Wetsuits were invented to keep you warm – but they have another positive side effect: they make you faster, too. The buoyancy provided by the suit keeps you in a better swimming position – especially if the swim is your weak spot – and helps save your legs for battle in the cycling and running stages. Swimmers with competition experience often worry the wetsuit will hinder their range of motion – but that’s a mistake. Tests with and without wetsuits have shown a time saving of five to ten seconds per hundred meters, with wetsuit. Simply put, a full-sleeve suit will help any swimmer go faster. Like with any athletic gear, fit is important. A suit that’s too big is uncomfortable, slow and cold. Too small and it restricts movement and circulation, making your muscles work harder than they need to. But remember – it’s easier to choose a suit that is too big than one that is too small. Try before you buy, and, if you can, get a swim in. Some triathlon shops have a pool on site, and some teams have events where various suits can be tested. High-quality wetsuits made specifically for triathlon or long-distance swimming are optimized for buoyancy, fit and range of motion, with different materials in different parts of the suit. A thinner, high-stretch material in arms, shoulders and underarms improves flexibility, while a thicker material in the torso and legs optimizes the swim position. Top tip? Place your foot in a plastic bag before putting on; it will slide through easily without the risk of tearing the suit. When choosing tri-ready rubber, don’t forget the transition (T1) after the swim. A zipper for quick and easy removal can shave valuable seconds (or more, if you’re clumsy) off your time! Many athletes also opt to cut a few cm off at the cuffs and ankles to make them easier to remove. The last thing to remember about wetsuits for triathlons? You can’t always use them. In warm waters, many races don’t allow them (a definite plus for those who are strong swimmers). In the Ironman races, the temperature limit for wearing a suit is 24.5 degrees Celsius (76.1 degrees Fahrenheit) – but generally, temperature limits for wearing wetsuit differ based on the distance and race. So the biggest tip about suits? Make sure they’re allowed before you cross the start line! Read also Conrad Stoltz’s open water swimming tips  

Conrad Stoltz is the proof that you don't have to slow-up as you get older. In fact, the XTERRA athlete and former pro triathlete says he's just as fit as he was 20 years ago – and he's regularly beating guys half his age. What's his secret? “I think it's part scientific training and part experience,” Conrad tells us. “At age 40 my power on the bike is as good, if not better than ever.” He says this is partly due to the rigorous training program and partnership he has with his coach, Ian Rodger. “He comes from a Sport Science background where he has done a lot of research and testing on athletes in the lab,” says Conrad. “He lives in Cape Town so we only see each other a handful of times a year but we spend hours and hours communicating via email, skype and text. All of the coaching gets done over the internet. After training I share my workout, and accompany it with a thorough description of how I felt before during and after the session. Ian analyses the data and fine-tunes my training for the next day. So every day is custom made for me.” “It's very effective,” he adds. “Thanks to that I haven't had any stints of overtraining, under training, or unnecessary injury or sickness.” It's all a far cry from when Conrad started out as an athlete. “Back then I wanted to train super hard every day, I wanted to race every weekend, and I wanted to win every race! It's simply impossible – I made every mistake in the book, and learned all the lessons first hand. Also, 26 years of triathlon racing – 22 as a pro – has given me a lot of experience and confidence to draw from.” 

Doing you swimming drills in the pool is important, but nothing beats the outdoors, says Stoltz. It's one of the biggest issues for triathletes and something of interest to anyone who loves open water – how to improve your technique. As everyone knows – and often dreads! – being disciplined about swimming drills is essential to improve your performance. But not everything can be learned in a pool, says Conrad Stoltz. “Good open water swimming comes from lots of practice,” says the multiple XTERRA champion. “You have to learn different kinds of open water. Lakes are easy, but ocean swims have waves, currents and sand bars, and river swims are tricky because of currents.” He says there's no substitute for getting out there into the wild and just getting the feel of different water types. Of course, when it comes to actual swimming race preparation, he says the trick is to swim as often as possible in a group. You should also ask yourself important tactical questions. “Where to position yourself at the start? How to pace yourself to start fast without blowing up? How to draft, where to postition yourself around the buoys?” he says.  “Building fitness in a pool with a swim squad is good,” he adds, “but I try to spend as much time as possible swimming open water. There is no substitute for open water – plus it's usually more fun than staring at the black line!” Conrad's top 3 tips:  Swim outside in different conditions – lakes, rivers and the sea. Swim in a group and practise drafting. Plan your race tactics.

The Northwest Passage, spanning 3,000km from Pond Inlet, Nunavut, to Inuvik in the Northwest Territories, was daunting enough when Roald Amundsen became the first person to unlock its secrets back in 1906.Over a century later, a team of ten women will do it a new way — swimming with snorkels. Named the after the Inuit goddess of the sea, the Sedna Expedition will seek to expand our knowledge of what lies beneath the often sub-zero waters, while reaching out to local Inuit and Inuvialuit women and girls, empowering them to build resilient communities to battle climate change. While the swim won't take place until 2016 (route map, top right) this coming summer will see an exploratory mission as Team Sedna boards a 116 expeditionary trawler for a 15-day trip (route map top left). They'll connect with local communities, build team cohesion, test their gear, and prove they can manage the distance. Suunto ambassador Jill Heinerth gives us the lowdown. Snorkeling across the Arctic? Sounds like a crazy plan! The concept for the expedition was the dream of Susan R. Eaton, a Canadian earth scientist and journalist with a passion for educational awareness of global climate change and a deep connection with the indigenous people of the North. Three years ago, after witnessing another sailboat navigate the Northwest Passage Susan had a 'Eureka!' moment: Wouldn’t it be remarkable to swim the Northwest Passage?  Why snorkel? Snorkeling (as opposed to SCUBA diving) gives a swimmer a completely different viewpoint. The loss of sea ice is transforming the Arctic rapidly. We’ll be working in the transition zone between the earth, air, water and ice. Everything is the Arctic is driven by what happens in this snorkel zone. It’s the wheat fields of the North, where feeding, mating, predation and migration all take place.    What's the plan? We definitely have to do shifts to make the distance. Assuming success during the proof-of-concept expedition, we'll start our epic three-month journey in the summer of 2016. We’ll follow in the esteemed footsteps of European and Canadian explorers, many of whom perished during their attempts to cross the treacherous Northwest Passage.How many people will take part? We have a team of ten remarkable women, aged 26 to 56, taking part in the project supported by a mother ship equipped with two rigid hull boats. The women hail from Canada, the United States, Mexico and New Zealand. Many are world-class technical divers and underwater scientists.What's your personal motivation? To bring science and conservation messages to people in a fun and exciting way. Last summer, I rode my bicycle across Canada, some 7,000 kilometers, and had a remarkable opportunity to connect with citizens of all backgrounds, while sharing a project called “We Are Water.” When people are inspired, it opens up a dialogue that can be life changing for all.The biggest challenge?  The biggest challenge is the environment itself. The brutal cold, transient ice conditions and ferocious animal life (polar bears, walrus, orcas, Greenland sharks) all bring risks. How cold will the water be?The water will be as cold as it can get — minus 2 Celsius. We will need to be in the water many times a day and standing watch, completing science missions, making outreach journeys to Inuit communities and filming the entire mission. It is a lot of work for a small group. I think we’ll crash hard at the end of each day!You'll have some help with propulsion.  Diver Propulsion Vehicles (DPVs) are also known as “scooters.” A diver or snorkeler can clip herself behind this torpedo-like device and use the motor to help propel her through the water at a faster speed than swimmers could otherwise achieve. This will help us cover ground, battle currents, and get to safety quickly if we encounter a polar bear or other animal that could harm us in the water. Stay tuned for more updates on the Sedna Epic Expedition. For more diving adventures, check out our Facebook fanpage.