This is really annoying to me, but why does it seem the first option for most rec swimmers is to split the lane when there are 2 swimmers. I always say we should swim circle if I am in the lane and someone else is coming in, but if I am coming in the person usually wants to split the lane. It is so unnatural to be swimming on the left side of the lane.
At one local recreational watering hole, it was discovered that when I and my blue muppeted training partner would circle swim, if all other lanes also had two people, our lane was always the first to inherit a 3rd swimmer, despite the fact that our lane was by FAR the quickest in the pool. We figured they saw circlers, and figured that either no one else was smart enough to know how to circle swim, or that when they looked at the lane and saw both of us travelling on the same side, they thought "Hey, lots of open space!"
So we started splitting our lane, but still going 5-10 sec apart, and we were almost never approached unless the place got packed. I found it fairly selfish to do that, but given the alternative (running over people, confrontations - which happened), it was the probably the best for all involved.
The facility labeled their lanes slow, medium and fast, and we would always jump in the fast lane, but would often arrive to find Ms Manatee (as described in posts above) in said lane. The one time we confronted the lifeguards about it, they refused to enforce the rule, even going one step further and refused to admit that they had put the "fast" cone outside the lane.
At one local recreational watering hole, it was discovered that when I and my blue muppeted training partner would circle swim, if all other lanes also had two people, our lane was always the first to inherit a 3rd swimmer, despite the fact that our lane was by FAR the quickest in the pool. We figured they saw circlers, and figured that either no one else was smart enough to know how to circle swim, or that when they looked at the lane and saw both of us travelling on the same side, they thought "Hey, lots of open space!"
So we started splitting our lane, but still going 5-10 sec apart, and we were almost never approached unless the place got packed. I found it fairly selfish to do that, but given the alternative (running over people, confrontations - which happened), it was the probably the best for all involved.
The facility labeled their lanes slow, medium and fast, and we would always jump in the fast lane, but would often arrive to find Ms Manatee (as described in posts above) in said lane. The one time we confronted the lifeguards about it, they refused to enforce the rule, even going one step further and refused to admit that they had put the "fast" cone outside the lane.
