forget the wetsuit!!

Hi everyone! Thanks for your comments and encouragement. I would love to try to meet up with you all at the race. I am going with another Board regular (Swimmy). We can try to get together, if you would like. Lindsay - that's an interesting observation regarding pull buoys. I am pretty good at pulling, but I do not use a buoy. I just don't kick, and my legs don't sink too much. I am naturally very buoyant, so the pull buoys tend to do the same thing to me as the wetsuit - they make me too buoyant and put my hips up too high, causing pain in my lower back. There is probably a strong correlation there - I don't use a pull buoy and I don't like wearing a wetsuit. I will definitely take the wetsuit with me to SF, but I will probably not wear it. My dream is to one day do a Channel swim, so I might as well get used to cold water. Thanks again, everyone! Diana

interesting responses. It would be nice to do a hard comparison with and without. Trouble is the pool temperature is too high, so I would have to do time trials outside to compare. I also wonder if the WS would help more on the longer swims over 1.5K, but be a disadvantage on the sprint distances. I also think the WS would be good in very rough water to help stay on top. I think if the water is warm enough and the distance is 1.5K or less, I will forget the WS. Then I can keep my 6 beat kick.

Of course your open water time is slower than your pool time. Pool has walls and no sighting required. And if you swim scy then you probably swam at least 10% more than 1000 yards. But I encourage you not to wear your wetsuit in wetsuit legal swims. In fact I encourage everyone to leave them at home in wetsuit legal swims, particularly if you are racing against me.

What was the water temp?

I swam 4 SFO Bay events total. Water temps were 55 deg's to 63 deg's....Unless you HAVE to wear a wet suit....swim as a purest....Sans wet suit....After 5 minutes you will get used to it. Used A&D Ointment under your arms and around your neck to keep from getting salt water abrasion.....(suspended salt in the water acts like sand paper after 15-20 minutes). Unless you have a health issue, I sincerely do not think you need a wet suit for that swim. Both years I swam the SFO Bay, 80 to 90% of the swimmers wore wet suits. Every non wet suit swimmer said they were glad they swam as purists. One very strong word of advise; the race organizer suggested non wet swimmers wait on the ferry boat until ALL the wet suit swimmers we off the boat, then we were to hop off and swim to the starting grid. The idea was, you will not have to linger in the cold water waiting for everyone to hop off the ferry boat. Problem was, (BOTH YEARS) they blew the ferry boat horn to start the race before 1/5 of the non wet suit swimmers were off the boat. The second year I swam Alcatraz I got in the water and onto the starting grid with the first swimmers lining up. I was glad I did because they started the race again before 1/5 if the non wet suit swimmers were off the boat. Again, get in the water as fast as possible to get a good starting position on the grid. Good luck and enjoy this wonderful experience.

Originally posted by LindsayNB I wonder if there is a correlation between liking wet suits and liking using pull bouys. I would think that people who are good at pull sets would benefit from wearing a wet suit while someone that doesn't like or isn't good at pull sets would also struggle using a wet suit. I dislike bouys as well and I have no problem with pull sets. I don't much like them because then I tend to stop kicking for a bit after them. I'm not that much slower during a pull set either, I just don't like the things. I also don't use a kick board, fins, or paddles.

All of you enthused-about-oceanic-challenge-swimming types might consider swimming the Strait of Juan de Fuca (between Victoria and Port Angeles) rather than making the Channel an automatic ambition. Reference "Marilyn Bell" on google and you will learn why it is regarded as one of the toughest, yet so handy to Americans. And no, she didn't wear a wet suit. Mind you, she almost died on her first attempt, but that just gives the swim a little extra spice.

Just did a team triathlon 1K swim and was slower than my pool time. I think it screwed up my kick rythym and I had trouble with breathing. Maybe it was a bit too tight, but overall, I think I would have been better without. I noticed the fastest swimmers had no wetsuits. :confused: your never going to swim as fast in a tri as in the pool...........there are no lane lines in open water, lines on the bottom of the lake or ocean, and no walls to do your streamline flip turns. swimmers that kill me in the pool, i eat for lunch in tri's with a wetsuit because they are all such wussies without their controlled environment.

I really don't like wearing my wetsuit. I wore it for a one-mile lake swim this year, and it really hurt my back. I have L4/L5 issues anyway, and I think the wetsuit makes me too buoyant, so it puts my back out of alignment. Plus, it is very tight in the chest. I feel like I can't breathe half the time. After that experience, I decided no more wetsuit unless it is absolutely necessary for cold water. With that in mind, I did the 4.4 mile Chesapeake Bay Swim without my wetsuit this year. I was really glad I did too, because I noticed something else. The currents were really strong, and without the wetsuit, I was able to "feel" the changing currents against my legs and react to them in a more timely manner. Plus, I feel like I KICK better without it. I don't have to work so hard to get the propulsion, if that makes any sense. I think I am maybe a little slower without the wetsuit, but to me it is worth the trade-off to be able to breathe and kick and not have a sore back. I finished the swim, and I am not sure I would have if I had worn the wetsuit. The big test will come this September. I am going to do the Alcatraz swim and am seriously considering not wearing the wetsuit. It is only 1.5 miles, and the water will be cold, so I am taking it with me, but will decide when I get there. Still not sure what I will do on that one. I would love to do it without a wetsuit, but I probably won't decide that until I get to SF and see how the water is. Anyone out there have any recommendations for/against a wetsuit for Alcatraz? It will be my first time.

I am sorry if I jumped into conversations I was not sure how to post on this so somone help me out. I am in Portland, Oregon and swam through the 60-71 in Des Plaines, Illinois. One of our coaches and he is also a relative is Pete Anderson I know he is on Masters Swim and did events even up to this year so someone has to know him or can help me find him. I hope ! He is about 63 this year and I know he is always listed for breaststoke which is his best, and still in Illinois...I would like to find him and visit when in the Chicago Suburbs in Oct. 2006 for a reunion. I would really be grateful if anyone could help me contact him. Elizabeth Di Francesca firefly@ados.net in Oregon 503-397-3938 It has been about 20 years since I last saw him maybe even more.