swimrun wetsuits

Welcome to episode twenty of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show we have the CEO of blueseventy, John Duquette. We had a great conversation about the brand and their expansion into swimrun.

For shout outs this week we are saying hi to Sossi! She’s a Bay Area swimmer and former triathlete that is a big fan of the show. She recently reached out to Chris to let him know that there was a swimrun team (in blueseventy Alliance swimrun wetsuits incidentally) training at Aquatic Park. While we appreciate the intel it was made funnier by two other of our friends letting us know that they saw a team out there on the same day! This week is also her birthday so HAPPY BIRTHDAY SOSSI!

Training continues this week with Chipper starting to ramp back up on volume and Chris keeps reliving the glory days with a lot of volume of running, cycling and cross-training. Make sure to join our strava club to follow along with our workouts and other LTBz fans.

Now for this week’s interview. We were lucky to get a chance to talk to John about the history of blueseventy and their development of their swimrun wetsuit.

John Duquette started racing triathlon in 1999 and since then has competed in multisport, running and cycling races all over the world. After working at a Seattle running store for 7 years he joined the team at blueseventy in 2007. In 2015 he was named CEO and purchased the brand in 2017. After 20 years in the endurance space he’s seen and experienced enough to tell stories well past last call in the local pub. While he still enjoys racing his mountain bike his primary focus now is making sure his two children develop a love for the outdoors and making sure his dog gets enough exercise to keep him from chewing up his running shoes.

The company was actually founded in 1993 as Ironman Wetsuits and did business under that brand name until 2006. The company rebranded as blueseventy in 2006 and John joined the team in 2007. blueseventy is a small company where everyone is an athlete and into open water swimming.

Swimrun first came onto the their attention from their distributors in Europe. They started working on a suit for 2 years before they ended up releasing their suit. Mike Orton, a former Olympic swimmer, was the chief designer of the suit that was perfect for swimming and geared for durability. The Alliance Swimrun wetsuit was the result. (You can read our swimrun gear review of the Alliance Swimrun wetsuit here.)

The next version in development will have a zipper on the front and the back, sleeves that are removable and re-attachable and better materials. They will also start working on a new performance-based suit. They are also working on additional products that are specific for swimrun like new swim paddle designs and larger pull buoys.

John and the folks at blueseventy were cool enough to set up a discount code for our fans to use for 20% off of the site. Just use the code SWIMRUN at checkout for 20% off everything on their site.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined. 

Welcome to episode seven of the Low Tide Boyz,a Swimrun Podcast!

We are beyond thrilled to have Christofer Sundberg, a swimrunner and Co-founder of Ark Sports on the show this week. More on this later!

We’re just a few days away from the Ötillö Catalina race and we’re ready for some fun! Our training went as well as could be expected but we’re definitely stoked to finally race an Ötillö event and meet so many people that have become fans of the show.

We also wanted to give a special shout out to @westcoastswimrun, @swimrunlabs and @this_is_trista for sharing DIY pro-tips for pull buoys and swim paddles. We love getting and sharing this content so tag us and we’ll make sure to spread the word.

Now back to this week’s interview! This is the first time that we’ve had a gear and apparel manufacturer on the show and we think that you’ll enjoy this interview about Christopher’s personal journey and how swimrun literally changed his life for the better. He worked in the video game space since 92 and started his own company, Avalanche Studios in 2003. He co-founded Ark Sports with Dennis Blomberg and Daniel Sand in 2017. Ark Sports is a title sponsor of Ötillö and they just recently announced their entrance into the U.S. market. You can read the press release here. 

After a near-drowning accident as a child and a slew of swimming schools later, Christofer signed up for a swimrun event in 2014 and was hooked on the sport ever since. It was only a few years later that he co-founded Ark Sports. As swimrun became his obsession, he learned that Dennis and Daniel were leaving Head Swimming in Sweden and they started getting their heads together in 2017 with the idea of why there wasn’t any swimrun equipment being manufacturered in Sweden using feedback from the athletes. After they developed their first prototype suits and the two teams that wore the new suits won the World Championship that year! The men’s team of Jesper Svensson and Daniel Hansson won AND broke the world record and the women’s team of Kristin Larsson and Annika Ericsson won by over 45 minutes over the next women’s team. Overnight the Ark Sports became “a company.”

Every product that Ark Sports goes through many levels of iteration and they are working to try to be as environmentally-friendly as they can, including the use of Yamamoto limestone-based neoprene. There is still a long way to go but Ark is constantly looking into new materials that could work for swimrun. For example, the Ark Pontoon pull buoy and hand paddles are made from recycled plastic and manufactured in Sweden.

When Ark got the opportunity to become a partner of the Ötillö Series, things really took off for the brand. Now they offer a wetsuit rental program at every race in the series where folks can rent a suit and then buy one at a reduced price if they end up loving the suit. This is a great way to reduce the barrier to entry to the sport. (Note: the rental program at the Catalina race is fully subscribed!)

Looking to the future, Christofer wants to grow Ark Sports to take on triathlon and the OCR markets and position the brand to grow both in endurance sports and with lifestyle products. A lot of people want to be associated with the brand and their personal touch when they meet with athletes has developed a lot of trust with their users and it’s become a cool brand to be wearing. (We agree!)

If you are going to be in Catalina for the race, make sure to stop by to meet the Ark Sports crew and check out their line of products and pick up a pull buoy or three.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the 

Low Tide Boyz

, please be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast player. We are on 

Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow along on Instagram and Twitter. You can also support us on Patreon, if you are so inclined. If you want to drop us a line, email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com

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