TECHNOLOGY : The Teflon Swimsuit Won’t Hold Water

Remember the Teflon president? Well, get ready for the Teflon swimsuit.

Tyr, the Huntington Beach-based swimwear manufacturer, is now marketing swimsuits with a “revolutionary” new fiber that incorporates Teflon, the stuff that was made famous in no-stick frying pans.

Don’t laugh. Swimmers shave their legs and don racing caps in order to improve their hydrodynamic efficiency and lop precious milliseconds off their race times. Traditional suits absorb water and cause drag, slowing swimmers down. But Tyr President Steve Furniss says that water “literally rolls off” the new suits.

Furniss, a former Olympian, recently gathered a team of former Olympians and nationally ranked swimmers to jump in the pool and test the new suits.

Greg Johnson covers retail businesses and restaurants for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-5950 and at greg.johnson@latimes.com.