Sleeves or No?

[teigyr]

I have the Promotion sleeveless Power Glide. I looked at the Zoot one just now, it looks beautiful I guess I needed one that wasn't SO expensive because I am new to the sport, I'm not a swimmer, and I need to make sure it's a good and valid investment. If I'm just doing sprint tri's at 2-3x/year, I can't justify $500 +/-. If I decide to start doing distance or more than what I'm doing now, then I'll evaluate it again.

As far as the sleeves go, I was thinking about getting them. I don't "race" as in going fast and I thought they'd be beneficial just for OW swimming. Are there major complaints about them?

Being new to the sport (multi and the various components) is such an investment. DH is wonderful about supporting me and agreeing that I need all this stuff...I'm just trying to keep the costs down. To me I'll spend whatever I need to on my running shoes and on my bike. I'm sure the swim part will catch up

[Quillfred]

I can't afford a new wetsuit either.

If need be, I will wear my long sleeved rash guard under my sleeveless shortie.

Quillfred

[rocknrollgirl]

I have two Xterra wetsuits, long sleeved. We purchased both on ebay and got great deals on both. As far as the claustophobia, I got over mine with practice. If you look at my posts from last April, I had a really hard time at first, but I stuck with it.

I think the sleeves do make me a lot faster.

[KSH]

I have two Xterra wetsuits, long sleeved. We purchased both on ebay and got great deals on both. As far as the claustophobia, I got over mine with practice. If you look at my posts from last April, I had a really hard time at first, but I stuck with it.

I think the sleeves do make me a lot faster.

See, the clastophobic feeling I got was from the chest barrel of the wetsuit squeezing me. It made me feel like I couldn't breathe. That I had to get over. To me, the arms didn't play into the feeling.