its my first time !

Mr Happy

Just entered my first event, the helvelyn triathalon, and whant to know what sort of wet suit to bye. Its got to be second hand, but do i get a full body or a short one, what thickness, does it have to be a tri specific one. Its a lake 1 mile swim in sept in the lake district. Any advice will be most welcome. thanks.

fatmatt

mr happy,

i've heard that helvelyn is a tough one, the run is straight up and down again, but i'm sure you'll enjoy it and be back for more.

as for the wetsuits, a 'tri' specific is your best bet.

if you go to the triuk website, www.triuk.co.uk , they have a range of suits, they hire for £25 + about £12 p+p, or they sell off last years suits for between £50-100, if you think they are probably worn less than a dozen times it's not bad, i hired one last year and bought one of the ex hire this year, if you ring them they will take your measurements, i'm guessing you live north, they are in yeovil on somerset.

i'd suggest a full length one but you could ask for advice when you ring triuk

good luck

fatmatt

madnurse

have to agree with fattmatt ... the website shows a challenging event ... I would even on my meagre experince of tri & the lake district get a decent full body tri wetsuit. Advice I was given was to go to a decent triathlon shop, try on various wetsuits to get accurate size and a feel for brands that suit your build and stature. Then go hunting on ebay or the like as well as matt suggests with ex rental deals. The key thing with a suit is the fit - if it fits well it'll work wonders for your swim + keep your warm if not then not. The shop will give best advice on fit etc. I took a slight chance but managed to get an orca Pflex for less than half price by going for 2nd hand from Australia....well worth the trouble.



this link will give you rule of thumb advice for tri wetsuits .. but there are plenty of deals around



http://www.terrapin-bfa.co.uk/brochure/suitguide2003.htm



madnurse (phil)



are you local to lakes ?

fatmatt

good advice mr nurse, it's 'challenging' for sure, take a look at the pics of last years event, but then we say that you may be super fit, either way, that's why we do it, for the challenge, so good luck to you and i hope it doesn't hurt too much

fatmatt