Kit Review of Zone 3 Versa Swimrun Wetsuit

The Zone 3 Versa swimrun wetsuit is an entry-level swimrun wetsuit at a very affordable price of £169.

First impressions and indeed our opinion after much use is that it is a well-made wetsuit for this price range and it has a couple of nice features that can be found in suits of a more expensive price range.

The outside of the wetsuit is a combination of smooth neoprene, or nylon coated neoprene, which gives an extra toughness and will not rip if snagged on rocks or thorns.

The shoulders, back and rib sections are nylon coasted and will allow you to sweat and your skin breathe when you're running, which is very important.

This wet suit comes with detachable arms which is a great feature for this price range.

The chest and stomach panels are smooth neoprene, which we assume is for speed through the water.

The key difference between a swimrun wetsuit and a triathlon suit is that the rule differ in that swimrun suits are not designed to enhance performance, and thus they are a lot thinner of more flexible, plus the zip can be found on the front in a swim run suit.

This allows you to open the front panel as soon as you start the run sections, exposing the chest in order to take in cooler air and cool off during the runs, which can often be 8km+.

In swimrun, you swim and run in the same gear and there are no transition stops/gear drops or anything like in triathlons.

The zip is very well built and sturdy, however it would have been nice if Zone 3 could have included a whistle on the zip pull like many other brands do so that you do not have to carry this as a piece of extra kit.  (A whistle is mandatory kit).

Inside the wetsuit around about the rib area are two open topped pockets which can be used for gels/kit. However the positioning of these pockets (on this and other models/brands) is dubious because they are just under the ribs and thus cannot be packed too full else it restricts your breathing.

In fact, items in the pocket are often difficult to get out forcing you to stop.  We find it is just as easy and just as secure to stuff things inside the wetsuit around the same area without the need for the pockets. 

This wetsuit does have an exterior pocket, which is a very nice feature for this price range. It is found on the rear in the small of the back and the zipper fastens in a downwards direction. it's a great feature but we wish the zip was a little heavier as we have experienced situations where the zipper has been jolted upwards during running and the contents have dropped out of the pocket. Not often but it has happened.

The leg sections are a kind of rougher neoprene which has been cut specifically to allow extra leg movement for running, which we found to be very very comfortable for running long distances.

The only flaw with the wetsuit design in our opinion is the area between the thighs and crotch which zone 3 decided not to coat with a nylon surface. This means that smooth neoprene is rubbing against smooth neoprene at the top of the inner thighs and within three runs we had worn our suit through completely. 

This is a major design flaw in our opinion and many other brands even ones at the same price have nylon coating between the legs.

Our solution was to just wear a pair of tight running shorts during training over the wet suit, but of course this adds to resistance when swimming, so it is not suitable for competitions.

Apart from that, the bottom half of the suit is very sturdy and we have not experienced any other problems.

The Versa is a shorty wetsuit but does have slightly extended legs that cover the knees. We have mixed feelings about this, sometimes it's nice to cover the knees when you have to go under something and need to go on your hands and knees, but other times we like the flexibility of having exposed knees.

All in all though we feel this wetsuit is a really good starter wetsuit and apart from the inner thigh/crotch area it has performed extremely well during some long, tough training and competitions in our first year of swimrun.

You can watch the full video review below....

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Welcome to our first wetsuit review. In this blog we will be reviewing the well-known Huub Archimedes II triathlon wetsuit.

Brand: Huub
Model: Archimedes II
Price: £275 reduced from £500+ as part of end of year sale.

Ordering Process and Delivery

Unfortunately the wetsuit took quite a long time to arrive, but when it did arrive it came in a very nice box and included a nice looking, useful mesh backpack as part of the bundle. This was a nice touch, the backpack itself is well-made and could easily be used for stuff like coasteering or swim running.

The Product

The wetsuit itself is a really nice looking suit. I really liked the design and the lines and the placement of the logo as well as the colouring.

The wetsuit I chose was a 4:4 mm suit, which gave an even 4mm on the core and legs. I personally chose this as I was interested in finding a winter suit. They do a 3:4 mm design too.

There is a 'skeleton' neoprene section in the middle of the wetsuit which extends at the torso and down the thighs. The idea behind this is that it is slightly stiffer and helps you to keep your alignment whilst swimming.

You can certainly feel that the neoprene there is thicker and stronger/less flexible than the surrounding black neoprene, more like the old wetsuits material of the 1980s. Whether it really works or is necessary, we're not so sure!

The rest of the suit is very flexible and comfortable to wear.

There are some additional gimmicks on the suit such as very thin (1mm) patches on the biceps and calves.

This supposedly aids in flexibility but it seems more of a gimmick and had personally I felt it had some converse in the streamlining of the suit.

I found this to be the start of the weaknesses of the wetsuit design as these areas were often quite 'loose' on me, which prevented the suit hugging me like my current Zoot suit does.

This may be due to a feeble physique but my biceps and calves are not all that small; I just think that it's an unnecessary gimmick and the 1mm thick patch is so thin that it actually can flap around if it doesn't hug you tightly.

I noticed this a lot on the calf areas. The one millimetre thick area in red extends down to the end of the leg and this actively flapped around with about a centimetre gap at the end of the leg, which can't have been good in terms of streamlining.

Getting it On and Off

On the plus side however this design on the calves and biceps did mean it was very easy to get the wetsuit off, easily sliding it over my ankles and wrists, something I struggle with sometimes with other suits.

The Zip

This was a really cool feature on the Archimedes II.

The zipper has entry and exit points at the bottom as all zippers do, but also at the top, allowing you to give a shot tug upwards and then simply pull the wetsuit apart and get it off.

In other words you do not need to pull the zip down when you are running from the transition between swimming and bike, making it less awkward to get off. This is a really great feature of this wetsuit.

Performance

My initial reaction on this wet suit when trying it on was not as great as I'd hoped.

It didn't fit as well as I thought it would, even though I am sure I got the right size; the proportion seems a bit 'off' compared to my other wetsuits.

The flexible areas for the biceps and calves are completely useless in my opinion, except maybe making it slightly easier to get off over your feet. The disadvantage was it could affect streamlining as the wetsuit appeared too loose in those areas.

The wetsuit was fairly comfortable when swimming but was quite tight around the groin. Shoulders were flexible enough though and I did notice the 4mm thickness did provide a bit of extra warmth in the winter.

However after just one swim I noticed a small cut on the bum of the wetsuit. I'm usually very careful when handling my gear and I always rinse the wetsuit after use. Maybe I caught it in my bag zipper but it seems rather weak to cut so easily.

Then after the second swim I was rinsing the wetsuit and noticed that the stitching along the scene between the skeleton and the flexible neoprene had split right through.

Needless to say this is really disappointing for a wetsuit of his price range. In hindsight I could see that there are so many other areas on the wetsuit rips could happen again due to all of the gimmicks with stiffening panels and varying thicknesses of neoprene.

I decided not to risk it again and opted get a refund as opposed to exchanging it for a new wetsuit.

As far as the brand goes though they do a really good job on the design of the suits in terms of the look so I may use the refund to get a cheaper model that is more of a 'single' piece of neoprene style.

In the meantime though it's back to my Zoot suit!

This wetsuit has proven to be an excellent piece of kit and has had a lot of abuse over the last two years with no major breakages or performance issues on the wetsuit itself.

Stay tuned for a review of that wetsuit coming soon....