How it works is the more you spend, the more floatation you get and the more flexibility you get. The Helix has a 1mm arm and then lots of cuts and different shapes. Whereas with Sprint, it’s just a very basic suit.
00:10 – How to Choose a Wetsuit
00:39 – Does the Distance of the Race Change which Wetsuit I should Get?
01:42 – Sleeve vs Sleeveless
02:34 – What are the Most Popular Models?
03:39 – How to do you Best Fit Your Wetsuit?
04:52 – How Do You Avoid Wetsuit Chafe?
05:34 – Where to Find Aquashop?
Does the Distance of the Race Change which Wetsuit I should Get?
Definitely the bottom end of the race suit will cater for 750m or olympic distance of for say 1km swim, maybe if you’re doing a half iron man at 1.9 or up to 2k swim, probably want drop the bottom of the range and at least move to the Reaction. It’s significantly more comfortable and better cut than the base model. If you’re going to do an Ironman or you’re doing 5km swims, you really wanna be in the top half of the range. Significantly more flexibility once again and more floatation. The Axis has extra buoyancy in the bum and the quads for someone who’s a big leg dragger. Sleeveless suits are for people who really feel the heat or have any sort of shoulder problems, sometimes we get them into those because of the less load on the shoulders.
Sleeve vs Sleeveless
So usually it’s a warm thing, in most cases, obviously in Victoria we usually need a little bit of extra insulation but when you buy a sleeved suit, and it depends on which model but whenever you add millimeters to your paddle, you’re grabbing more water. Most of the suits these days have variations of grip a panel. So everytime you take a stroke, maybe you’re swimming 30cm more or whatever it is. So in theory, a 2mm arm grabs more water than what a 1mm arm does. The Helix actually has a pervious panel on the inside so you get that sensation of grabbing the water. That’s by far the fastest suit because you’ve got the most buoyancy in the middle and surely the best flexibility.
What Are The Most Popular Models?
To be honest, it’s probably split. The reaction covers a lot of distances. I’ve sold that to people who do Ironman and they get through it no problems. And then obviously, top of the line Helix goes without saying – it’s the Ferrari, it’s definitely the nicest suit. Probably they’re the most 2, definitely 9 out of 10 of my sales are sleeved suits. What we definitely offer is if you come in, you buy this one and you go for a swim in it, one, it’s absolutely no problems to change sizes. If you win the lotto that night, no problem. Just bring it back and give me a couple of extra hundred dollars and you take the Helix.
How to do you Best Fit Your Wetsuit?
Generally I’d say to someone start the suit a couple of fingers above your ankle – 2-3 fingers above your ankle. Use a plastic bag that helps, put a plastic bag on your foot like it’s a sock. That helps the suit to slide on. Feed the suit up. Give yourself a wedgie. You gotta have a wedgie no matter the top of the line suit, if you put it on wrong, it won’t feel anywhere near good as it should. Once you got the wedgie, put the plastic bag on the hands, slide the arm on, slide the other arm on. Generally, you want to start the suit around your watch mark. Once you’ve got the suit on and you’re zipped up, one of the best things to do is actually bend over the waist. Grab a whole heap of rubber from your belly button if you like, stand up, keep hold of this rubber and then feed it up the core. Effectively just shifting all that rubber from your mid section up on to your shoulders and that always creates a lot of flexibility. That’s obviously what we do. We make sure it’s 100% spot on and show you how to do it and give you all the tips and stuff.
How Do You Avoid Wetsuit Chafe?
Yup, I actually got some last weekend because I forgot my Body Glide. Body Glide is the most well known anti chafe. And you just want to use something that’s non-petroleum based. So no Vaseline and no baby oil. They’re petroleum based. So Body Glide’s is the better known one. There’s a few other products that work. Paw paw works. I’ve never used it. Hair conditioner works. You’re going to swim a thousand strokes, you have sand and salt mixed in there against rubber and skin, it’s probably going to chafe.
Where to Find Aquashop?
Aquashop is run by myself and my wife, Linda. We’re at 250 Park Street in South Melbourne. We stock a whole range of swimming toys and obviously the range of wetsuits and swimming race suits. Hopefully we know what we’re talking about! We’d like to see you there!
Transcript
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You start at, obviously, your cheap model suits and you go all the way around to, like, what the current Olympic champion wears, which is the blue 70 Helix. The way it works is the more you spend, the more flotation you get and the more flexibility you get. The Helix has a one-mil arm and lots of carts in different shapes, whereas your sprint is just a very basic suit, five-mil panel there, three-mil through the legs and two-mil on the base, whereas the Helix has five, five and four. Definitely, the bottom end of the range suits will cater for a 750 or Olympic distance, 1500 metre swim, maybe, if you’re doing, say, half Ironman at 1.9 or up to 2K swim, probably want to drop the bottom of the range and at least move to, like, the reaction that’s significantly more comfortable and better cut than the base model. If you’re going to Ironman or you’re doing 5K swims, yeah, you really want to be in this half of the range, significantly more flexibility once again and more flotation.
The suit and suits we’ve got here, the Axis, which actually has extra buoyancy in the bum and the quads, so for someone who’s a big leg dragger, that’s where you go there. And then also, you know, there’s still also sleeveless suits for people that really feel the heat or have any sort of shoulder problems. We guide them into those because of the less load on a sleeveless, as-to-all, sleeved. Yeah, so usually it’s a warmth thing. In most cases, obviously in Victoria, we usually need a little bit of extra insulation, but when you buy a sleeved suit, and it depends, you know, on which model, but whenever you add millimetres to your paddle, so, you know, you’re grabbing more water and some of the suits have, most of the suits these days have variations of gripper panels. So every time you take a stroke, you know, maybe you’re swimming 30 centimetres more or whatever it is, so, you know, in theory, a 2 millimetre arm grabs more water than what
a 1 millimetre arm does. The Helix actually has a pervious panel on the inside, so you get that sensation of grabbing the water. Look, that’s by far the fastest suit because it’s got the most buoyancy in the middle and certainly the best flexibility.
To be honest, it’s probably split between the sprint, I don’t tell a lot of, it’s the suit I used to hire. At 2.99, the reaction covers a lot of distances. As I say, you know, I have sold that to people that do Ironman and they get through it, no problems, and then obviously the top of the line goes without saying it’s, you know, it’s our Ferrari, it’s definitely the nicest suit, so probably they’re the most two. I had nine out of ten of my sails are sleeved suits, but what we definitely offer is if you, you know, if you come in and you buy this one and you go for a swim in it, one, it’s absolutely no problems to change sizes. If you win Tatsuro that night, no problem, we’ll bring it back and give me a couple extra hundred dollars and you take the Helix, you know, actively offer that to change sizes or styles or even go to the sleeveless. You know, there are some people out there that no matter how many, how
good the suit is, I put it on them. They just prefer a sleeveless, so absolutely. So generally, I’ll say to someone, start the suit a couple of fingers above your ankle, two to three fingers above your ankle, feed this one. First of all, use a plastic bag, that helps put a plastic bag on your foot like it’s a sock, that helps the suit slide on. Feed the suit up, give yourself a wedgie, you’ve got to have a wedgie. No matter the top of the line suit, if you put it on wrong, it won’t feel anywhere near as good as it should. Once you’ve got the wedgie, put the plastic bag on the hand, slide the arm on, slide the other arm on. Generally, you want to start the suit around your watch mark.
Feed one of the bigger ones, so once you’ve got the suit on and you’re zipped up, one of the best things to do is actually bend over at the waist, grab a whole heap of rubber from your belly button if you like, stand up, keep hold of this rubber and then feed it up the core. Effectively, just shifting all that rubber from your midsection up onto your shoulders, that always creates a lot more flexibility. So, outside of that, that’s obviously what we do is we make sure it’s 100% spot on and show you how to do it, give you all the tips and stuff. I actually got some last weekend because I forgot my body glide. Body glide is the most well-known anti-chaff. You just want to use something that’s non-petroleum based. So, no Vaseline and no baby oil. They’re petroleum based, so body glides are better known. There’s a few other products. I hear pawpaw cream works. I’ve never used it. I hear hair conditioner works.
Sorbilline cream, apparently they all work, but most people, you do want to put it on. You know, you’re going to swim, whatever, a thousand strokes and you’ve got sand and salt mixed in there against rubber and skin. It’s probably going to chafe. So, we’re at the shop. This is run by myself and my wife, Lindell. We’re at 250 Park Street in South Melbourne. It’s like a whole range of swimming toys and obviously the range of wetsuits and swimming race suits. Hopefully we know what we’re talking about and yeah, it’d be great to see you.
