I say yes. The wetsuit makes you very buoyant and keeps your hips up. You have less drag and glide through the water more easily with each stroke. I did my first race, Black Bear, which was 750 meters without a wetsuit. My second race, the PhillyTri, was 900 meters. I did that race with a full wetsuit. My time in the first race was 20:00 and my time in the second race with the wetsuit and 150 additional meters was 20:18. I think the wetsuit was the difference.
Alexandra
I just received my wetsuit this week. Used it today, it was my first time in open water and my first time in my wetsuit. I loved it. I had fun and ended up swimming for an hour. I bought myself the Xterra Vortex 2 and my girlfriend the same in a long john. I am not a super swimmer so I went with the fullsuit and I found it really comfortable, non-restrictive, and not a problem (plus your lower body stays very high in the water which equals way less drag). My girlfriend is a swimmer and hates things like wetsuits, she loved the long john. I can give you that information that I just gained today. No times. No Transition info. I guess I will have that after my first race August 9th... (I tried to simulate the transition coming out of the water and had the suit down by the time I hit the sand and it was off at my towel in seconds). Call the people at Xterra Wetsuits they were beyond helpfull.
The main advantage of a wetsuit is perceived exertion, not time savings. You will most likely swim around the same times you did without one(don't expect to cut minutes off your sprint time). The energy expended over X distance with and without is huge, thats were the advantage truly lies. I recently switched from an orca evo(entry level), to a Qroo superfull, it was like night and day, the better the wetsuit, the more flexible the material, and comfortable, plus these suits have an exclusive break-away zipper and metatarsal release system. Its actually easier to take off this suit than a pair of jeans. If you practice you should be taking no longer than 10 seconds to get your suit off any how so don't sweat it, practice removing it after an intense swim at least weekly for a month before the race and you will be fine.
I think it is more than worth it. I've cut my swim times for a sprint from almost 18 minutes to just over 14 and the transition time increased by less than 1 minute. I also found that the swim was much eaiser at the Olympic distance race than I thought it would be and I held a pace similar to the sprint distance.
Please make sure you get comfortable with tthe suit before a race. My 1'st race with the wet suit was terrible (thought I was going to quit), but after a few swims with the wet suit, I love it.
A wetsuit should make you float more which in turn should enable you to swim faster. That being said, I only wore a wetsuit once, when there were reports by the race organizers of heavy jelly fish infestations in the water. It kept me from being stung all over. Personally I prefer not to wear one because I get too warm in it. I'm a strong swimmer so my natural floatation is fine with me and I prefer the experience of feeling myself immersed in the water. If your absolute fastest time is your goal, then wearing one is probably the way to go. If you want to do a fast tri but want to enjoy the experience just as much, I'd say leave the wetsuit home and jump in the water in a speedo or racing suit. They're a breeze in transition too.
