Does An Expensive Wetsuit Make You A Better Swimmer? | Cheap Vs Super Suit: Can You Buy Speed?

The price gap between a top of the range wetsuit like the Orca Predator and an entry level wetsuit can be pretty substantial, but does the extra £600 actually make for a faster and more comfortable swim? Mark and James are here to find out!

Do you think top-of-the-range wetsuits are worth the extra cash? let us know down below 👇

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[gtn]

How much would you spend on a wetsuit?

[Ballacks]

Read out the marketing nonsense from both wetsuits. Both sound ridiculous but only mock the one that isn’t sponsoring the video. Try and be fair.

[jonathangordon]

I’d be interested in seeing an entry level Orca wetsuit for comparison.

[frontyflipmiller]

Buy the expensive one just so that when you're going to use it you can shout "Honey, where's my super suit!?"

[OGWNF]

I used an Aptonia suit for my first tri. Its not great but for £100 when you already have so much other kit to get its good enough IMO. It would be interesting to see less good swimmers in similar tests and/or have a mid range suit as well for comparison.

[jasondighton]

What a surprise the wet suits by the sponsor are better than the wet suits not by the sponsor. So unexpected 😁

[wendyswan]

Disappointing video. Not a fair comparison, and I would certainly hope that a super expensive wetsuit would perform better. For those of us who either can’t or don’t want to spend that kind of money, how about a video comparing lower-end wetsuits? A FAIR comparison.

[AndrewShakespeare]

Spoiler alert: the guys love the expensive wetsuit made by the company that give them free stuff, and they hated the cheap one. 🤷

This was not really a fair comparison. Nobody is choosing between these two suits. You could pick plenty of suits at £200-£300 that would challenge the Orca Predator.

[jacobwhite]

James, you continue to get better and better every video. Congrats on coming into your own with presenting!

[ian-mucarruthers]

So the summary could be: two ex-pros who have not had to buy a wetsuit for years. Get paid by their wetsuit sponsor to do a hatchet job on a cheap wetsuit. And pretend it's journalism/science..
A long advert for what looks like a lovely wetsuit.. Fine, just be honest..

[jazznroll]

"it's not about the bike" ...they say, so i guess it the same with wetsuits..."it's not about the wetsuit"

[Bethy]

Wetsuits are one of the coolest things about Triathlon. I feel like a Power Ranger in mine 🦸🏻‍♂️ - and it didn’t cost £600

[MaDiViL]

My take on this comparison. But I will compare 2 Orcas Wetsuits to be more objective. I swam for about a year with the Orca S7. Which is the entry/mid level wetsuit (329$ AUD RRP) I recently bought the Orca Apex Flow (The replacement of the Predator) 1299$ AUD RRP. So 4x times more expensive.

I will compare them on a 5km endurance swim as 1km - 3km - 1km. (Because I don't actually think you'll notice a huge difference in just 200m ...)
Note on my swimming level : I have been swimming for about 1 year and I am happy if I can do a 200m on 3min (Not 2min19 like these guys). I swim in squad and will do 3km-3.5km with a total avg speed of 1min40 per 100m.

On the Orca S7, I would get an avg speed of 1min54 per 100m with a huge drop toward the end of the set because my shoulders were just too fatigued and my stroke just got worse and worse.
With the Apex Flow, I got an avg speed of 1min40 per 100m with a drop being much less noticable.

So for an avarage swimmer, I can tell you there is a big difference. The main one being that the Apex flow feels so much more confortable. Maybe if you are a good swimmer to begin with, you might not have such a big speed gap. Or you might not be faster with your wetsuit than without. But the difference of feeling still apply.

I was still able to complete an IronMan with the Orca S7, but at the end my shoulder were just cooked and I didn't really enjoyed it. With the Apex Flox it feels so much more confortable.
So at the end of the day it depends how often you will use it and for what type of distances. Maybe if you are doing sprints/olympic distances, you might not need it because the gap won't be worth the money spent. But if you are doing longer distances, then you might actually see a big difference.

[marksherman]

Come on guys, that wasn’t fair. That was Orca vs Aptonia sponsored by Orca. Why weren’t you comparing the Orca TRN? And to say you couldn’t understand what Aptonia was on about compared to the Orca gibberish that meant nothing to me…

[AdamChilvers]

Never mind the wetsuits, Mark needs to find an iron that works first :)

[Claire_]

Would definitely be more interested to see the difference between an entry level and high level suit from Orca or other decent brand.

[barryhugo]

It would be interesting to see whether the more expensive suits are much better for bad swimmers

[JohnDoe-xxig]

That was a painfully long advert for orca. It seems as if they pretested all the cheap wetsuits to find one that would give the sponsor a significant advantage.

Then again, its GxN should we really be surprised.

[Mrdibzahab]

Nice video, but what is the sweet spot between price and performance? What about the Sailfish Attack for example?

[nickkenyon-muir]

I did my first ironman in a decathlon wetsuit (I think I was lucky with the fit) and it worked well, and it still going strong for training OW swims after three years. I upgraded to a mid range Zone 3 which is a bit quicker over longer distances and noticeably easier on the shoulders so maybe more efficient which is an important factor. I echo other comments that you are better off investing money in improving technique rather than getting top of the range, unless your podium potential IMHO