Beach to Battleship

I did the full last year in a sleeveless wetsuit and was FREEZING, which translated into a 17 minute T1!! To better prepare this year I want to purchase some cold weather swim gear.

1. What brand of neoprene cap do you recommend?
2. Are thermal swim booties legal in the race? If so, what brand do you recommend?

any neoprene skull cap will work. as long as it fits right.
neoprene booties are NOT allowed, unless an exception is made, as it was it ironman coeur d'alene (idaho) last year. water temp then ws 58 degrees !

Regarding the neoprene skull cap -- do you just wear the B2B swim cap over it? Thanks.

yes.

dab wrote:any neoprene skull cap will work. as long as it fits right.
neoprene booties are NOT allowed, unless an exception is made, as it was it ironman coeur d'alene (idaho) last year. water temp then ws 58 degrees !

I've heard folks talking over at BeginnerTriathlete.com that they we used last year and plenty of them plan on using them. I wasn't really worried about getting a pair but have considered it and never thought they couldn't be used.

they are against USAT rules, except in the case of an RD's discretion. they are considered propulsion aids. in the case of very cold water, the exception may be made ( again, as was the case at coeur d'alene in 2008). frankly, i didn't consider the booties to be of any help with my time...

I didn't think the water was suppose to be that cold. What is the projected water temps?

also, i haven't seen any chatter on the tides..... to you wilmington locals, surely we are close enough for you guys to be able to post the expected incoming / outgoing tides. are we going to have that down-current for the swim like there was last year ??????

dab

See the thread called "No swim current like 08". You will find the tide predictions there.

dab wrote:they are against USAT rules, except in the case of an RD's discretion. they are considered propulsion aids. in the case of very cold water, the exception may be made ( again, as was the case at coeur d'alene in 2008). frankly, i didn't consider the booties to be of any help with my time...

FAQ's have been updated on the B2B website.
"8) Are swim booties and neoprene swim caps allowed during the swim?
Yes. Swim booties are allowed but fins are not allowed. Neoprene caps are allowed but the B2B issued swim cap must be worn over these caps.

"

With water temps expected to be in the upper 60's (68.8 this morning) I would think just a "double skull cap" arrangement would work (a regular swim cap, then golggles, then the BTB swim cap) should be fine. I did a 2 mile swim in our local lake this past Sunday with water temps about 69 and this worked just fine.

Oh and a definite must would be the full wetsuit - I think the longjohn types would allow too much body heat to escape in the arms and shoulders.

I've been swimming the course through the channel a couple of times last week and will do a few more time next week. The water is great compared to the air temps. I only wear a full wetsuit and a single swim cap and have had no chill problems at all. Hopefully this will continue through the next few weeks. I swam the half last year in a shorty and did not have any problems either. It will take some seriously cold consecutive days to cool the water temps down significantly in the next 2.5 weeks and with our mid-day temps in the 70's this week we should be OK.

Now you all have me questioning whether a sleeveless wet suit is suitable or not! Now one more thing to worry about between now and race day!

d-boyer : do you a full wetsuit ? if so, bring them both and decide with a practice swim. if you only have a sleeveless, then why worry ?

I swam in a sleeveless wetsuit last year and it was no big deal. Of course it was slightly uncomfortable but in the course of 140.6 miles of unremitting effort, how much does that register? Barely moves the needle. You don't lose a ton of heat through your arms. Are you a few seconds from a podium finish? Not me. But even then I don't think it matters much. Enjoy yourself!