About a month ago I wrote wrote that sizing has gotten a little confusing, and that the size charts that the companies produce are too often either incomplete or just wrong. Also, I just don’t agree with some of the narrative from wetsuit brands on how to know with confidence if and when a wetsuit fits you.

I thought I’d parlay that into how I go about choosing a wetsuit from a variety of brands, and today it’s sailfish (like blueseventy this brand eschews capital letters in its name). This is a newcomer to the U.S. market but is a fixture in Europe. This company belongs to Jan Sibbersen, for years a reliable bet to swim 46 or 47 minutes in Kona and he still holds the swim course record.

Half of you care about wetsuit purchases right now – the half who responded to a recent poll saying you intend to get a new wetsuit this year. By “this year” we really are talking about this spring. Now. Especially since a number of the important wetsuit brands are starting to get shipments in.

What are my imperatives when buying a wetsuit? What should trigger my decision to buy this wetsuit over that one?

Imperative #1: Fit.
Imperative #2: Flotation.
Imperative #3: Materials.
Imperative #4: A style of pattern-making that works for my body.
Imperative #5: Some of the accessory features of a wetsuit – like the neck, and the neck closure – that make the wetsuit a little more comfortable.

What I didn’t list in my imperatives is shoulder mobility, but in my experience the right fit – especially in the torso area – solves 80 percent of this. So, my imperatives #1 and #4 above absorb most of the shoulder mobility concern.

Let me tell you what matters least to me, and we’ll start with pulling panels. In fact, if a wetsuit doesn’t have a pulling panel that is, for me, a bonus. Why? Because I’m certainly teachable, but I haven’t found one that works. However, I have found that pulling panels provide me yet another place where I might blow a seam in my wetsuit while putting it on or taking it off.

I also am not convinced that, for me, most of the body positioning strategies bear fruit. These make more sense for accomplished swimmers who can’t abide having their perfect technique altered.

In the case of sailfish, they don’t put a pulling panel in their suits and I take that as a sign they don’t put meaningless features just to have them. They do have a hip rotation narrative, based on where they put their seams and rubber thicknesses. I don’t mind this, and it’s not surprising since Jan will value this in his own swimming. I’m not saying this is a valueless feature, rather than it’s not chief among the features I value.

sailfish makes 4 models: the Ultimate IPS Plus 3 @ $1,025; the G-Range 8 @$850; the Mens One 7 @ $585; and the Mens Attack 7 @ $475 and we'll get into each of these models below.

First let’s talk briefly about fit. These models all are made around the same patterns; I’d be the same size in all these models, and they’d fit similarly. The ML fits someone who weighs 174 to 194lb, and who is between 6’0” and 6’4”. If I was 30 years old and fit I might consider a smaller size, but wetsuit size charts – all of them, from all the brands – fail to consider age in the calculus. The older you get, the more you tend to fit in the next size up rather than the next size down. As I am usually between 170lb and 175lb this is the right size for me, weight-wise.

A wetsuit's torso length and girth are what determines 90% of a correct fit. Is this size in this brand correct for me? Yes, according to the size chart. But I don’t just take the size chart’s word for it anymore. In fact, that wetsuit has a torso length of about 60cm (I discuss how to measure this here), and that’s really the minimum for me. Because I know this measured value I know this wetsuit in this size will work. Now let’s discuss the various sailfish models.

The Ultimate IPS Plus 3 (pictured above) is a very nice wetsuit and I happen to have one of these. This suit is a possibility for me. Yamamoto Rubber Company makes what it calls Aerodome, and that might be what you see here in the chest – that honeycomb look in the rubber.

The G-Range 8? This suit’s motto is “Freedom Over Buoyancy.” The “G-Range 8 doesn’t maximize buoyancy,” says Sailfish, “so you determine your own water position, giving you absolute freedom in terms of swimming technique and speed.” We discussed this. I don’t want freedom. I’ll gladly sit in buoyancy jail. The G-Range 8 is not for me. I'm more interested in the model One 7 (pictured below).

Here’s what sailfish says about the One 7: “A Buoyancy Miracle.” Okay, now you’re talkin’ my language! “Greater buoyancy means a more stable, faster water position," sailfish writes.

The One 7 uses Aerofloat, a “three-layer neoprene with enclosed air cells that make you feel like you’re literally flying through the water.” It seem, feels, smells, tastes like Aerofloat is Yamamoto’s Aerodome, but I don't know for sure. In the image below, I’m wearing the Ultimate IPS Plus 3, and I contrast this with a studio shot of the One 7.

I contrast the Ultimate IPS Plus 3 with the One 7 in the side-by-side image below. Do you see that extra pattern piece arcing from the groin up and around to my low back? That’s the Hip Rotation Panel in the Ultimate IPS Plus 3 and here’s the pitch: “Additional flexibility in the hips allows you unrestricted hip rotation, almost like swimming without a wetsuit. You can transfer the longitudinal rotation of your body to the water and convert all your power into effective propulsion.” To me, it sounds like the goal is to accentuate hip driven freestyle, and I think wetsuits have always worked well with this technique.

But one aspect of hip driven freestle – and I think this must be what sailfish is getting at – is the deployment of a strong kick. One reason really good swimmers have a problem with fullsuits that are ultra-buoyant from the hips down is that the float inhibits a vigorous kick. We once tested a swimmer whose fastest wetsuit in the flume in Colorado Springs had a bikini style bottom. This oddly-made wetsuit, which we built just for educational purposes, had full-length arms but no rubber below the waist. She got a lot of propulsion from her kick.

Yes, I feel better, slightly, swimming in the Ultimate IPS Plus 3. But I don’t go faster. If you look at the One 7, it’s just got a slab of Aerofloat from the neck to the knees. Interestingly, there’s a hip side panel in the Ultimate IPS Plus 3 made of Aerofloat that the One 7 lacks, but in general the One 7 is just a blunt instrument set at the problem of buoyancy. I’m a leg dragger. I don’t get propulsion out of my kick. The blunt instrument is fine.

I like the Attack 7 (pictured above) fine; I like the price; but the One 7 is not that much more money, and you can feel a difference in materials.

So, it’s either the Ultimate IPS Plus 3 or the One 7 for me. If either is given as a gift, I'd take the Ultimate IPS Plus 3. But hands down the One 7 is the best value.

There is one more thing I need to talk about with this brand. If I take a ROKA, and a sailfish, each in my appropriate size, they are very close to identical in performance for me, but it’s a bit more of a challenge for me to get the sailfish’s zipper up. Less so the ROKA. The only meaningful difference is in the zipper. The ROKA’s zipper is 2” longer. I believe sailfish is using an 18” zipper in my size and ROKA is using a 20”. They use the same gauge zipper, just a different length. Yes, zippers can be too long. They don’t stretch. They leak water. But I think a wetsuit for somebody north of 6’ tall and 170lb wants a 20” zipper.

The reason I would take a Ultimate IPS Plus 3 to the race, rather than the One 7, has to do with that zipper issue. For some reason – and I don’t know why, because the zippers are the same length – I have a bit of an easier time getting the zipper up by myself in the Ultimate IPS Plus 3. I may ask for help getting the zipper up, but I need to know getting that zipper up is something I can do on my own if need be.

I note when I go to the sailfish website (U.S. version) I’m offered 15% off my first purchase. Of the two sailfish models that interest me the most, that discount would take the Ultimate IPS Plus 3 from $1,025 to about $870, and the One 7 from $585 to just under $500. There are 15 sizes in all, 9 mens sizes and 6 women’s sizes.