There’s a reason that so many pro triathletes are switching to Roka wetsuits, and it might
not be the reason you think.
What’s up everyone Taren here from A-Race talking coming to you with the Roka Maverick
Pro Full Wetsuit.
This piece of gear is probably the piece of gear that I know best out of anything that
I have, and it is very near and dear to my heart.
And that is because this is the wetsuit that I used all throughout the course of training
for an doing the 17 mile marathon swim that I did back in 2014.
I’ve got probably a total of about 150 to 200 miles in this wetsuit, so putting on this
thing is comfy, it’s like putting on a 15 year old pair of pajama bottoms.
I ended up getting hooked up with Roka in 2013 when I was down in Kona, they’re all
super good dudes by the way.
And the founders, Rob Canales and Kurt Spenser told me about how they decided to start the
company after they were training for their first evert half ironman and didn’t like
any of the wetsuits that they tried.
Rob and Kurt were superstar stud swimmers at Stanford but they realized that the majority
of triathletes out there weren’t so studly and one of the biggest things that they needed
help with was getting they’re legs higher in the water so that they could be more aerodynamic
isn’t the right word.
Hydrodynamic?
Fluid-dynamic?
Basically they just needed help with having less sinky legs.
What the guys did starting at the bottom of the wetsuit was they extended the material
further down the leg towards about an inch more towards the ankle.
To make sure the legs were still flexible so you could kick they ran this super duper
flexible 1.5mm strip up the side of the leg.
They also added another 1.5mm ankle release panel down at the bottom so that you could
kick of this wetsuit pretty easily.
A swimmer can be too flexible in certain areas when they’re in the water.
If your core isn’t tight you can snake from side to side causing drag in the water, so
Roka added a stiffer 5mm front and back core centerline strip.
And 3mm core stabilizer panels on the side.
I can say that this is one of the best features of this suit.
You really don’t have to worry about keeping yourself aligned in the water, staying straight
just kind of takes care of itself.
Roka used the thinnest 1.5mm neoprene on the sides of the suit, and more 1.5mm number 40
–which an extremely flexible neoprene- on the upper chest and around the shoulders.
The guys also added cuffs around the neck and wrists to make sure that water couldn’t
scoop into these areas and slow you down like a wind sail in the water.
And there’s a very thin, almost like a windbreaker-type material on the forearms that allows you to
feel the catch at the start of the swim stroke.
All these different panels throughout the suit it takes a lot of work to weld them all
together and make them function well and that’s a big part of what contributes to the higher
price of these more premium wetsuits.
I was pretty skeptical of the difference that I would see going from an entry-level wetsuit
to a premium wetsuit, and I can say hands down that it is amazingly noticeable.
It is more flexible in the shoulders, the body position is better, the roll is better.
It’s kind of like going from an entry level road bike with clip on aerobars, to a true
time trial beast.
The thinner material however, it’s not without it’s drawbacks, it does lead to a more tear-prone
fairly tear-prone suit and you have to be really really careful putting it on.
The Roka guys actually gave me a bit of a training session in how to put this on in
the best way possible so that you can avoid as many tears as you can.
Don’t ever use your fingernails on this wetsuit.
Grab the wetsuit with the pads of your fingers, not the nails, as you’re yanking up the
legs.
You can also pull the suit up from the inside as you get further up the legs.
And as you get up towards the top half of the suit you can almost jump and pop your
arms through the armholes, and shove the arms up into place, don’t yank them into place.
You can actually jump a little bit to get the arms through the armholes.
And then push, instead of pull your arms, into place, and then grab those forearm panels
and pull it up a little bit tighter getting as much material into the shoulders as possible.
You want to get as much material as you can with that triangle design sitting on top of
the bone that sits above your shoulder.
So remember, don’t ever, ever, ever, ever, ever use your fingernails to yank on this
wetsuit and pull it up, otherwise you’re going to have a very expensive wetsuit with
a heck of a lot of repairs in it.
Speaking of repairs, that is my biggest complaint about the Roka suit.
It is so delicate, that if you look at both the armpits I’ve actually had to patch repair
both of the armpits because both sides have rubbed away some holes.
Granted, I know that most triathletes out there aren’t going to be swimming for 17
miles straight or or putting on one or two hundred miles of training over the course
of a summer.
But it’s something that you should know, that it’s a tradeoff.
When you go towards thinner material to get that flexibility around the shoulders you
might have a wetsuit that might be a little bit more delicate.
So why are pro triathletes moving to Roka?
It’s not sponsorship believe it or not.
Roka isn’t buying those athletes, I know through the grapevine that a lot of pro triathletes
out there are actually trying to get out of their existing wetsuit sponsorship contracts
to go towards the Roka wetsuit lineup.
So is this a better wetsuit, or is it even the best triathlon wetsuit in the world?
Maybe.
I don’t really know because it’s the only high-end triathlon wetsuit I’ve ever tried.
That said, I think that it means a lot when pro triathletes all around the world are giving
it the stamp of approval, and without dollars in the picture are trying to move towards
this wetsuit to get faster.
So with this being such a good wetsuit, that I’ve been really happy with, and with the
price being comparable to basically all other high-end triathlon wetsuits at just under
eight hundred dollars; if you’re looking to upgrade your wetsuit game I think that
you’d be doing yourself a real disservice not to at least trying the Roka Fullsuit Wetsuit.
So that’s is it for today.
Like I said, I know this wetsuit really really well so if there’s anything that I didn’t
answer or forgot to mention, by all means put it in the comments below and I’ll answer
those questions for you.
I’ll be putting a link in the description to where you can find this wetsuit for a good
price online, and when I put together shortly I’m going to have a review of the Roka SIM
shorts which I’ve also used and know really well so that’ll be in the description.
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Stomp on the pedals out there, SEEYA!