Get Your Freak On

May 25, 2012

The Freak of Nature is TYR's own new standard set for triathlon wetsuits. The way the Freak is positioned, treated, marketed, and sold is unique to this market. As is its price point. Stripped of everything other than simply a wetsuit worn by a swimmer against the clock, is this wetsuit something special?

The Freak (pictured adjacent, women's version on right, men's on the left) comes in a case similar to that in which my telescope resides when not pointed skywards. It's a very nice case. In the case comes not only the wetsuit, but a wetsuit care kit, a graphics matching latex swim cap, and a very nice brochure developed just for this one model of wetsuit.

Still, $1200 for a wetsuit?

I thought I'd pit this wetsuit against a pretty vanilla, yet upper end, wetsuit I have in my inventory of suits to test. I chose an Aqua Sphere Powered Racer, which is not Aquasphere's top of the line suit, but still a high quality model. At $500 the Powered Racer is no budget suit.

I chose the Powered Racer because it's a suit with features that are somewhat similar to the Freak: standard zip, high quality rubber—the Powered Racer uses Yamamoto SCS #39 and the TYR #40—and the suits are roughly similar in fit, though the Powered Racer is a bit shorter in the torso, which is not an exact match with my morphology, as I am slightly long in the torso.

The Freak has features. Specifically the use of strategically placed low-density, air-pocketed rubber, that looks a lot like Yamamoto's Aerodome (Aerodome is made for warmth, if you read surfing magazines, but it's made for buoyancy if you read triathlon magazines). But TYR doesn't claim any aerodome in the suit. The use of this rubber—its placement in the chest, for example—is very reminiscent of this year's blueseventy Helix.

Four sets of 4 x 100 short course yards, repeating on the 1:30 base, is my standard set when testing the fitness of a suit. This time, rather than alternating each set, I swam the first and fourth sets in the Powered Racer, and the second and third sets in the Freak. This is how it came out.

2012 Aqua Sphere Powered Racer

1:11
1:12
1:12
1:12

2012 TYR Freak of Nature

1:10
1:11
1:11
1:11

2012 TYR Freak of Nature

1:10
1:11
1:12
1:11

2012 Aqua Sphere Powered Racer

1:11
1:12
1:12
1:11

The Freak started out about a second faster per 100 yards, versus the Powered Racer (pictured right). However, in the second two sets, the suits came out about even. It's possible the Freak is a faster suit than the Powered Racer but, if it is, it's not by much.

Now, in point of fact the TYR suits fit me nicely, and the Hurricane Cat 5 has proven to be even, or a half-second faster, for me, than many of the other highest-end suits. I suspect, therefore, that if the Freak is any faster at all than the Powered Racer, it is probably not faster than TYR's own Cat 5.

Bottom line, the Freak is a very nice suit. Very nice. But if someone cynically suggested you spend $600 for the wetsuit and $600 for the case and the care kit, it would be hard to refute this.

By the way, the Aqua Sphere Powered Racer also comes in it's own soft case—quite nice in fact.