My Lycra swimsuit fetish and how it all began

My main fetish: Lycra one piece swimsuits.
I think I can track down the root cause of this.

Well, during early years of life, I loved playing with action figures, many of them decked out in armor.

At a certain young age I got to music/basic dance classes. They were mixed.
The girls in the group always wore leotards.

The funny thing is; I thought to myself "Ha, those are shitty outfits because that thin material doesn't provide any armor protection.

A few years later and school swimming classes began.
Before my little group was even allowed to enter the water we had to practice the swimming moves on the "dry"; basically on a
stretching bench aside the pool.

So this was during the early 80's and everyone wore 'speedos'. Somehow my mom got me speedos without inner lining.
Of course, during the dry practice this meant
I could definitely notice a pleasant feeling from the slick Lycra friction.

On top of that, we also had one extra curricular swimming class at a private instructor's pool. Basically, she gave swimming lessons one person at a time and so with the rest of the students I had to wait my turn practicing floatation at the edge of the pool.
This pool happened to have water circulation blowers at the edge of that pool. So while I would hang over the edge of the pool, I noticed the water blower exactly at crotch height. And oh boy the strength of that water blower was strong, right onto my silky speedos.

I reckon those experiences were the seeds of my fetish. Of course, during the 80's I would come across those mail order catalogs; thick books full of clothes to order.
Yeah, the lingerie and swimwear pages drew my attention.
I wondered how girls experience those swimsuits since I was fully aware they were made out of the same Lycra material. However, it was decades later until I actually got the courage to buy women's swimsuits - yeah the wonder and yearning to experience those lasted for years.

Anyway, throughout the following years I developed an intense penchant for speedos and I would always remove the liner to ensure contact to that heavenly silky fabric.
In doing so I also discovered that Lycra comes in a whole lot of different grades of quality - resulting in me becoming quite picky.

I became aware and able to identify the aspects of it which gave me pleasure;
Which is basically a holy trinity of sorts;
- sheen, as the visual stimulus (that particular 80's Lycra sheen)
- slippery smooth feeling, as the tactile aspect of it.
- and last but not least, the stretchy soft and pliable structure of it; because unlike actual satin or cotton, the Lycra was tight but not restrictive. The stretch made sure the sensitive parts were never squeezed painfully.

On a more "fabric-technical" level, I learned that my preference generally leans towards Lycra garments which have the "nap" of the fabric from side to side, rather than length wise from top to bottom.
The nap is basically miniscule thread ridges and if you rub across, this will feel less smooth than stroking alongside the nap direction - unless it's really high density threaded Lycra such as Leohex or Speedo S2000.

Of course, I also tried out Lycra variants such as gloss coated or Cire, but neither of those do it for me because although they are very shiny, they lack the crucial silky soft and smooth feeling.

So far, my favorite suit brands are;
- custom made Agonswim suits with the nap in horizontal direction. Also, these suits feature inner lining made of the same Lycra, so this is how I came to appreciate Lycra inner lining.
- Arena Nux, an old favorite...unfortunately discontinued.
- And lately I have gotten to experience Leohex suits; obviously, you guys know they're great.