[music] Mark: Today, I'm going to run you through
how to remove your wetsuit quickly both for race day and just for general everyday training.
Removing your wet suit quickly actually takes a ton of hassle out of the process, as well
as making you look pretty darn cool down at your open water swimming venue. In all seriousness,
it can save you a load of time on race day, so I'm going to run you through a step-by-step
guide as well as a few tips. Before we start looking at how to remove your
wetsuit, quickly there's actually a couple of key details that you need to know beforehand.
First off, how your wet suit is unzipped or unfastened. For example, on mine, I've got
to tab at the top here, and then there's a cord here that I need to grab and I pull down
to unzip it. You might find that on yours, it's a reverse zip, in which case you grab
that cord and you actually pull upwards to unzip. I actually used to quite like a zip
like that. As this is a How To Remove Your Wetsuit Quickly
video, you want to make sure that you get really comfortable with that, and you can
actually do it whilst moving, whilst running, perhaps within a triathlon. My advice would
actually be to start off and just get used to that simple action of undoing the wetsuit
just in standstill, so using one hand to grab that tab, undo that top velcro tab, finding
that cord and pulling down. I suggest using one hand for each action just to make sure
you keep that velcro part so it doesn't refasten whilst you're trying to unzip. Once you're
comfortable with that, then start moving into a run, getting used to again, reaching over,
grabbing that velcro and pulling down whilst moving.
Before we jump in the water, I actually have one final fairly fundamental thing that I
want to cover. If I was to try and remove the wetsuit now as it is, I'd actually struggle
somewhat because it's dry. I haven't been in the water yet. Whereas, when you first
exit the water, there'll actually be a layer or film of water between your skin and the
neoprene and that layer allows you actually to whip that wetsuit off fairly quickly and
fairly easily. If, however, you exit the water and you stand around for some time or perhaps
you take ages to get to transition, that water will actually start to seep out and that creates
an almost like vacuum effect between your skin and the neoprene and can actually make
it incredibly hard to remove the wetsuit, if not harder than when it was dry.
There is a finite time in which you want to start removing your wetsuit, and I'll talk
you through that process as we go on through this video. For now, I think it's time to
jump in the water and show you how it's done. [music]
Mark: All right then. As you exit the water and you've found your balance, you can take
your goggles off of your eyes. Don't pull them off your head though, just simply place
them on your forehead. This leaves your hands free to remove your wetsuit. You want to reach
around for the top tab with one hand and to the zip cord with the other hand, as we practiced.
Once the suit is unfastened, you want to remove the upper body part of the suit right away
whilst that film of water is still in there. To do this quickly, you want to drive your
elbow back and up with force, whilst also pulling the wetsuit arm in the opposite direction,
and then repeat with the other arm. At this point, we've got the upper part of
our wetsuit off. It's pulled down to our waist. You can now, at this point, take your hat
and goggles off, hold them into your hand as you run through to transition. It's one
less thing to do in transition itself, and then it's just a case of getting yourself
to your bike within transition or to the first changing tent.
By this point, a lot of the water will likely have started to seep out, so you want to be
as sleek as possible. Pull the suit down swiftly as far down your legs as you can. Now, you
want to use one foot to stamp down on and hold the suit down whilst you quickly pull
the opposite the leg up and hopefully, out of the suit, and then repeat the same on the
other leg. This leaves your hands free to perhaps even start putting your helmet on
for instance. This doesn't always work, so you may need to intervene and pull the remaining
parts of the wetsuit off of your hands. [music]
Mark: There we go, that is how to remove a wetsuit quickly. I do have some final quick
tips to speed things up further, one which is baby oil. Apply a little bit of this to
your forearms and your calves and it will actually allow you to whip that wetsuit even
quicker, because it acts like that water, that film, between the skin and the neoprene,
but better because this stuff is water-resistant to a degree, so it's going to stay there through
the swim and afterwards. Another that I've never actually done is actually
cutting around an inch or so off the leg of the wetsuit. The only idea is then it's just
easier to get off over the ankle. It's not quite so tight around that area. I've never
done it because personally, I think the neoprene is there for reason. It's adding buoyancy
to our legs. Also, not forgetting it's probably going to void the warranty on the wetsuit.
Another one also is to actually just grab down on the neck of the wetsuit ever so slightly
as you're exiting the water, allowing water to flood in. The idea being that you're getting
extra water into the wetsuit. Not too much, but enough that's it then going to take longer
to seep out of the wetsuit and therefore, you're going to have that film in the wetsuit
for longer. Also, I talked earlier about that reverse
zip. Not everyone's going to have this on their wet suit. Some people may. You can seamlessly
pull that zip up, undoing it, and into removing the arm from the wetsuit. It takes a bit of
practice, but as I said, not everyone's going to have it on their wetsuit.
There we go, that is how to remove a wetsuit quickly, along with a few tips. If you have
any questions, please drop them in the comment section below. I hope you have enjoyed today's
video. If so, give it a like, don't forget to give GTN a follow on our social media channels
and give the channel a subscribe just down below.
[00:05:50] [END OF AUDIO]