Swimming wetsuits are very popular for recreational swimming, open water swimming, triathlons, OCR (organized competitive racing), and Ironman events. Whether swimming in your pool, swimming in a lake, river, or ocean there are number of recreational wetsuits options. When looking for a wetsuit for this type of swimming, consider the amount of stretch in the wetsuit and the thickness. If you participate in triathlons, we have a selection of men's and women's triathlon wetsuits that you can select from. The main difference of these wetsuits is the bare rubber on the exterior of the wetsuit and additional technical features. Learn more at the bottom of this page.
We have many customers who wear wetsuits while swimming in their pools to extend their swimming season. When selecting a wetsuit, make sure to look at the temperature of the water in your swimming pool. The wetsuits on our site have a temperature rating on the product page and it is helpful to see if the suit you are looking at is has a temperature rating within range of your pool. If you need extra warmth, you can always add a neoprene hood, swim socks, neoprene shirts, shorts, and neoprene gloves. Springsuit wetsuits are wetsuits with short legs and often have short sleeve arms or long sleeve arms. These wetsuits are options for warmer water like 68 degrees and warmer. Springsuits are often 2mm and 3mm in thickness. Full swimming wetsuits come in popular thicknesses like 3/2mm, 4/3mm, 5mm. While there are 7mm thick wetsuits, they are not often worn for swimming because of the limited mobility in these suits. If you need more than 5mm of warmth consider wearing accessories like hoods, glove, and swim socks.
Triathlon wetsuits are more technical wetsuits with specialized designs to enhance buoyancy positioning in the water and competitive swimming performance. Triathlon wetsuits don't usually have the protective laminate on the exterior of the suit. We have many customers that do triathlons and wear recreational wetsuits because of the limitation in sizes available in triathlon wetsuit and because triathlon wetsuits can tear more easily if worn doing recreational sports. There are pros and cons to triathlon wetsuits for the average swimmer. One of the things to be mindful of is that these suits have unlamented rubber on the exterior of these suits. This exposed rubber can tear from pulling the suit to hard or by rubbing against something rough or with your finger nails. It is not uncommon to hear about tears in these wetsuits. While wetsuit glue can repair most tears it is important to know that these suits can tear and the tears are not covered by warranty.
It is very important to wash your wetsuit after every use with fresh water. Chlorine in swimming pools can break down your wetsuit prematurely. While people have been wearing wetsuits in swimming pools for years, it is a best practice to wash your swimming wetsuit with a wetsuit friendly wash. We have SLOSH wetsuit wash on our site. There are other wetsuit wash brands available. Do not use dish soap and do not wash your wetsuit in a washing machine. Simply follow the instructions on the wash and dry your wetsuit laying flat out of the sun. This will allow your suit to last for many seasons.
There are many swimming wetsuit options for recreational swimming. Some of the most popular wetsuits for tough mudders are Long John Wetsuits for men & Long Jane Wetsuits for women. These are sleeveless wetsuits with knee pads, exterior lamination for durability and they come in 3mm, 5mm, and 7mm thicknesses. Other options for swimming include: wetsuit pants, wetsuit shorts, wetsuit shirts and other accessories are worn.