Internal Mono(b)log

Last night I finally got time to take my Rogue wetsuit for a test-swim, but before I get into the in-water performance, let me give you some of my thoughts on initial unpacking and comparison with last year’s Frequency model suit.

Here’s a pic of the Rogue beside last year’s Frequency:

Unpacking and Initial Design Thoughts

Here is the suit as it arrived: carefully bagged and with paper folded into the suit protecting the zipper and reinforcing it’s basic shape so that it didn’t get mangled in shipping.  On top of the suit is Nineteen’s silicon cap in crazy neon “see me” green.  You definitely won’t be missed swimming in open water with this cap on – it’s bright!  Thanks to Nineteen for the cap – it’s not included with the rogue (and it clashes rather badly with the red) but with all the open water solo swimming I do, it’s nice to know I’ll be seen out there 🙂

Unpacked and stretched out on my deck:  Initial, purely cosmetic, thoughts: “Wow! This is one sexy suit!”.

But of course, I already knew it was a pretty awesome looking suit, and it looks so much better on Angela Naeth:

Starting to examine the suit, I first checkout the updated zip design.  Note that this zip starts at the top and fastens going down.  Strikes me that this may be easier to self-don.  I’ve frequently found the Frequency, with it’s bottom-start zip difficult to zip up by myself.

Here’s a pic of the Rogue’s zip compared to last year’s Frequency:

After checking the zip, I looked at the seams and internal taping.  This is top-notch, as I’d expect from Nineteen.  The stitching is very consistent and smooth, with seam tape reinforcing stress points.  I love this attention to detail: definitely the mark of a good suit and a thoughtful manufacturer.

As you start looking at the design of the suit, one of the most immediately apparent differences in this suit is the forearm, catch area design.

Not easy to see in this pic, but the forearms are a bit more stiff than the Frequency (perhaps offering some compression) and have integrated thicker neoprene panels that make the catch area on your forearm just a little wider.  There’s also a thicker piece of neoprene near the elbow to help reinforce a high elbow during your stroke.  Looking at how small these changes are, I’m a little dubious about whether they have any real impact in the water, but more on that later.

I spent a bit of time comparing the Frequency’s neoprene panels and design compared to the Rogue.  Things that I noted on visual (and tactile) comparison:

• zip design
• catch panel changes
• thicker (more buoyant) neoprene in the crotch area
• anatomic matching of body panels improved over Frequency
• similar super stretchy neoprene under arms and in shoulders
• similar (super comfortable) neck seal

The biggest changes in the Rogue from other suits in the World (not just Nineteen) is how we sourced our neoprene and jersey linings separately so that we could control the exact feel we want to achieve in each panel of the suit.  We use two different kinds of neoprene, in six different thicknesses, and with three different jersey linings, all in different permutations in order to create extreme stretch, stability, and even compression where it is required.This kind of design and engineering is not obvious to an observer or tester.  It does, however, speak to the engineering invested into making the World’s fastest and best fitting wetsuit.

Wow!  I could tell that there was material differences between the Rogue and the Frequency, but 3 linings and 2 types of neoprene in 6 thicknesses… I thought I went over the suit in pretty tight detail, but that’s amazing!

With the unpacking done it was time to head off to the pool.

In the Pool

Putting the suit on in the change room of my local YMCA definitely got some attention, I expect a lot of folks were wondering why this guy was putting on a wetsuit in the Y change room, but hey!  You have to test these things right?!  Lake Ontario is just *way* too cold to be swimming in, so, the pool it is 🙂

The suit goes on well, and you can definitely feel the slight compressive design built into the torso and forearms.  Because of the catch panel design, a little more care needs to be taken when putting this suit on to make sure that the panels are properly aligned on your arms.  The firmer design of the catch panel area also requires a little more effort to don, not crazy, and a sport-glide-type product may make this a bit easier.

Starting and closing the zip took a few attempts, but was eventually successful as a solo endeavour. Definitely easier and smoother than the Frequency suit zip. Of course, the top-down zip design also means that if it gets tugged by someone in the water, it’ll just serve to make sure the zip is closed, and not unzip your suit 🙂

In the water this suit felt fast! The flotation panel design had me flat in the water.  I felt like a kayak skimming across the top of the water column.  I swam my 1st 1000m in the suit before it’s warmth was too much in the pool, this was enough to get a feel for the suit in the water though.  It swims really well!  Super comfortable, stretchy in the right places.  Nicely buoyant (I don’t usually have sinky-feet, but the extra buoyancy was really noticeable – better than a float-buoy for sure).

The catch panels and high-elbow float were surprisingly noticeable in the water.  They cosmetically seem very small; however, the impact to your stroke is big.  I could really feel the difference in my lats and speed with the suit on.  It may be psychosomatic (or because I was paying attention), but I felt that the high-elbow floats also helped maintain my form during the stroke.  Nice additions!

After the 1000m I hopped up on the deck and doff’d the suit to finish my swim.  The suit came off easily: the zip quickly unzipped and with the lubrication of the water the suit seemed to almost slip off, only really needing extra encouragement over my hands and feet (as one would expect).

Summary

This is a very nice suit.  Definitely improvements over Nineteen’s Frequency suit from last year, an evolution so to speak, of the suit design.  I can’t wait to get it in the open water at Lake Pontchartrain in a few weeks for a pre-race shake-down and then for IM70.3 New Orleans.