Courtesy of ROKA
FINA’s new rule that allows the use of a wetsuit in open water races if the water temperature is below 68 degrees has swimmers all over the world weighing the benefits and downsides to suiting up in neoprene. A poorly constructed suit can have the potential limiting effects of decreasing flexibility and increasing the rate of shoulder fatigue. But a well-designed wetsuit made specifically for open water swimming will increase buoyancy and provide a huge advantage on race day.
There should be no debate: Swimming in the right full-sleeved wetsuit will absolutely make you faster. But, swimming in a poorly designed suit can limit your performance gains and leave you behind the competition.
A lack of confidence in the tools you rely on to perform at a high level puts your race in jeopardy before the gun even goes off. The founders of ROKA knew this, because they experienced it themselves. After feeling frustrated with the best wetsuits on the market, ROKA Co-founders Rob Canales and Kurt Spenser, both former All-American swimmers, set out to redesign the wetsuit from the ground up. They believed it was possible to design a wetsuit that enhanced swimming mechanics rather than impeding them, put you in the fastest body position, didn’t cause you to overheat, and eliminated the shoulder fatigue they had experienced.
The result of that frustration and years of relentless development led to a patented wetsuit that quickly became the choice of Olympic and World Champions.
ROKA’s Maverick X wetsuit changed the game again by redefining the existing paradigm of arm construction. For decades, wetsuits have been constructed with the arms down, in a standing position. This methodology is fundamentally flawed because it creates resistance on the shoulders through the recovery and glide phase of a freestyle stroke. By patterning the suit with the arms up, ROKA created a wetsuit with completely uninhibited range of motion. ROKA’s revolutionary Arms Up technology has been diffused throughout the second generation of their award-winning Maverick collection.
ROKA’s game-changing technologies extend beyond the upper body with features designed to help speed up rotation through the hips and core. Some wetsuits place thick, inflexible panels of neoprene around the hips, which can help with buoyancy, but have the negative effect of restricting rotation, making the wearer feel like they’re swimming on a surfboard. ROKA addresses this problem with their patented RSX technology, which consists of a thinner, more flexible strip of neoprene along the outside of the hips and legs combined with thicker neoprene on the front of the torso to encourage a natural and efficient roll.
The freedom and mobility offered from ROKA’s groundbreaking Arms Up construction combined with patented RSX technology, premium Japanese non-petroleum based neoprene, and a stretch woven forearm panel to increase feel for the water come together to create the fastest wetsuit on the planet. With nine available sizes for men and 11 sizes available for women, ROKA has a wetsuit to fit every body type.
As you prepare for your next open water swim, consider adding a wetsuit to your arsenal of race-day weaponry and join the thousands of athletes ROKA has already helped in the enduring quest to #FindFaster.
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