Water running suit?

[sks24]

I could use some advice, and I hope that you might be able to help me.

I water run. It's an exercise. I do it in my pool, in the deep end, with a flotation belt around my waist. But the water's just at 60F now, and the shock factor upon entering the water is, well, co-wo-wo-wold! Once I get going I'm fine, but the water will get down to somewhere between 45-50F this winter, and then I won't be.

So I need a wetsuit, but I know next to nothing about them. Maybe one of the long-john type things, with a jacket, which I could take off after I warmed up?

Do they make thick shorties? I'm thinking that I could warm up real good before I go into the water with one of those on, and then I could do my 30-60 minute exercises with just one of those. And get by simply because my core would stay warm.

I do know this: I can't get warm in just my compression shorts when the water gets below about 55-58F.

I'm 6'2," 177, and I wear tall sizes for shirts (35" sleeves). My inseam is 32. My waist size is 34. I noticed that some of these suits probably get way to baggy for me once my height is accommodated. I'm thinking I should pay attention to the indicated weights instead of heights. Most suits indicate that the size for men my weight is for guys 5'11." So a little short in the sleeves won't be a big deal? But torso length is another problem. I do need long tails for my shirts.

But I am exercising, after all. And not wearing a tank or anything. So why couldn't it be a little baggy? It's not like I'll be in surf. So maybe I should go for the suits for the six footers who are 200 lbs.

And I'm thinking 4/3 for the thickness. Or maybe one of the thicker triathlete suits? And I want to save money, so I will be buying used, on ebay if nobody who reads this has anything they want to get rid of.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Scott

 

[spectrum]

First you can learn a lot about wetsuits here.

Bare and Pinacle for openers offer suits in Tall cuts so check those out.

Wearing a light weight suit for being very active in cool water may be enonugh. You can pour a liter of warn water down your collar to mute the entry of cold water.

And welcome to the board!

Pete

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

I like the Henderson Hyperstretch because it is so flexible. When I get too hot in the suit, I just unzip the back and it lets more water flow in. You could unzip most any one piece suit and get the cooling effect.

Explain this water running thing. I am interested in learning more.


If you call your order in and tell these guys you are a Scuba Board member you get 10% off the listed price

http://www.scubatoys.com/store/scub...tsearchParamMan=45&PAGE=&PageSize=96&sortBy=5

 

[Captain Walt]

Good luck in your quest for a wet suit...

 

[floridanewbe]

welcome aboard try pinacle

 

[TravisD]

But I am exercising, after all. And not wearing a tank or anything. So why couldn't it be a little baggy? It's not like I'll be in surf. So maybe I should go for the suits for the six footers who are 200 lbs.

Baggy in a wetsuit is the enemy of warmth. What you're trying to do is minimize water transfer and movement. Once you get the water trapped between the suit and your skin up closer to body temp, you'll feel warm. Moving around though is going to try and force the cool outside water into the suit.

One option you might consider, since this isn't for diving, is to look into a kayaker's drysuit. Pretty similar to a diving drysuit, but without the capability for inflation, which you wouldn't need since you're not diving. This would keep water transfer to hopefully zero, and more importantly allow you to vary your undergarments to suit. Given that you're going to be exercising this way, I would think that the usual guidelines on suit-based insulation might be thrown off a little since they're normally based around a normal rec diving workload.

As far as options on going wet, you can get just about any configuration you want if you're willing to go custom. Mix & match thicknesses, etc. There's other threads on here dedicated to discussing custom suit vendors.

On the extended sizing, Check out BARE -- they have a pretty extensive range of off-the-shelf sizing designed to accomodate folks who aren't the "normal" size-shape-weight template, including "Tall".

Finally, don't overlook the extremities -- you loose a lot of heat thru your head, so a hood may be in order. Possibly not the most comfortable thing though, especially if you're not actually submerging your head.