Speedsuits are more to cut off the seams of a race suit if you have one, or to promote sponsors or to promote yourself as the man to beat out of the water on a non-wetsuit swim. They dont provide any amount of boyancy, just a more streamlined effect. If your doing longer races, HIM/IM then it will benefit you to not have the drag but sprints and OLYs I believe youll be wasting your money.

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nope - not just you - i also have no idea what's going on here... =)

If you need the buoyancy and don't want to be overheated you can get a sleeveless wetsuit

This is a charlie foxtrot of a thread. Let me see if I can fix some of this.

A speedsuit DOES provide buoyancy. Zoot and Blue Seventy make speedsuits. You can't really bike or run in them since you'll overheat. You take them off in T1 and continue in whatever you're wearing underneath.

Certain trisuits have special materials cut in certain ways to either make the suit more slippery, or support your hips, or do whatever that trisuit is designed to do. Think Speedo Fastskin or 2XU Super Elite. These are generally pretty expensive, though....close to $300 for a nice one. They're slower than a speedsuit, but faster than anything else that doesn't provide buoyancy....and you can wear them for the whole race.

Other trisuits sometimes look cool, but are really just extra material and I've found to be slower than just wearing a Speedo. They'll provide some protection from the sun and wind, as well as let you have a chamois on the bike, but aren't really going to do anything for you swim.

A wetsuit is the fastest thing you can wear in the water. However, USAT age group rules don't let you wear them unless the water 78 F or colder (which is a ridiculous temperature, but not the point of the thread).

If you're going to be doing summertime races and the water is going to be above 78 F, you won't get a chance to wear a wetsuit. The length of the race has nothing to do with what you wear for the swim. I've worn wetsuits and high-end trisuits for sprints....I've also worn shorts for a HIM. Temperature is your deciding factor between a wetsuit and a speedsuit/trisuit/speedo.

It depends a lot on the swimmer. A wetsuit will generally make a bigger difference for a slower swimmer. A speedsuit (still different from a trisuit) is basically like a thin wetsuit. I'd expect anywhere from 1-3 sec per 100m. Over an IM distance, you're looking at anywhere from 30 sec to 2 min.