Natascha Badmann swims with blueseventy

It is no secret that blueseventy’s wetsuits and swimskins are ranked as the best in the world. That’s why some of the best athletes put their trust in the equipment with the blue and orange logo.

Natascha Badmann from Switzerland is one such legend who has chosen to partner with blueseventy. After a horrible bike crash at last year’s Ford Ironman World Championship in Hawaii, she is still deciding if she will race in Kona next week.

Natascha will wear both blueseventy wetsuits and swimskins to have the best possible performance opportunities during the swim split.

We wish her the best for the future and hope that she will stay in triathlon for many more years.

blueseventy at Interbike

Some of our blueseventy crew got featured nicely on slowtwitch.com working hard at Interbike.

Steve sporting the new goggles



Dean and Guy posing for the camera

Porter Heddi checks in

My husband, Jonathan, & I are training for the St. Croix Coral Reef Open Water Swim in October (2 miles for me, the 5-mile swim for him). The 2-mile swim should be a pretty good challenge for me since I swim one-handed. My brachial plexus was injured in a car accident 11 years ago, leaving my left arm paralyzed ever since. So 2 miles is a pretty long swim for me:)

When we planned to visit his grandmother in England recently, we decided to stay in Folkestone so we could keep training, and swim in the English Channel. While doing some online research to find out about the local swim spots, I ended up reading all about the Channel Swimmers, people who swim the 22 mile stretch from England to France. This got me really excited to swim in the same place as some of these amazing people.

Our first day we scouted out a place to swim, and found 2 guys about to go in on a nice pebble beach that was a short walk from our hotel. They looked a bit nervous about the rough water (I would be), so we went over and talked to them. Turns out the one not wearing a wetsuit was attempting to make the crossing the next day, if the weather allowed. I’m not sure if he was more nervous about swimming in the heavy chop, or the possibility of his crossing getting cancelled. We went for our first swim the next day when the wind died down, and I thought of all the swimmers out there attempting to make it across that day.

I have to admit that every time I get into a new body of water it’s humbling. Water is different everywhere, and that day it was cold and milky white. It was really unsettling to not be able to see my hand after it entered the water. I didn’t like seeing white flashes in the water without being able to tell what they were, and felt a little freaked out at first, but once I realized that my breathing was staying calm and even, I relaxed and started to enjoy myself. Between the wetsuit and saltiness of the water, I was super-bouyant and could really move through the water!

The next day was even more fun, with the sun out and the Channel calmer. There were a lot of people on the beach, even though there was a nip in the air. We were the only ones going in, so it was a bit embarrassing struggling with my wetsuit with an audience. But once I got in the water it felt great to move again. There is something about that water that made me feel like a seal slipping between the waves. I must have looked like one too, because when I was getting out of the water, a poor dog started cowering and backing away from me. I felt so bad for him—he must have thought I was the Creature from the Black Lagoon :)

A lot of swimmers do their training in the Dover Harbor, since it is sheltered and swimable on most days when the Channel gets rough. We checked it out, but didn’t really get the appeal of swimming next to huge cruise liners. I suppose the camaraderie could be worth it if you were a regular, but we decided to stick with our quiet Folkestone beach.

I was hooked on channel swimming after that, and we hit the water almost every day. The weather got a little rougher each time, but since I was able to get used to swimming in the chop gradually, it wasn’t too bad. The only scary part was when a big wave smacked my left arm into my back. Since I can’t feel that arm, I thought it was a big piece of wood or something worse :) Finally, I got pretty far out from shore, and Jonathan was worried and waved me down. I flashed him such a happy smile that he knew I was doing fine and let me finish my swim in peace.

After this experience I feel pretty good about the St Croix swim. I’m doing my first 2-mile swim this weekend (back home at Lake Washington), but after swimming in the English Channel, that should be totally do-able.

BTW, I just checked the Channel Swimmers websites and saw that a bunch of people completed the crossing while we were in England, including one fellow from Finland on Sept 12th, the day our swimmer was supposed to head out. I hope that was him that made it :)

Heddi

nero is suit of European choice by many...

blueseventy popularity continues to soar in the open water swimming world as numerous competitors in the European Open Water Championships, held in Croatia on the 11 - 13th of September, wore the nero swimskin as their race garment of choice. Those included were Rostislav Vitek (CZE) who placed 7th in the Men’s 5km team event, and 9th in the Men’s 25km race. Vitek began wearing the swimskin back in October last year when he raced at the 10km Marathon Swimming World Cup in Cancun (pictured).
Congratulations Rostislav.

Some like it HOT!

During race day at Ironman Louisville, the temperature crept up to 36ºC (97ºF) so it's no surprise that some of the competitors made the most their swim taper leading up to race day. Here, Richard Bayly from New Zealand enjoys a quick dip the day before his race in his pointzero3.

The Great North Swim

The Great North Swim was a big success and spectators got treated with an ultra tight battle for the titles. Olympic open water swimmers David Davies, Maarten van der Weijden, Thomas Lurz, Cassandra Patton, Keri-Anne Payne and Sandra Biller were competing directly with ITU triathletes Alastair Brownlee, Jodie Swallow and Marie Rabie and a couple thousand other folks. In the end the Open water swim specialists ruled, but with all the blueseventy wetsuits present, we should maybe say, blueseventy ruled. :-)

Lined up and ready to go



David Davies is focused and concentrated



Keri Anne Payne is making final adjustments



And they are off!



Thomas Lurz in the water


Top 7 Men

1. David Davies (GBR) 17:02 - reaction
2. Maarten van der Weijden (NED) 17:05 - helix
3. Thomas Lurz (GER) 17:19 - reaction
4. Alan Bircher (GBR) 17:26
5. Dave Carry (GBR) 17:28
6. Mark Threfall (GBR) 17:58
7. Alastair Brownlee (GBR) 18:06

Top 6 women

1. Cassandra Patten (GBR) 18:21 - helix
2. Keri-Anne Payne (GBR) 18:22 - reaction
3. Jennifer Jackson (GBR) 18:24
4. Jodie Swallow (GBR) 18:25
5. Stefanie Biller (GER) 18:59
6. Marie Rabie (RSA) 20:30

Olympic rematch to be held this weekend in UK...

This coming Saturday (13th of September) sees a re-match of the inaugural Olympic 10km Open Water swim event. David Davies, Thomas Lurz and Olympic champion Maarten van der Weijden will be battling for glory in the first "Great North Swim" (www.greatswim.org), located in the famous Windermere Lake, England's largest lake.
Joining them will be a host of Olympic stars and over 2000 members of the public taking part in a one mile challenge in 14 degree waters. Upon questioning about the upcoming race, van der Weijden seemed very relaxed and was looking forward to the swim in his new blueseventy Helix wetsuit. Our man on the ground, Dean Jackson, will be there taking pictures and giving us a report from the scene.
Will Maarten again reign supreme, will David Davies choose a better swimming line? Will the newly crowned European Champion Lutz execute revenge?
Yes, it's all happening in the north of England...

nero comp takes Paralympic gold honors

While wearing a blueseventy nero comp swimskin, Kevin Paul of South Afirca slashed more than four seconds from his personal best time on Wednesday on his way to winning a gold medal for the 100m breaststroke SB9 in the Beijing Paralympics.

The 17-year-old broke his own world record -- set in the morning heats -- when he won the final in 1:08.58 and his face mirrored his disbelief as he saw the scoreboard showing the time.

“I started this morning with a 1:12 personal best,” he said after the race, “and I couldn't believe it when I saw the time for the heat. I was hoping for a 1:10,” he said.

But he had taken more that two seconds off the old mark of 1:10.85, and then he shaved a further 12 hundredths off the new mark in the final as he beat local hero Lin Furong into second by exactly a second, with former world record-holder Dimitry Polin of Russia 3.16 seconds behind in fifth.

Kayak Olympic gold medallist wins first sprint triathlon

Tim Brabants, at his first attempt at triathlon, won the Men's Fitness Rough Track Sprint triathlon on the 7th of September held in London, UK.

Amazingly, and with very little training, Tim managed to come 5th out of the water wearing a helix tst, was 4th onto the run and managed to run down the field to claim victory at Dorney Lake.

"What a fantastic event, after 2 weeks of whirlwind media activity after Beijing, it was nice to get back to some serious exercise" said Brabants.

Huge weekend for blueseventy athletes

What can we say, blueseventy rocked this weekend. Well, maybe we better should say that athletes who use blueseventy products rocked and won lots of races on this Sunday in various places around the world.

- Stephen Bayliss (GBR) and Bella Comerford (GBR) won Ironman UK

- Chris McDonald (AUS) won Ironman Wisconsin

- Rebekah Keat (AUS) won 70.3 Singapore, and Gina Ferguson (NZL) was the runner-up. Terenzo Bozzone (NZL) got barely beaten in the men's race.

- Andreas Raelert (GER) won 70.3 Monaco

Plus there were too many other amazing athletes who did fantastic, but we can't list them all.

But wow, we are very proud of you.


Stephen Bayliss in action

Are you ready for Kona?

Last year we were completely overwhelmed with requests for our blueseventy swimskins and over 600 athletes raced in them. If we had more available, the numbers would have been even more staggering. We'll be better prepared for the storm this year and you can find us at Lava Java this year. :-)

Lava Java of course is the the main hot spot in Kona where everybody goes leading up to the event. It is very close to the expo on Alii Drive and in easy walking distance from the pier where the race starts.

Chrissie Wellington does it again

Chrissie Wellington crushed the competition at the ITU Long Distance Worlds in Almere, Netherlands. Now we can't wait to see Chrissie race in Hawaii again. Of course we know that in Kona she won't be wearing her trusted blueseventy Helix suit.




ITU Long Distance World Championships
Almere, Netherlands / August 31, 2008
swim 4k / bike 120k / run 30k

Top 10 women

1. Chrissie Wellington (GBR) 6:12:44
2. Charlotte Kolters (DEN) 6:30:15
3. Yvonne Van Vlerken (NED) 6:31:56
4. Lucie Zelenkova (CZE) 6:34:00
5. Ingrid Van Lubek (NED) 6:40:33
6. Tiina Boman (FIN) 6:41:27
7. Joan Blassfoss (DEN) 6:42:17
8. Ana Lidia Borba (BRA) 6:44:48
9. Tine Deckers (BEL) 6:44:56
10. Martina Dogana (ITA) 6:49:00