lose a lot more buoyancy that you gained with the salt water.  The key to remember with non-wetsuit swimming is that your body position is lower in the water column.  This causes the following to occur.

1. Draft zones are smaller.  This means you have to be closer to a swimmer’s feet in order to get the same benefits of drafting.
2. Mistakes are costlier.  Take a race out too hard or get bashed in the face early will affect performance more if you don’t have a wetsuit.  The lower your body position, the harder it is to recover from adversity, and you are already lower in the water without a wetsuit. 

From a strategic perspective, I recommend you take fewer chances in non-wetsuit swim races compared to wetsuit swim races but otherwise swim the way you always swim.  The fundamentals of water movement are the same regardless of wetsuit.  But you want to take extra care that you don’t lose the draft of the person in front of you or get stuck in a big drowning mass of people.  Until next time, happy training.

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