Probably because not everyone agrees whether or not there is competition. You can have competition without it being an organized race. There are two variables i

Probably because not everyone agrees whether or not there is competition. You can have competition without it being an organized race. There are two variables in play, whether a specific person wears a wetsuit, and whether a specific person feels like there is competition. This leads to roughly four groups: A) non-competitive wetsuit wearers B) competitive wetsuit wearers C) non-competitive non-wetsuit wearers D) competitive non-wetsuit wearers It's not hard to see how you could get strife between group D and groups A and B. People in group A wear a wetsuit and don't see any harm because they aren't competing anyways. People in group B probably figure wearing a wetsuit is a valid way to improve your times. People in group D probably figure wearing a wetsuit is a cheaty way to improve your times and get upset. Having this strife between groups B and D makes some amount of sense, but since this is not an official competition there's no centralized authority to decide on the issue. Group A just gets caught in the crossfire.