Speed Lzr Vs Speedo Aquablade

[louis]

tO MY UNDERSTANDING THE SPD LZR IS ABOUT THE SAME MATERIAL AS THE SPEEDO AQUABLADE.
AS THE LZR COVERS 3/4 OF THE BODY AND THE AQUABLADE IS A BRIEF, THEN HOW IS IT THAT IT IS SEAD THAT THE LZR IS SEAD TO BE THE FASTEST SWIMWEAR IN THE WORLD.
YET AS THE LZR IS BIGGER THEN THE AQUABLADE THUS THE LZR MUST EVIDENTLY WEIGH MORE THE THE AQUABLADE,
THE QUESTION IS HOW CAN IT POSSIBLY FASTER.-HANKS.

[sebbie]

LZR is slicker than skin..skin causes more drag

[Byron]

Yes, it comes down to man vs. shark so that the drag factor is more important than fabric weight in creating faster movement through water.

The human body is covered with uneven skin which has pores to give it ventilation (and hairs which swimmers may wish to shave off to produce better competition times).
Sharks' bodies on the other hand are entirely covered by placoid scales which create tiny vortices to reduce drag in water and so make their swimming more efficient (and quieter - important in seeking prey as sound carries so well underwater).
This article was written a few years ago when Speedo were trying to go even further with an improved LZR Pulse fabric:

http://memagazine.asme.org/articles/2008/april/Beyond_Sharkskin_Suit.cfm

[louis]

Anyway it seems that outher swimwear makers came up with outher fabrics just as good as the LZR.
iTSEEMS THAT FINA ALSO PLAN TO BAN THE SUIT OR PLANS TO DO SO. fOR SOME REASON.

[Byron]

It is high time this word "ban" was used accurately - the fabric is not but the full body coverage is. In effect manufacturers will comply in most cases with what are now known as jammers ie the "waist to knee only" rule will be observed as is now required at competitions of international standard and for the recognition of new fast times in such events.

If you wish to know what Speedo products now conform to the FINA Rules of 2010 a list is provided on http://speedo.com/swimwear_products/performance/fina_approved.htm

If other manufacturers consider they have fabrics to perform equal to or better than the LZR they can produce such within the rules - but they had better be wary of many extant Speedo patents.
Fabrics must be "textile" - the definition of which remains unclear.

The background to all this is Beijing 2008 where 79 of the many new world swimming records were achieved by competitors wearing LZR Racer Suits.
FINA met in 2009 to consider the implications of this and decided to act on the new super fabrics in terms of new rules for thickness, body coverage, buoyancy and other advantages - and, last but not least, the ability to gain medals by those with the fattest check books to afford the new technology.

[Byron]

List referred to above should be
http://www.speedo.co.uk/s111swimrange/competition/2010/finapprovedsuits_1index.html

[Byron]

http://www.speedo.co.uk/en-uk/s111swimrange/competition/2010/finaapprovedsuits_1/index.html

[louis]

Efectively I did read about what you say, and must admit yes its not the material thats bene banned but the full couverage, I had bene informed about thar detail but but had forgotten it you refreshed my memory.

[Byron]

:o After about fifty attempts I shall now send the correct link:

http://www.speedo.co.uk/en_uk/s111swimrange/competition/2010finaapprovedsuits_1/index.html

[Byron]

2008 produced more arguments than I thought - TYR even sued Speedo.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7558622.stm

Btw, Arena Adidas and Jaked also seem to be in the game for new fabrics
but the earlier predictions for world records in London 2012 to surpass the amazing events of Beijing 2008 are now considered far too optimistic in view of the new FINA Rules in force.

[California Dolphin]

I've never understood the rational for tech suits in competetive swimming.

Tech suits are just another form of mechanical swimming aid and using them in competetion is sort of a "cheat sheet" approach and nothing is really achieved by setting a new world record by using one.

I've often pointed out that FINA prohibits the use of other mechanical aids such as paddles and flippers and some exotic things like rubbing surfactants all over your body to break surface tension.

In the past, FINA preferred the racer briefs because they minimized the role of the suit and eliminated extraneous variables as much as possible. So why has FINA done a 180 degree turn and allowed "suit technology", but not other devices?

[SwimTeamSpeedo]

On the more practical and humorous side, getting in and out of the full or fuller coverage suits is a task in itself. When the full body suits were allowed, it took two people to get you in and out (which made for a situation in itself). Also, once in, the suits were in many ways far more revealing than just briefs... and damn tight.

[Byron]

:) Yes, indeed...........and for the girls too.
I know I should not waste space on this forum but do google the headline
"Flavia goes butt Jaked".

[Swimmboy]

Byron - it wasn't so much the 2008 Olympics that led to the banning of the new suits - some 19 world records were set there, but 7 of those were entirely or partially (relays) by the amazing Michael Phelps (a young man I've had the pleasure of meeting personally). What happened was that a bunch of new suit companies entered the market on a world-wide scale and tried to 'out-do' each other as the fastest, slickest, etc. Fabrics became rubberized, in direct violation of the rules forbidding anything that aids in flotation. The following year, at the 2009 World Swim Championships in Rome, virtually everyone (except Phelps, who lost to Biederman in the 200 free who wore a now-illegal suit) was wearing the new suits, and world records were falling every few minutes as one heat swam faster than the previous heat. 43 new world records were set. Swimmers who previously ranked 5th or 7th in the world suddenly set a world record, only to lose it a few minutes later. The situation was absurd, and FINA belatedly created new requirements (textile suits only, nothing below the knees or above the navel for men). Any world records set in London this summer will truly be amazing accomplishments.

[Byron]

Thanks for enlightening me on the Rome Championships and I can see that it would be more accurate to say that a series of events produced absurd situations in what was acceptable within the rules and these problems were at last seriously addressed by FINA and new rules published in 2010, to be effective from 2011.

CD rightly makes a point above about a FINA turnabout and the wardrobe malfunction of Flavia Soccari (see above) happened to a Jaked Jo1 suit in July 2009. That was a banned suit by virtue of its polyurethane content giving an unfair buoyancy advantage but had its ban lifted after a
successful protest by Jaked in June 2009.

I think there is a one-word answer to CD - money.
Formula 1 and Premier League Football have long been recipients of considerable amounts of sponsorship donations, advertising revenues,
tv broadcasting rights, etc. but swimming has been a minnow in the big pool of such sports promotion activities. The comparison of brand exposure is obvious - for example, twenty two men in shirts emblazoned with logos will be running on a pitch for 1 1/2 hours in front of maybe 80-90 thousand spectatators (not to mention millions watching at home and added markings on the pitch surface - and even Wimbledon allows a Mercedes Benz symbol at the nets).
By its very nature swimming cannot match the scale of these revenue opportunities but the costs of staging international events and the building of new state-of-the-art pools will continue to rise and require funding from whatever sources might be available.

[Byron]

Here is something on very non-technical suits - it is the swimwear section of a fashion show from Baku, November 2005.
The Turkish blogger watching the catwalk is obviously unimpressed and observes that "men and women alike wore the same unflattering speedos that Olympic swimmers wear":

http://www.flickr.com/photos/88943727@N00/69947322/sizes/l/in/photostream/

Any readers from Azerbaijan to tell us whether LZRs have now arrived on the sports scene ?

[Byron]

:rolleyes: Well, well , Speedo ended up having 600 obsolete LZR Racer suits to dispose of after FINA's new rules came into force It seems that 200 went into this work of art but that still leaves 400 somewhere.

http://inhabitat.com/pavilion-upcycled-from-200-obsolete-speedo-swimsuits/

[Crail]

Byron, thanks for your tenacity in finding the right URL to post and your informative posts.

[Byron]

LOL - somewhere among the smiley websites there is a "Yes" - and I want someone to produce an icon also for "You're welcome".

[dorcas3]

It all started with the East German women in one of the summer olympics-they had as wide shoulders as men and their suits a special fabric. Real Amazons!

[sebbie]

THe East German Female swimmers were using steroids long before Barry Bonds discovered steroids, and it showed!

[Byron]

Kornelia Ender: http://histclo.com/imagef/date/2008/05/ender01s.jpg

They certainly swept up the olympic medals over some twenty years (late sixties to late eighties) - at Montreal 1976, 10 out of the 12 individual gold medals, for example.
Long suspected by many swimming coaches but only confirmed on the discovery of the DDR's athlete training records after the demise of the USSR.