by
Olivier Poirier-Leroy
Looking for a jammer that offers the highest levels of compression and comfort? Arena’s Carbon Air jammer delivers on both in a big way.
The newest in the line of Arena Carbon suits, the Air’s name describes it quite adequately—it is one of the lightest jammers currently available on the market.
The suit is made of 65% Polyamide, 43% elastane (lycra), and 1% carbon fiber (hence the name of the series of suits).
Just how much lighter is this suit?
According to Arena, the Carbon Air is 30% lighter than the other jammers in their line-up. As a result, and this is important to note, they don’t last as long as their other racing suits.
Their lightness and less stiff compression make the suit ideal for longer races where you need to save your legs. There’s nothing worse than getting into a super stiff racing suit that leaves your legs feeling cut off every time you do a flip turn.
The lightness of the Carbon Air jammer also makes it extremely comfortable. That is essentially the theme behind this tech suit—world class compression without your legs choked out.
As mentioned, the Air is the latest in the Carbon series of Arena racing suits. Here’s a quick breakdown of what the other suits are like, and how to pick according to your event and the type of fit you are looking for.
The Arena Carbon Pro jammer is best suited for sprint events. It has a higher level of stiffness that makes it high in compression, but limited in range of motion for longer events and for breaststroke kicking.
The Arena Carbon Flex jammer is ideal for breaststroke. While it is made of the same material as the Carbon Pro, the stitching is done differently for added flexibility and freedom of movement.
The Arena Carbon Air jammer is best used for mid-distance and distance events and races. If it’s comfort that you are most concerned with, this second-skin jammer is your go-to. (Connor Jaeger, pictured above, wore this particular suit in Rio.)
The biggest thing with any racing suit is making sure that it fits properly. No matter how space-edge the tech, if the suit is uncomfortable, causing cramps, or too loose, than all that awesome science is out the window.
Below are sizing instructions and a sizing chart for the Carbon Air that will help you make sure that the suit fits properly when you slide into it.
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Olivier Poirier-Leroy Olivier Poirier-Leroy is the founder of YourSwimLog.com. He is an author, former national level swimmer, two-time Olympic Trials qualifier, and swim coach.
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