On August 16th I completed a 27kms (16.77 miles for you Yankees), 8 hour 41 minute, open water swim in the Lac du Bonnet area of Manitoba.
One of the many supporters that made the swim possible was swimming company Roka, which provided me with a super-sweet Maverick Pro Fullsuit for the journey. It helped make the swim bearable enough that my fellow swimmer, Patrick Peacock, and I were able to stomach a cool Budweiser at the finish.
After putting in more than 100kms of open water training in the Maverick Pro I can give an informed, and super-intelligent review of all my likes (lots) and dislikes (few) about the suit.
FIT
I am 155-160lbs (depending on how many bathroom trips I've taken throughout the day) and 5'8" tall (unfortunately I never get any taller), with thick legs and a stocky build. The boys at Roka sized me up for a medium full suit which fit bang on
The suit didn't take on any water, none, zippo, zero, zilch! It has very tight fitting cuffs, which most suits don't have, that keep the suit from taking on water in the arms. It also has a slightly beefy but not intrusive (at least it felt substantial to me) collar which kept water from getting into the body.
Quite noticeably the suit seems to have longer legs than my previous suits, or maybe that's just a function of me being built like a Russian gymnast. But it seems to also give the suit extra buoyancy in the legs for us leg-dinky swimmers.
Bottom line: a properly fitted Maverick Pro will fit snuggly all-around, with a slight bit of extra snugness around areas that water than seep in.
FEEL
This is where I'm so thankful I had the Roka boys on my team for the long swim. This suit is a dream to train in! If there's any test of the comfort of a wetsuit, it's how your shoulders feel after 4, 5, 9 hour long open water swims. So you're hearing from an expert folks!
The thin shoulder panels kept my arms and shoulders fresh during every single distance I swam in the suit. From day one the suit was flexible and took ZERO adjusting to as far as the flexibility was concerned.
The buoyancy of the suit was also a help as I've got a weak kick and sink legs from not being a super-swimmer as a kid. My legs stayed up in the water and it took no effort to keep my chest down.
The one thing I would note is that body glide was a must with this suit around the back of the neck. The substantial collar rubbed enough that my first swim out gave me a really good-looking neck hickey that my wife seemed to appreciate.
Bottom line on the feel: this suit is an amazingly flexible suit that also provides stability where stability is needed. It's a great balance of structure to maintain a good body position, and supple to keep the suit from being a struggle to swim in.
FAST
This section will be quick (the paragraph on "Fast" will be "quick", get it? HAHAHAHA!).
There's nothing quick about a 27kms distance swim, nothing at all. AT times we were going 1500m per hour, which a reported printed as being "Painfully Slow". Thanks for the vote of confidence there buddy…
However, I'm not just a pretty face and a slow open water swimmer. No sir! I've also done two sprint distance triathlons to put this baby through some speed. A sprint-distance triathlon swim can be described as a 750 meter all-out, max effort, time trial, while simultaneously engaging in a game of real life Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots.
Bottom line on the speed of this suit: it's bloody fast yo! Granted, my swimming has improved a lot since putting in 300,000 meters of training over the year, but my triathlon swim times went from 13:30 with my former unnamed suit, to 11:30 with the Roka Maverick Pro. I went from the front of the second pack of swimmer, comprised of decent age group swimmers, to being able to hang on to the front of the lead pack of former elite speed swimmers.
LIKES AND DISLIKES
Likes: this suit! Long short short, it's awesome, go buy one now!
Dislikes: I've only have one serious dislike about this suit, which may not even be the wetsuits fault "It's not you wetsuit, it's me." After putting in over 100kms of training in the wetsuit the armpits developed wear-holes from my arm turning over and rubbing in the armpit. I had to patch up about four holes prior to the 27km swim, and I'll have to patch up another four now that the swim is done. This is probably a function of wetsuits not being built to sustain 9 straight hours of swimming, combined with my stroke having a slight armpit rub, combined with the neoprene around the armpits/shoulders being slightly more delicate to promote arm turnover.
Here's the scoop on the Roka Maverick Pro wetsuit. If you want a top of the line wetsuit, don't even think about any of the other $800 suits, get this one or you're just being silly! There's a reason all the top pros are moving over to Roka, it's because the suit rocks!
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