TOP-END WETSUITS

As you’re eyeing up a wetsuit from this selection, which all cost over £450, it’s likely you’ll either have a swim background from your youth, or have worked hard in adulthood to hone your skills and are emerging from the swim placed inside the top 10% in the majority of your triathlon events.

If that’s not the case, unfortunately spending more won’t necessarily lead to faster swim splits. Though there are high-end wetsuits with higher buoyancy ratios aimed at those with sinky legs, this may do the same job as a cheaper suit with the same buoyancy levels. And if you don’t have the rapid arm turnover to take advantage of thinner neoprene in the arms and shoulders that often appears on high-end suits, it could even be detrimental.

With our warnings out the way, the rest of you reading this will require a wetsuit that doesn’t feel like you’re wearing one. One that allows you to swim as close to how you would in a pool as possible, but with the speed benefits of top-of-the-range, hydrodynamic neoprene, plus some extra