Is Swimming Still An Athletic Activity Or Is It Now A Mechanized Sport?

With the traditional “briefs”, the idea is to reduce the drag of the suit itself and this is done by minimizing the area of the body covered by the suit. Then, any additional drag would be attributed only to the body profile (sometimes referred to as the “Gym Characteristics”) of the individual swimmer. Lycra (and some other materials) were chosen because they are fairly strong and don’t get soggy and mushy in the water (like cotton which does produce noticeable drag and feels extremely uncomfortable as well). However, the intent of FastSkin II (and similar types of suits from other manufacturer’s) is not about reducing the drag of just the suit itself –they’re about reducing the drag of the overall body by adding something totally extraneous to the person’s normal gym characteristics. I bet that 99.9% of the drag is because the human anthropological form (not just the skin boundary itself) is not streamlined and not the appropriate shape for swimming. In addition, humans cannot breath underwater and above-the-water breathing must be coordinated with other body movements. On the other hand, a shark has highly streamlined form and they also have gills that allow them to breath continuously in the water. cstl-cla.semo.edu/.../shark1.jpg Ironically, I doubt that sharks would experience any significant loss in their extraordinary swimming ability if they had human skin texture instead of what nature provided them with. In addition, these new full and partial body suits interfere with the inherent cooling ability that swimming provides since they are a thermal insulator and there is a "stagnant boundary layer" (water trapped between the suit and your body) which doesn't allow the surrounding water to flow directly over your skin. In fact, some people have told me that they feel like they are actually sweating inside these suits and they can’t tolerate the normal pool temperature as they could with briefs. I might mention that research on the drag produced by various type of swim suits and their overall efficacy was done by commercial divers almost 50 years ago and the result that FastSkin II has less drag than human skin is not really news. Interestingly, in the 1960’s, I knew of a couple of commercial scuba divers in the Los Angeles Harbor area who worked underwater inspecting ships and bridge piers and they were quite aware that the rubber ("seal skin") suits provided some advantage in swimming (such as faster maneuvering and lower air consumption from their scuba tanks). You can see some of the old fashioned rubber diving/swimming suits in this link for the Sea Hunt TV series that aired in 1958 (starring the well known Lloyd Bridges). Http://DiverLink.Com/SeaHunt/ However, seal skin suits were never adopted to athletic swimming because they were considered to be extraneous aids and any mechanical advantage they gave did not demonstrate the real capability of each individual swimmer. Happy Swimming Dolphin 2 :D

With the traditional “briefs”, the idea is to reduce the drag of the suit itself and this is done by minimizing the area of the body covered by the suit. Then, any additional drag would be attributed only to the body profile (sometimes referred to as the “Gym Characteristics”) of the individual swimmer. Lycra (and some other materials) were chosen because they are fairly strong and don’t get soggy and mushy in the water (like cotton which does produce noticeable drag and feels extremely uncomfortable as well). However, the intent of FastSkin II (and similar types of suits from other manufacturer’s) is not about reducing the drag of just the suit itself –they’re about reducing the drag of the overall body by adding something totally extraneous to the person’s normal gym characteristics. I bet that 99.9% of the drag is because the human anthropological form (not just the skin boundary itself) is not streamlined and not the appropriate shape for swimming. In addition, humans cannot breath underwater and above-the-water breathing must be coordinated with other body movements. On the other hand, a shark has highly streamlined form and they also have gills that allow them to breath continuously in the water. cstl-cla.semo.edu/.../shark1.jpg Ironically, I doubt that sharks would experience any significant loss in their extraordinary swimming ability if they had human skin texture instead of what nature provided them with. In addition, these new full and partial body suits interfere with the inherent cooling ability that swimming provides since they are a thermal insulator and there is a "stagnant boundary layer" (water trapped between the suit and your body) which doesn't allow the surrounding water to flow directly over your skin. In fact, some people have told me that they feel like they are actually sweating inside these suits and they can’t tolerate the normal pool temperature as they could with briefs. I might mention that research on the drag produced by various type of swim suits and their overall efficacy was done by commercial divers almost 50 years ago and the result that FastSkin II has less drag than human skin is not really news. Interestingly, in the 1960’s, I knew of a couple of commercial scuba divers in the Los Angeles Harbor area who worked underwater inspecting ships and bridge piers and they were quite aware that the rubber ("seal skin") suits provided some advantage in swimming (such as faster maneuvering and lower air consumption from their scuba tanks). You can see some of the old fashioned rubber diving/swimming suits in this link for the Sea Hunt TV series that aired in 1958 (starring the well known Lloyd Bridges). Http://DiverLink.Com/SeaHunt/ However, seal skin suits were never adopted to athletic swimming because they were considered to be extraneous aids and any mechanical advantage they gave did not demonstrate the real capability of each individual swimmer. Happy Swimming Dolphin 2 :D