BLUESEVENTY THERMAL REACTION

£519 This is this tester’s second thermal Blueseventy suit – our thermal Helix lasted us several cold swim seasons and the Reaction features an upgraded version of the zirconium jersey liner, which has a wool-like feel (leading to this suit being christened the ‘teddy bear’ at home!). On dry land this felt the thickest suit but it was easy to pull on and that flexibility translated through into our swim with a 4:5:4 buoyancy profile giving a good body position for front crawl. That said, as with our earlier version, we did notice a little more fatigue through our shoulders on longer swims. Blueseventy markets this suit for swims down to 8°C water, but we found it the warmest on test and the best choice for our chillier swims in waters down to 3°C . From experience, these suits last well, too, so are worth the investment. blueseventy.co.uk