Hi All,

Apologies for the wide mailing. Please reply only to me to keep the noise down.

I'm looking for a bit of advice on wetsuits.  I'm planning an outdoor swim at the end of July (Thames, downstream from Lechlade) with the wife and kids.  We're all competent enough swimmers, but there is some concern about water temperature and whether we should wear wetsuits.

This is only a one-off (so far) so I don't want to fork out hundreds for a specialist triathlon wetsuit, and anyway I don't think the water will be all that cold.

Does anyone have experience of swimming this stretch in the summer, and an opinion of whether wetsuits are worth getting ? (wife really feels the cold, and one child in particular is very skinny so no insultation)

If so, are generic ones ok to swim in for reasonably long distances (5-7k) ? I see Amazon selling them for £20-30 which seems ok.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

Regards,
James.