Orca Free

[qai4321]

Hey guys, Im trying to find out a little bit more about the Orca's new freediving wetsuits. The 'Free' and the 'breath'.

I haven't been able to find much info on them except whats on the Orca website.

So far I understand that the 'Free' was designed after the Orca Alpha wetsuit. Anyone with some experience with this Orca? How durable is the Nano SCS coating 1.5mm Yamamoto #40 Cell neoprene. Is it the kind of suit you can use for everyday training? Does this wetsuit have an opencell interior?

The Orca 'breath' is based on the Orca Equip Lite which is only 1mm thickness of neoprene. How much warmth does 1mm provide really?

It would be interesting to get your feedback...

Q

 

[Buzz Numinous]

All I know is that mr trubridge uses the free and if it's good enuf for him it's 100000% good enuf for me lol i think he has done a review somewhere on the net I'll see if I can find it for you

 

[Kars]

I have not tried the specific wetsuits you mention.
But I do own an 2XU V1 triathlon suit, that has the SCS coating and 1,5mm shoulder pieces. I did use the suit weekly, or twice a week in the pool, and made sure to rinse it off well under the shower. But I can say the coating with such use will wear off within 6-8 months in a lightly chlorinated pool. Not that the suit is to be thrown away, but you'll notice the difference if you compare side by side. My shoulderparts now after say 18 months have become very porous, the only thing that prevents the tearing is carefully putting it on and the 520% stretchy nylon lining.

This year, if I got some money I plan on ordering a special 3mm design suit from Elios, for pool and depth, where I'll use only the trousers for the pool, and the combination for depth.
The triathlon suit I may use for pool competition only.

BTW my indoor pool is 26c, and the Triathlon suit with 3mm arms, 1,5mm shoulders, 5mm chest, upper legs, 3mm back and lower legs, is just warm enough for slow, and very warm to medium intensity swimming. Yet standing still will get my slender, low fat body, cold. It's way too warm for high intensity. In my opinion the right insulation for technique training and maximum dives in this 26c indoor 50m pool.

I've also used it in a German lake for deepdiving, in combination with an old sleeveless 3mm upper piece that I wore underneath to cover my head with hood and to add a few milimeters of insulation to the chest and back. With a surface temp of just 18c and a temp of 4c at depth, wearing no gloves nor socks, I found it a bit cold, but still succeeded in doing a nice CNF dive to 40, and the next day 47m.

I hope my stories a help a bit.

In my view triathlon type of suits are too expensive for daily training, you can wear one out in just a year of pool use. (+/- 120 training sessions).

 

[qai4321]

That was really helpful Kars. Thanks.

Which Elios suit was it that you mentioned? I was considering an Elios instead of the Orca... funny enough.

Q

 

[Jouskari]

Much depends on in how warm water you plan to train in and what kind of training you are going to do.

The Free is made of SCS Yamamoto 39 2 mm neoprene and has a separate inner collar and reversed zip to keep the water from entering through the neck. Neck leaking is a very common problem with triathlon suits, especially doing dynamic, but form what i´ve heard this should not be a problem on the orca Free or Breathe suits. I helped my friend get into his Free suit, so had some time to check it out, and get some feedback from him on how it´s performing.

I´ve had an Orca RS1 (Equipe lite predecessor) for 2 years now and with 2 training sets a week its starting to be in the end of its lifecycle now (a few small rips). It still a good suit though and I still use it for training. In a 25 C pool I can use it for 60 min before getting cold (active dynamic training).

A new suit is always more slippery than a used one. And it takes about one year (if you treat it properly) to get the coating to wear off. I recommend to use one suit for training and one only for competition starts.

 

[Kars]

I don't think Elios has this in stock, so I'll ask if they can use my design, which looks like a regular sleeveless speedsuit. Like a Long John with compression in legs, streamlined and no water intake under speed.
For the upper piece I'm going to ask for 3mm sleeves on a 5mm body and hood.
And some seals on the wrist and legs, as well as on the hood. With enough neoprene on the forehead. Maybe without chin.

I hope the two parts will cost around 450,- together. Much less than the V1 suit costing E 600,- .

Glad it was a helpful post, Though please consider that the Orca suits may have some different properties than the 2XU brand.