First off, welcome! You;ve found a great place to get your questions answered.

1. Nope, nothing there, just the shorts. Just be wary of when they get worn a little thin.

2. Can't help here, I'm sure someone else can chime in on this one.

3. There's a lot of conflicting evidence and opinion. My feeling is that is you have a good saddle and a good bike fit you won't have any problems.

1) Nope, butt (haha, just had to do it) be aware that some tri shorts are thin and in the right sun light conditions can become see through on the back side...

2) Not 100% sure, they use the same material. When we scuba dive we have to add weights to stay down so the bouyancy thing is kind of foggy here. I haven't scuba dived in a long time so I really don't know. I would suggest going to a couple of wetsuit vendor sites and asking them the question.

3) Good question, a lot of conflicting material out there. I was actually looking at buying possibly a new saddle because of this, got 2 IM's on the schedule this year. I have been looking at the Sella SMP http://www.sellesmp.com/en/default.htm

They have an article What the Physicians say related to the saddle

Abstract from: “Journal of Sexual Medecine”

A cycle saddle with a new geometrical conception for maintaining the vascular perfusion of the genital-perineal region...

2. I dive too and wouldn't recommend using a tri wetsuit for scuba. Tri wetsuits fit very tight and are more buoyant than dive suits--meaning you'd have to wear more weight and would have less comfort on the surface and possibly at depth--they might mess with your positioning too since the legs especially have added buoyancy material compared to a standard dive suit. Also, I wouldn't want to risk possibly tearing a tri wetsuit from donning scuba gear, brushing up against plants, rocks, fishhooks, or metal underwater. I wear a cheap 3mm longsuit for most warmer water diving and it's nice to not worry about the abuse the suit goes through. For cold stuff, I'd want at least a 7mm suit anyway so a tri suit really woudn't be of much use there. (I haven't gone to dry suit yet b/c I don't do enough cold water dives to justify) .

1) I wear running briefs underneath my trishorts. I like the support.
2) a Tri wetsuit and Scuba wetsuit are both made of Neophrene. The tri wetsuit is made with varting thicknesses of material to optimize your buoyancy and flexibility at the joints.
3) Compression can cause issues for men and women. As previously stated get a good bike fit and a saddle you feel comfortable on for a while. The Selle strikes look pretty good and I want to test one out.

JRH, New London is is Southern Chester County, PA, right about where MD, DE and PA meet, near Newark, DE (ps any clubs around...haven't found any nearby yet...?)

Thanks for the info everyone, looks like I won't take my tri suit diving, and I'll definitely look into the other seat options.

Thanks again

I ride with First State Velo Sport. Lots of PA members and club rides up in the Newark, Wilmginton area. I think you'd be closer to most of them than I am.

fsvsonline.com

The site hasn't been updated in a while, but all the ride info and contact info is still good.

JRH- Answer to your question, My "A" race will be the North East Tri on 8/29, and I'll do a few sprints/duo's leading up to that- the first one in NJ (Bassman) end of April; haven't registered for anything else yet; any suggestions?

Jamie M- thanks for the lead on fsvs.

or setupevents.com
and
tricolumbia.org The new Annapolis tri looks fun.

Columbia prides itself on being "tough." But
Anthracite! Now THAT'S a tough Oly!

THere is also the endless mountains tri (sprint) north of scranton, as well as the Wilke's Barre tri (oly) that starts at Harvey's Lake. Both good, tough courses.

Me too..and I have to say if you took the Anthracite Ride and the Columbia run... whew!