TYR Hurricane Wetsuits Live Up to Hype

I don’t know what the rules are on these things, so I won’t say how to avoid getting anyone in trouble, but I managed to get my hands on a sneak preview of the new TYR hurricane wetsuits, which officially drop February 25th, and let me tell you, they are sweet.

I’m not generally one to buy into hype. In fact, I pride myself on being a skeptic, almost to a fault. But these new TYR wetsuits are going to revolutionize the wetsuit industry much the way Speedo’s Fastskin revolutionized the competitive swimming world.

The suit comes in 3 models: the C-1, C-3, and C-5, which have increasing levels of performance enhancements (and increasing price tags!) I was able to test out the C-3, and it was incredible. The fit was just great. It was tight, but didn’t lock up my shoulders or elbows, like some of the basic wet suits can. Didn’t find any leaky spots.  They’re relatively easy to get off quickly, if you’re at a level where you’re concerned about fast transfers.

But these suits aren’t just for elite athletes. On the C-3 that I tried on, it was described as having some techno-mumbo-jumbo about core stabilization zones or whatever. Sounds like a lot of buzz words and fancy marketing speak, but after trying it, I know what they mean. They will really enhance the swimming ability of poor swimmers, because they basically force you into a better body position, which is the biggest hurdle for most adult beginning swimmers. I’ll be curious to see if it will help novice swimmers develop a better feel for that good position, and actually improve their stroke even in non wet-suit races.

Don’t take my word for it, but consider this statement from the TYR website is really impressive:

“Over 30 of the world’s top professional triathletes switched to the TYR Hurricane…before it even launched!”

That’s incredible.

I’m not a TYR guy in the pool. I typically wear Speedo. I don’t receive endorsements from either, I just always happened into Speedo, whether it be team suits, goggles or whatever (although I do love the TYR crossblade fins). And although TYR has been picking up some big name swimmers, like their recent announcement that they’ve signed world-record holder Nick Thoman, for most people they still play second fiddle to Speedo. But in the triathalon world, TYR is the king of the thing. They sponsor a lot of the world’s best triatheletes, including Ironman World Champions Chrissie Wellington and Andy Potts.

And as an aside, can we clear this up really quickly? The company name is pronounced as one word- Tyr, like a tear-drop.  It’s named after the Norse god of combat, victory, and heroic glory. He’s the equivalent of Mars in Roman mythology.