Sports Gear #3 - Full Body Swimsuits

There isn't a world of difference between Wetsuits and swimsuits, but I figured the wetsuit post was rambling on long enough that I needed to cut it off and start a new one.

So what makes a fetishy swimsuit? The first thing that jumps to mind are speedos, obviously. They're skimpy, the expose a lot of skin, and they don't leave a lot to the imagine. They are also, barely, acceptable attire throughout most of the world.

Ok - off on a tangent here - this is just one of the myriad of ways the United States is fucked up. In most of Europe, you'd see speedo-type swimsuits at least on about 50% of the folks at the beach or at a pool, right? Hell, in Japan you can't even find a baggy knee-length swimsuit to save your life. But here in the US, speedos are pretty much confined to professionals or lap-swimmers at the Y. That's just a shame!

I never got too excited about swimsuits until, I think, the 2000 summer Olympics when Speedo introduced the FastSkin full-body swimsuits. These looked so incredibly hot and tight I knew I couldn't rest until I was able to get one. For a while it seemed they were impossible to get unless you were a professional athlete, but slowly Speedo started to sell them (at significant cost, of course) to the general public. I got my first FastSkin suit probably in 2002 or so, in basic black, and then in 2005 I just had to experience the newer FastSkinII from the 2004 Olympics in a nice grey/white combo color.

Both suits are incredibly hot. They are very tight-fitting, and they literally compress every muscle of your body when worn. The lycra used is less stretchy than normal, and the cut of the suit is very slim throughout. After pulling the suit on, it really makes the wearer look about 15 pounds lighter, its amazing.

The fabric of the suit also has a unique texture to it. Both versions feature a textured lycra fabric with a sort of herringbone or fish-scale like texture to it. Its very subtle but visible up close. But the real trick is how the fabric sheds water. When the suit enters the water, some sort of coating on the fabric actually causes water to avoid saturating certain parts of the fabric. When submerged, it seems as if a thin coating of air bubbles is trapped between the suit and the water. Its quite remarkable. And when the suit is removed from the water, the water-phobic parts of the suit dry quickly while other parts remain saturated and dark, which makes the scale-texture of the suit visible in the light (dry) and wet (dark) parts of the fabric. Cool magic trick.

Of course the point of all this muscle-compression and water-phobic fabric is to improve aquadynamics, but it also makes the suit a real treat for the fetishist. As you might guess, the best suits are the full-coverage full-leg, full-arm suits. The combination of the full coverage, the super-tight fit, unique texture, and combination of colored panels and muscle-hugging seams make these suits really unique in my collection.

There are other companies that make full-body swimsuits. Adidas makes a somewhat less-exotic suit using a more traditional lycra fabric and subtler styling; most of their models are basic black with some contrast striping in yellow or silver. These are actually fairly hard to find and sell for a premium on ebay when you can find them. I don't find them nearly as kinky as the FastSkin suits, but they are pretty popular in the fetish community, I think.

There's another, lesser-known brand of full-coverage suit which falls somewhere in-between a swimsuit and wetsuit, from a company called Aquasphere. These are relatively cheap and are interesting because they are constructed from a combination of very thin neoprene panels and spandex/lycra panels. Depending on the water temperature, they make models with more or less neoprene composition, and probably with different thicknesses of neoprene. I like their choice of colors, using high-contrast grey and black panels with prominent logos. These suits can heat up quickly, much like wetsuits, but I like the look of them when on. I've not seen this as being widespread in popularity with lycra or swimsuit fetishists, but I like them quite a bit.

So that covers it for full-body suits. Even in places where speedo suits are pretty commonplace, you wouldn't see a lot of full-body swimsuits being worn. They tend to be confined to competitive swimming or triathalons.

In the next update, I'll review a few brief-style swimsuits that might be more passable at your local pool (but not much!)