- Welcome back to another GTN unboxing,
and today I'm pretty excited
because I have a brand-new product
from our friends and partners of the channel, Orca.
This is,
the brand-new
Orca Predator,
Orca's latest neoprene creation.
And this brings together all of their long 25 years
of innovation and history within the triathlon industry.
And they claim this is their most advanced wetsuit ever.
Now, I don't know about you, but that is a pretty bold claim
so I'm sure you're quite excited to hear
that we have two of these up for grabs,
which I'll be explaining how you can enter in for
later on in this video.
But, for now, I'm pretty excited
to see what all this fuss is about.
Now, I'm not gonna shock you when I tell you
that we're all different as triathletes.
We have different swim types,
and Orca have pinpointed three different swim styles.
We've got the Natural Swimmer which, as the name suggests,
we're very natural in the water, we've got neutral buoyancy
so we're quite flat in the water.
We then have what they call their Total Swimmer,
so this is someone who has good skills in the water,
technically quite good but maybe has
a little bit of a drop in their legs from the hips,
and that's gonna cause some drag
so they'll benefit from a little bit of buoyancy there.
And then we've got what's called the Progressive Swimmer.
So this is someone who's maybe not so strong in the water,
swimming's perhaps their weaker discipline
and they've got a little bit of work to do there
and would really be quite thankful
of some additional buoyancy.
So where does this suit fit in that line?
Well, the Predator is what they describe,
and is ideal for a swimmer that's striving for
flexibility and buoyancy which, if you ask me,
is the holy grail when it comes to wetsuits.
So, not surprisingly, Orca describe this
as their ultimate suit.
It is designed for the Total Swimmer.
So they've gone about this by adding
additional buoyancy to the legs to help
with that buoyancy from the hips downwards
and reducing the drag.
And then increasing the flexibility in the shoulders
to make it less restrictive.
Now before I delve in to this specific wetsuit,
it's worth me just pausing for a second,
and chatting about Yamamoto,
because you are about to hear that name quite a lot.
Now, Yamamoto first started producing wetsuits in Japan,
back in 1961, and they were the first to offer
and produce a wetsuit that combined both functionality
and more crucially, flexibility.
And in credit to the brand and how good those wetsuits were,
you're now going to be hard pushed to find
a triathlon specific wetsuit
that isn't using their materials.
In fact, they have an incredibly dominant market share
of over 90%.
So Yamamoto produce their neoprene rubber in a number
of different series which all have different characteristics
and then wetsuit manufacturers can use those different
series of neoprene to construct their own wetsuits.
So we've got the number 38, the 39 and the 40.
All of which have slightly different flexibility
and buoyancy which can be used for those different
areas of the wetsuit, in relation to
the different areas of the body.
But we also have the number 44
and this is actually an exclusive neoprene rubber
from Yamamoto for Orca.
Now I'm not actually sure
what happened to 41, 42 and 43,
but this is actually meant to be
their most elastic material,
but we'll get into that a little bit later on.
So now we know where all this material is coming from,
but how do Orca actually put this all into their wetsuit,
into this Predator and make it so versatile?
Well they've actually combined three of their
specific and special exclusive technologies
into key areas of the suit.
We've got the 0.88 Free, the Exo-lift
and that aforementioned number 44.
So let's start with the 0.88 Free.
And that is here in the forearms.
Now this has been produced also by Yamamoto,
and it is, believe it or not,
just 0.5mm thick.
Which you've gotta stop and think about for a sec,
because that is absolutely mad.
And this has been coupled with a lining of titanium,
which adds a little bit of thermal insulation.
And Orca say this is,
kind of primed and better for those
shorter range movements,
the more subtle movements that you get
through the elbow region.
But up in the shoulder obviously we've got some
slightly more movement going on,
and we need a little bit more range of movement.
And that's where that Yamamoto number 44 comes in.
Now one of the most important parts of a wet-suit
is its fit.
And that is where the number 44 is so good
because not only is it super flexible,
more so than any of the other materials,
it also retains a really good level of elasticity
which is absolutely key
when we're talking about range of movement
through the shoulders.
Because as you start to tire during a swim,
particularly over those longer distance swims,
like an Iron Man 3.8K swim,
you want to have that flexibility
but also the elasticity in the material.
Now we've spoken a lot about the upper body
and the upper part of the wetsuit.
But now, let's move on to the lower body,
the lower part of the wetsuit.
Because this is where that Exo-lift technology features
which essentially is increased buoyancy
to help that Total Swimmer
that we were talking about earlier.
And they've done this through added neoprene.
They've got two layers of neoprene
in kind of like a sandwich-like construction.
And they've treated that neoprene
to make it more durable,
but also 0% water absorbent.
Which means obviously it's gonna be more buoyant.
They've also got some very exciting technology here
which is called the Core Lateral Stabilizer
which essentially helps the core region, the trunk,
to make it a little bit more rigid
and prevent any movement or twisting as you're swimming.
Now it's quite clear from the feel of this wetsuit that,
particularly in the lower half of the suit,
we've got either a 4 or 5mm neoprene thickness.
Which, as we were discussing earlier,
is gonna really help with that buoyancy
for the Total Swimmer.
But also it's gonna help with that warmth,
so when we're swimming in the open water
we wanna make sure the legs are warm.
But not only for the Total Swimmer,
it's also gonna actually help to save our legs.
Which is really important in a triathlon
because we do want to kick our legs to some degree,
but we are gonna be using our legs on the bike and the run,
so having this little bit of buoyancy
allows us to switch those legs off and save some energy.
But now let's flip the wetsuit over
and take a look at that all important feature, the zip.
Because after all, it does allow us
to get in and out of the wetsuit very quickly.
Now over the last couple of years
Orca have been working on prototypes
to actually reduce the size of the zip.
So they've gone from what is called the YKK number 10,
down to the YKK number 8.
Now you don't need to really know
what those abbreviations stand for,
but in short, the zip is shorter.
Which is interesting but actually,
they haven't compromised the functionality of the suit.
You can still get in and out of it very well.
But what they have been able to do
is then reduce the amount of water
that might be able to seep into the wetsuit,
all whilst actually improving
the overall feel of the suit.
Now if you're anything like me,
you may be wondering how you
can get your hands on one of these.
And we actually have two up for grabs.
To enter in for that,
you can go to the description below this video,
hit the link, and it's really quite simple
you just enter a nice and easy question
and, well best of luck to you.
Now if you did like this video today
do hit that thumbs-up button.
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If you'd like to see our Orca RS1 unboxing
then just click down here.
If you'd like to see our tri-suit versus wetsuit video
then just click down here.