LD16 303.6.3 SWIMWEAR p. 62 OWLDC Modify
303.6.3 Wetsuits may be allowed in all USMS-sanctioned open water events, at the
discretion of the meet event director. Wetsuits generally provide a competitive advantage. If
awards are given to wetsuit competitors they shall be awarded separately from those for nonwetsuit
competitors. Any published results or records must clearly indicate which swimmers
wore wetsuits.
Rationale 1: Because the OWLDC is aware that people wearing wetsuits are no longer allowed to be treated as
non-participants because they represent a major area of growth to our organization. In most cases, these
neoprene-clad souls would trade their eye teeth to go without but for whatever reasons they chose to look like
shark bait, they want/need/can’t live without it so by allowing this new rule, they can now wear their wetsuit in
our USMS races and get a prize from USMS. Also, members of the OWLDC are getting tired of extracting
naked, frozen people from the bathrooms where they are attempting to warm up by splashing themselves with
lukewarm water from the sink and recognize that if these folks had been offered an opportunity to wear a
wetsuit in their race, they would be having a much more fun time at this USMS event than experiencing
hypothermia and swearing on their mother’s grave to never swim in an open water race again.
Rationale2: This rule is leading our organization down the slippery slope to The Sanitization of Open Water
Swimming. We have regulated water temp, hot hats, buoys every so often, swim suits that help us float, and
more devices to take the element of nature out of the events, sort of like rock climbing with an elevator, so are
we “purists” now viewed as the extremists in our sport, the on the fringe element? But on the other hand at
least people are swimming and staying healthy, which is a wonderful thing for our society.
Rationale3: As purists spend time acclimating to less warm water temps and not spending time cycling 140
miles or running 26 at a stretch, do we get a motor on our bike? How about we start a “Buffet Event”, similar to
the 300IM: Pick a few choices you want and we’ll all compete together. This could lead to the “All Gadget
Olympics.”
I swam:
1. the Chesapeake Bay swim with a wetsuit--water around 70 degrees.
2. The 10K Atlantic City Bay swim with an Aquablade kneeskin suit--water around 77 degrees.
3. And the 2.1 Mile Snapper Blue and Shark Feed Ocean City Open Water Rough Water Swim in my Tyr jammers--water 70 degrees.
The only one of these that I won was #3, and the reason I won it was that I was the only swimmer entered (I founded the race on Monday morning, and swam it Monday afternoon after finding out that the guest fee at the Ocean City rec center was $12.)
Notes:
the wetsuit swim did not feel like swimming to me. i am not a purist by any means, but the wetsuit felt more like a body kayak than a swim suit. I enjoyed it, and it definitely made the swim much easier, but I felt more like I was paddlng a craft than swimming
the aquablade 10k felt like a very, very long race in a very, very long pool. Think the hour swim multiplied by a factor of 2.5. it was recognizable to me as swimming, not paddling.
the 2.1 mile beach swim was also like swimming, though with a twist. I had to swim about a quarter mile or more off shore to get past the breakers, then do my best to parallel the beach, avoid parachute-surfers from scissoring off my head with their rapier-like surfboard rudders, and try not to panic every time a large dark shape (rays, most likely) passed underneath my vibration-inducing seal imitation of swimming.
only in scenario number 3 was there a fear factor to contend with. i knew it was irrational, but i would get little startles now and then, wondering if perhaps a rip tide might feed me to the Gulf Stream, which would, in turn, feed me to pelagic species with recursive teeth...
Final thoughts:
a. though some swimmers are magnificent triathletes and vice versa, most of us quasi-good/mediocre masters swimmers are much better at our sport than we are at tris, and most tris are much better at their sport than they are at swimming. i know it is absolutely petty of me, but there is something so satisfying about me, in my tubby dotage, being able to lap the average 6-pack OCD tri in the pool that just gives me a thrill down to my fatted marrow.
b. triathlons are so weighted against swimming in terms of total time spent, amount of training required, etc. that it just offends me as a swimmer. why should natural bikers or natural runners get such a weighted advantage in their activity? it shouldn't bother me--i don't even DO triathlons--but it seems undemocratic somehow. anyhow, wetsuits, in my experience, don't make swimming faster--they turn it into another sport, a paddling, boat-like sports. performance swim suits, again in my experience, let tubs of lard like me swim faster, but it is still SWIMMING!
c. i voted against sanctioning wetsuits in usms competitions, even if the wearers thereof are in a separate division. the reason: pure pettiness on my part. i know that the average person is not going to say, "Oh, that chiseled triathlete in a wet suit paddled a faster time than portly Jim Thornton swam in his FastSkin I, but I realize that the portly fellow actually 'beat' the chiseled demigod because he did not have the advantageous body kayak." No. The average person is going to conclude that the triathlete just made his way through the water faster than me, and that's all that truly counts.
I don't want that! I want my superiority not just acknowledged but celerated. As Conan once put it, I want to hear der lamentations of that muscular specimen's vomen!
I say face the cold, face the fear of drowning, face the potential of a school of snappers biting off your toes, and swim on. Do not insulate yourself in a body shaped boat, take heart in your unsinkableness, have confidence that denizens don't like the taste of neoprene, and paddle on.
And that explains my vote, which I trust all thoughtful readers will now unanimously conclude is the correct one, and join me in saying to all ineptly-swimming triathletes everywhere: I'm Spartacus!
I swam:
1. the Chesapeake Bay swim with a wetsuit--water around 70 degrees.
2. The 10K Atlantic City Bay swim with an Aquablade kneeskin suit--water around 77 degrees.
3. And the 2.1 Mile Snapper Blue and Shark Feed Ocean City Open Water Rough Water Swim in my Tyr jammers--water 70 degrees.
The only one of these that I won was #3, and the reason I won it was that I was the only swimmer entered (I founded the race on Monday morning, and swam it Monday afternoon after finding out that the guest fee at the Ocean City rec center was $12.)
Notes:
the wetsuit swim did not feel like swimming to me. i am not a purist by any means, but the wetsuit felt more like a body kayak than a swim suit. I enjoyed it, and it definitely made the swim much easier, but I felt more like I was paddlng a craft than swimming
the aquablade 10k felt like a very, very long race in a very, very long pool. Think the hour swim multiplied by a factor of 2.5. it was recognizable to me as swimming, not paddling.
the 2.1 mile beach swim was also like swimming, though with a twist. I had to swim about a quarter mile or more off shore to get past the breakers, then do my best to parallel the beach, avoid parachute-surfers from scissoring off my head with their rapier-like surfboard rudders, and try not to panic every time a large dark shape (rays, most likely) passed underneath my vibration-inducing seal imitation of swimming.
only in scenario number 3 was there a fear factor to contend with. i knew it was irrational, but i would get little startles now and then, wondering if perhaps a rip tide might feed me to the Gulf Stream, which would, in turn, feed me to pelagic species with recursive teeth...
Final thoughts:
a. though some swimmers are magnificent triathletes and vice versa, most of us quasi-good/mediocre masters swimmers are much better at our sport than we are at tris, and most tris are much better at their sport than they are at swimming. i know it is absolutely petty of me, but there is something so satisfying about me, in my tubby dotage, being able to lap the average 6-pack OCD tri in the pool that just gives me a thrill down to my fatted marrow.
b. triathlons are so weighted against swimming in terms of total time spent, amount of training required, etc. that it just offends me as a swimmer. why should natural bikers or natural runners get such a weighted advantage in their activity? it shouldn't bother me--i don't even DO triathlons--but it seems undemocratic somehow. anyhow, wetsuits, in my experience, don't make swimming faster--they turn it into another sport, a paddling, boat-like sports. performance swim suits, again in my experience, let tubs of lard like me swim faster, but it is still SWIMMING!
c. i voted against sanctioning wetsuits in usms competitions, even if the wearers thereof are in a separate division. the reason: pure pettiness on my part. i know that the average person is not going to say, "Oh, that chiseled triathlete in a wet suit paddled a faster time than portly Jim Thornton swam in his FastSkin I, but I realize that the portly fellow actually 'beat' the chiseled demigod because he did not have the advantageous body kayak." No. The average person is going to conclude that the triathlete just made his way through the water faster than me, and that's all that truly counts.
I don't want that! I want my superiority not just acknowledged but celerated. As Conan once put it, I want to hear der lamentations of that muscular specimen's vomen!
I say face the cold, face the fear of drowning, face the potential of a school of snappers biting off your toes, and swim on. Do not insulate yourself in a body shaped boat, take heart in your unsinkableness, have confidence that denizens don't like the taste of neoprene, and paddle on.
And that explains my vote, which I trust all thoughtful readers will now unanimously conclude is the correct one, and join me in saying to all ineptly-swimming triathletes everywhere: I'm Spartacus!
