ZONE3 Women's Thermal Advance

WHO IT'S FOR

Swimmers and triathletes who keep going once the water cools. As autumn comes in, the thing that ends a swim stops being fitness and becomes body temperature: get cold and the stroke shortens, the hands stop gripping the water and you are out well before you meant to be. This suit exists to push that point further back.

• Open water swimmers carrying the season through autumn and winter
• Triathletes training outdoors outside the race season
• Swimmers who have found thermal suits too stiff to swim properly in
• Anyone whose swim length is decided by warmth rather than fitness

WHERE IT SITS IN THE RANGE

The Advance Thermal is the cold-water option alongside the Advance, with a fleece lining, longer arms and legs and a rolled collar added for warmth. It runs thicker throughout, 2mm to 5mm against the standard Advance's 1.5mm to 4mm. If you swim mostly through spring and summer, the standard Advance is the lighter suit and the better choice; the Advance Thermal earns its place once the water drops and swim length starts being decided by how warm you stay.

KEY BENEFITS

1. You stay warm where it counts. A HydroSilk Plush lining is positioned around the key organs and core muscle groups, trapping a layer of air against the skin so body heat stays close to where it is produced.

2. The swim lasts longer. Extended arm and leg lengths carry coverage further towards the hands and feet, the first places to lose heat and the first to make you stop.

3. Less cold water gets in. The Max Seal Rolled Collar sits closer at the neck than the standard Advance, reducing the flush of cold water that cools you from the inside.

4. Your stroke stays free. Yamamoto #39 SCS neoprene through the shoulders and arms keeps stroke mechanics intact, so the warmth is not paid for in movement.

5. You still move cleanly through the water. SCS coating on the shoulder and arm panels reduces drag to a friction coefficient of 0.021, so the extra material does not cost you speed.

WHAT YOU'LL FEEL

The inside is the first thing you notice: soft against the skin rather than slick, and warm before you have even reached the water. Once you are swimming, the cold arrives more slowly and never quite settles at your core. Your hands and feet stay useful for longer, which is usually what decides when a winter swim ends. Your arms move the way they do in July, so it feels like swimming rather than enduring. Getting out, you are warmer than you expected to be.