C4 Carbon is heavily focusing on the Dynamic Apnea segment, and we all deduced it from the company’s choice to separate the Spearfishing brand from the Freediving one, and the recent decision to create new dedicated pages and distinct profiles on social media. Of course, in this sense, having Umberto Pelizzari inside the organisation means being able to count on much more than a Brand Ambassador in the team. With the Italian Champion C4 Carbon has already launched the Best Choice by Apneapassion winners, the C4 Umberto Pelizzari polymer blade fins. But if, among the products in the C4 catalog, there were already models and solutions specifically dedicated to dynamic apnea, what will definitively mark the epochal leap towards this renewed interest in the discipline, will undoubtedly be a new product in the catalogue: the C4 Dyn-UP Competition wetsuit. And UP obviously means Umberto Pelizzari.
Exclusively for Apneapassion readers, our Luciano Morelli, multi-medalist indoor freediving athlete and former member of the Italian national team, and now member of the Apneapassion International Team, had the opportunity to test the C4 Dyn-UP Competition wetsuit inside the C4 headquarters in the one lane test pool. Soon, in a future Apneapassion article, he will tell us the results of this test.
C4 Dyn-UP Competition
Differentiated thickness
The name of the product itself defines its character and the use it is designed for. The C4 Dyn-UP Competition is a wetsuit designed for dynamic apnea and for athletes who compete in this discipline.
A wetsuit with differentiated thickness, 2 mm on the chest (Hyper Elastic 2.0 mm), the groin area and down to the knee. The neck, arms, legs below the knee and hips have a thickness of 0.5 mm.
This technical choice is clearly aware of the need, for the indoor freediver, to have maximum wetsuit elasticity to facilitate breathing, no impediments during swimming while maintaining a certain warmth in the most sensitive areas.
The wetsuit is clearly designed for the dynamic and static disciplines in the pool, but it has already been subjected to stress tests in the pool during training and by swimming over medium-long distances, with excellent feedback and very good sensations by the athletes.
Materials
The wetsuit is made of a material indicated by C4 Carbon as Glide Skin Neoprene. The interior is lined with a very high elastic characteristic fabric material. The lower thickness parts are characterized on the limbs and shoulders by the classic design that reproduces the pattern of carbon fiber. A mark appears on the ankles characterizing the thinnest neoprene as “0.5mm precompressed” A Teflon coating is applied to the entire external surface to provide greater resistance to wear.
The differentiated thickness entails the need to join different “panels” with robust and reliable heat sealing: in the tests already conducted this appears to be a completely achieved goal. They are also supported internally by straps that cover and reinforce these bondings. The number of panels that make up the garment are however reduced to a minimum, in order to maintain the elasticity characteristics of the C4 Dyn-UP Competition.
The neck has the classic velcro closure and does not show sagging both at rest and, especially, during athletic movements in the pool. On the back there is the typical zip with a strip of fabric to facilitate closing and opening.
Another feature, inherited from the previous C4 wetsuit models, is the possibility of adjusting the length of the sleeves by cutting the centimeters in excess with a simple pair of scissors: the operation is facilitated thanks to the presence of various reinforcement stitchings, near the cuffs which guide the operation and avoid unstitching problems.
Sizes
The sizes range from T1 – designed for athletes with a height between 161 and 167 cm and a weight between 55 and 65 kg – to the T5 size for athletes up to two meters in height and over 100 kg.
Our Luciano, for example, due to his height of 178 cm and his weight of 75 kg, wore a size T2 which would correspond to a standard M.
Finally, a striking detail is the red symbol shown in several parts of the wetsuit (and also replacing the ‘Y’ of Dyn-UP) which recalls the Greek letter Psi, but also a man with his arms extended forward.
C4 Dyn-UP Competition Lady
The C4 Dyn-UP Competition will also be distributed with a specific women’s model, again available in 6 different sizes and with construction and material characteristics that totally overlap with the men’s model.
Clearly it will be characterized by a cut conformed to the structure of a female body and optimized for comfort in the water.
