Originally posted by valhallan
Kirk,
In many of my ocean travels (being part Viking of course)... I have had the pleasure of watching porpoises catch a free ride off the bow of a ship for miles on end. The energy being dispersed off the front end of a ship (or any object moving through water) will create enough force and lift to generate forward momentum if you were to *catch the wave*.
You are confused perhaps with the "wake" of an object moving through water. Similar to the bow wave, all objects create a wake as they move through this element. There are many instances of surfers who have ridden long boards on the wake of a passing oil tanker. (Not a good idea in my opinion.)
Nevertheless, as a swimmer you want to ride the bow wave of your opponent rather than the wake. Needless to say, all three swimmers need to be traveling at 2.5 yards pers second for this to happen. ...and one of them just slightly ahead of the others. ;)
No, I'm not confused. I just don't think the swimmer in the lead is catching anyone's wave.
Originally posted by valhallan
Kirk,
In many of my ocean travels (being part Viking of course)... I have had the pleasure of watching porpoises catch a free ride off the bow of a ship for miles on end. The energy being dispersed off the front end of a ship (or any object moving through water) will create enough force and lift to generate forward momentum if you were to *catch the wave*.
You are confused perhaps with the "wake" of an object moving through water. Similar to the bow wave, all objects create a wake as they move through this element. There are many instances of surfers who have ridden long boards on the wake of a passing oil tanker. (Not a good idea in my opinion.)
Nevertheless, as a swimmer you want to ride the bow wave of your opponent rather than the wake. Needless to say, all three swimmers need to be traveling at 2.5 yards pers second for this to happen. ...and one of them just slightly ahead of the others. ;)
No, I'm not confused. I just don't think the swimmer in the lead is catching anyone's wave.
