Walk through any race check-in tent and you'll spot it: a swimmer tilting their chin back to show off a red line across the back of their neck, laughing it off like it's part of the deal. It isn't. Neck chafing is one of the most common complaints we hear from triathletes and open-water swimmers, and most of the time, it's completely fixable.
The problem is that swimmers treat it as something to tolerate. Tape it up, grease it, push through. That approach skips the actual question worth asking: why is the collar rubbing in the first place?
What's Really Happening at the Collar
Your neck moves constantly during freestyle. Every breath means rotation through the cervical spine. Every sighting glance adds more movement. Multiply that across an hour-long swim and you're looking at thousands of small motions, all creating friction between neoprene and skin at one narrow band of contact.
Three things decide whether that friction turns into a rash.
Collar Geometry
A neckline cut too high or too tight concentrates pressure on a thin strip of skin instead of spreading the load across a wider area. Blue70 redesigned the Fusion wetsuit in 2021 around a lower-sitting neckline specifically to reduce that concentrated pressure point, while still holding a watertight seal against the water.
Lining Texture
Not all neoprene feels the same against skin, and the collar takes more repetitive motion than almost any other part of the suit. Swim after swim, that same patch of skin meets the same material thousands of times.
Fit Through the Shoulders and Torso
This is the one most swimmers never think to check. If a suit fits too tight through the chest or shoulders, the whole thing rides up slightly with every stroke. That drags the collar against your neck again and again instead of letting it sit still. A suit that's properly sized, snug on dry land but not restrictive at full arm extension, moves far less against your skin than one riding right on the edge of too tight.
Lubricant Helps. It Doesn't Fix the Root Problem
Applying lubricant to your neck before a swim is smart, and plenty of experienced open-water swimmers make it part of their race-day routine. But it's a workaround. It masks friction that a properly fitted suit shouldn't be creating in the first place.
Rely on lubricant alone while ignoring a suit that's too tight in the shoulders, and you'll be reapplying that same fix before every swim, still picking up irritation once the product wears thin on longer efforts.
Fit first. Lubricant second. That's the order that actually works.
If you size correctly, don the suit properly, and still get some chafing past the 45 to 60 minute mark, lubricant as a supplement makes total sense. But if you're chafing on every swim regardless of how long you're out there, you likely have a fit or donning issue that no amount of lubricant will fully solve.
The Donning Mistake Nobody Talks About
Here's something that gets overlooked constantly: how you put your wetsuit on changes how the collar sits, no matter what size you bought.
Yank the suit on by pulling at the neck and shoulders, and you'll leave bunched-up material sitting right at the collar and underarms. That bunching creates uneven pressure points in exactly the spot where chafing starts.
The fix costs nothing. Work the suit up gradually from the ankles. Pause at each stage to smooth out slack. Redistribute material at the crotch and underarms before you seal the zipper. Check that the collar lies flat against your neck instead of folded or twisted.
A suit that's correctly sized but poorly donned can chafe just as badly as one that's genuinely too small. Practice this during a Test Swim, not for the first time on race morning surrounded by 800 other athletes.
Where the Rash Shows Up Tells You Something
Pay attention to the location and timing of your chafing. It's diagnostic.
- A straight line across the back of the neck usually points to collar height, or a suit riding up during the stroke, often tied to shoulder or torso fit rather than the collar itself.
- Irritation on one side only often traces back to your breathing pattern. Bilateral and one-sided breathers rotate asymmetrically, and that uneven rotation combines with a collar that isn't distributing pressure evenly.
- Chafing that only shows up after 30 minutes suggests your fit is reasonable, but sustained friction over time is the real driver. That's your signal that lubricant makes sense as a supplement.
Track this over a few training swims instead of guessing after one bad race. The pattern tells you where to focus.
Your Training Volume Changes the Math
A swimmer doing one open-water swim a month can tolerate marginal fit that would wreck someone training three times a week toward an Ironman-distance race.
Blue70's own guidance on suit selection reflects this. Swimmers doing frequent, longer training sessions get steered toward suits built with more durable neoprene, like the Reaction, rather than the flagship Helix. The Helix uses thinner neoprene through the shoulders, tuned for single-race performance rather than weekly training wear. That same logic applies to collar comfort.
A suit that chafes slightly on race day is a one-time annoyance. A suit that chafes every Tuesday and Thursday for a full training block is a recurring problem, because repeated friction on the same patch of skin adds up fast.
Training in open water multiple times a week? Test collar comfort during those sessions specifically. Don't assume race-day tolerance will match a choppier Tuesday night lake swim.
Your Pre-Race Checklist
- Size against the current chart, not how last season's suit felt. Bodies change, and neoprene stretches over its usable life.
- Test swim at race effort, in open water if you can. Standing in your living room tells you nothing about dynamic fit.
- Check for bunching at the shoulders and collar after donning, before you seal the zipper.
- Note exactly where and when chafing starts, and match it against the patterns above.
- Apply lubricant to the neck if your event runs long or conditions are choppy enough to increase head movement.
A wetsuit collar shouldn't be something you grit your teeth through for 40 minutes. It's a fit and technique problem, and it has a fit and technique answer. Solve it properly and it's one less thing to think about when the gun goes off.
Happy swimming.
