This is the review I’ve been hanging out to write for almost a year – and now I finally can. The Victory D is Zone3’s top-of-the-line, no-expenses-spared, cutting-edge, insert-whatever-other-superlatives-you-can-think-of wetsuit, specifically designed to meet the needs of the Long Course triathlete. It is available in both Mens and Womens cuts.
The feature list of this wetsuit is longer than Michael Phelps’ arm span. A combination of Yamamoto 39, 40 and Aerodome neoprenes which are distributed throughout the suit in a highly strategic manner – the result of an extensive R&D process which began way back in 2007. The suit features an upwards breakaway zip for easy removal and eliminating the risk of accidental opening of the suit during the swim. As with most Zone3 suits, the Victory D features their trademark Pro Speed Cuffs which make peeling the wetsuit off incredibly quick and easy. Having had Pro Speed Cuffs on a few wetsuits now, I still take pleasure at the comments and facial expressions I get from others as they see me effortlessly slide out of the arms and legs of my suit after an open water swim – with absolutely no lubricant required.
Consistent with its Long Course billing, the suit is designed to work with the swimmer in every conceivable way, supporting desirable movements and absolutely minimising loss of energy to the suit. Aerodome panelling (30% more buoyant than conventional neoprene) around the hips provides buoyancy support for maintaining a high body position with a light kick pattern, without upsetting balance in more refined or aggressive swimmers. The 5mm chest panel acts to reinforce good body roll and assists with sighting. The 1.5mm Yamamoto 40 arm panels are incredibly soft and supple, akin to your favourite soft cheese, and combined with 2mm back and front flank panels provide a suit with absolutely exceptionally functional and progressive shoulder flexibility – more on that later. Finishing off the package is a unique, titanium lined inner fabric. This is designed to bolster the thermal properties of the suit, both keeping the swimmer warm throughout a long swim and maintaining blood flow to the legs so that they still work when the swimmer emerges from the water.
I received my Victory D with great excitement back in June 2014. While I was able to get in a very quick (15mins), cool (16 degrees), rough (choppy as hell) swim down at Jervis Bay shortly after receiving the suit, I had to wait until a few weeks ago to give it a good shakedown. I’ve since had a few opportunities to test it out in training and have raced in it, so I can share my highly enjoyable experiences with you.
After swimming in my excellent 2011 Zone3 Vanquish for a few seasons, my expectations of the Victory D’s performance were very, very high – perhaps unreasonably so. However, I also expected that this high performance would come with a trade off in durability. With that in mind I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the box to find a suit which wasn’t even remotely fragile looking and looked every bit as sturdy as my Vanquish which has taken a pounding and still lives on as a training suit three years on. While the Yamamoto 40 arm panels are noticeably soft and delicate (required to provide the additional stretch), these are ‘protected’ by sections of sturdier Yamamoto 39 on the forearms and around the back/shoulders to keep them out of the way of the high wear areas.
Into the water, and my first impression of the suit was how insanely flexible it is. I don’t care what other suits you’ve worn, you don’t understand just how flexible a wetsuit can be until you’ve swum in a Victory D – allow me to explain. The key is in the way the flexible arm panels are integrated into the rest of the suit – rather than taking a purely, “arms=stretchy, body=floaty” approach, Zone3 have designed each panel to gradually progress along that continuum as one moves inwards from the cuffs. Thus, you can really feel the 2mm panels around the back/lats and surrounding the 5mm centre panel ‘giving way’ to allow additional range at full arm extension, in the same way the muscles of the back and chest accommodate arm extension. As such, the suit provides what feels like limitless range of motion, with virtually no restriction. It sounds cliché, but apart from the buoyancy and support (the good stuff) it really doesn’t feel like you’re wearing a wetsuit.
The buoyancy through the hips hits a real sweet spot which I think will work well for a large proportion of Long Course triathletes. As a swimmer with quite good body position who doesn’t do a lot of races with swims longer than 2km, I found initially that my hips sat just a tiny smidge higher than I’d have liked and I need to ‘sink into’ the suit just a little bit more than in my Vanquish to facilitate optimal hip drive and kick power for short, fast efforts. However with more time in the suit I figured out a way to take advantage of the additional support to extract a bit of extra hip drive – win-win! The perfectly positioned and designed chest panel kept my body position level, facilitates easy sighting and eliminates that unbalanced ‘swimming downhill’ feeling many experienced swimmers get from a lot of wetsuits.
So how fast is this suit? Well, that depends on who is wearing it, so apart from saying, ‘really fricken’ quick’*, I think a more useful question would be ‘how will this suit help me get from the start line to the finish line faster than other suits?’. The exceptional shoulder flexibility will undoubtedly aid in maintaining speed and minimising fatigue in the back half of the swim, and may assist the athlete in getting settled in their aero position earlier on the bike if they ride in an aggressive position requiring stabilisation of the shoulders. The buoyancy profile encourages a balanced, high body position with a light kick, which will save energy for later in the swim but also for the bike. Both of these features together result in a suit which feels incredibly natural, allowing the swimmer to maintain good swim mechanics and improved efficiency. Finally, the breakaway zip and Pro Speed Cuffs will give you a clear edge in the transition area and make the wetsuit strippers’ jobs easier at your next Ironman. Depending on your swim mechanics and experience, these features could cumulatively be worth many minutes.
*For me, I had an absolute cracker of a swim at the local Triathlon ACT November Fest Olympic Distance race (race report coming soon!), despite being well below my best fitness (3-4secs per 100m in the pool) due to my recent ‘disruptions’. As a purely unscientific guess, I reckon the Victory D has trimmed 30-60 seconds off my wetsuit 1500m time, and would be proportionally even better over an Ironman swim.
As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I’m super excited about wearing this incredible suit throughout the coming season. I am happy to answer any questions you may have about this or any other suit in the Zone3 range.
Guy Jones Triathlon 