Are Open Water events more popular than Pool events?

I'll be glad to go to OW events as soon as they have the 100 M BR as an OW event. -Allen Stark -OK Allen, you make it to Bermuda for the Round the Sound Swim in October and I will hold this event for you (and others!)

Maybe but check back in December and I'm quite sure there will be no open water events listed for the Colonies :D Paul, Some of us have been known to do the Polar Bear Plunge in the Chesapeake Bay.....Don't recall seeing you there though..... :angel:

Interesting thread. My team has a very small percentage who will swim in meets, but we usually have a large turnout for open water swims. We do have quite a few triathletes, but there's even many non-meet swimmers who will do open water swims. We usually have a very large turnout for the La Jolla Roughwater Swim, yet have maybe a handful who go to Nationals.

I think there is opportunity to combine triathlons and swim events.... the effort to set up a course with buoys, timing, support and safety etc is not a small one and there would be economy in joining forces. They do this in Columbus. Open water races on Saturday, triathlons on Sunday. Seems like a great idea. www.fatrabbitracing.com/.../Default.aspx

That's a really good idea. Can you imagine the collective tri freak-out if a few swimmers did the tri and then turned around and did an OW only event afterwards? They'd all get antsy and have to go do a century just to prove their worthiness. I did this a couple of years ago at Smith Mountain Lake (Virginia). I did an Oly tri in the morning, then in the same lake, did a 5K swim that afternoon. It wasn't as fun as it sounds.

This thread brings up two great points. 1 - USMS Calendar of Events's "accuracy" 2 - Lack of LCM meets To address the first, I am guilty of not submitting my meet to the calendar this year. I don't know who did, but someone got it up there. In my personal case, it just slipped my mind, as we announced the meet a little over 5 weeks before it happened. Reading the comments, especially about the Great Lake Zone, we all know there are issues with the "accuracy" of the Calendar of Events. We are all fully capable of visiting LMSC websites too, but how accurate are they? Bottom line is that we have a national tool that can easily be made better. My thoughts here are that someone in every LMSC (ie the Sanctions Chair) should be responsible for ensuring their LMSC's meets are listed on that calendar. These guys can collect the information necessary, and when the sanction is granted, submit the information. Easy Peasy Japaneezy. The second point brought up here is a seeming lack of LC Meets. Part of this could be Virginia Graham Baker Act-related (why there's no CZ LC "Champs" this year), so if this lack of meets is a 2009 issue, we'll see that trend reversing next year. Yes, Long Course is not exactly a popular course among masters swimmers, and a lot of us have other things (tri's, kid swimming, vacations) going on. However, from my perspective, a lower number of meets is a trend that has been going on for years. I know there are plenty of pools that have masters teams, but don't host meets. To pick on my bordering LMSCs who traditionally have very few meets a year anyway, Delaware Valley had one LC meet that was hardly advertised outside DV, and only 4 meets on the schedule for 2009. Virginia, for all the travelling VMST does for relays, etc., has hosted only two (SCY) meets in 2009, and one was hosted by a brand new team. Hosting meets isn't always about the money, either. I look at my team's LC meet as providing a valuable service to the local masters swimming community; and that as a swimmer at a pool with the ability to host a LC meet, I have an obligation to do what I can to put on this meet. There is a team in our LMSC with several hundred swimmers over at least a half-dozen sites, but has never to my knowledge hosted a masters meet. I think that is wrong. In Potomac Valley, we've offered financial support to teams to try to spring more teams into action. Perhaps this kind of support is needed elsewhere too - or we're going to see the demise of pool meet swimming.

Having spent far to many weekends of my youth at all day swim meets I have no desire to complete in pools ever again. Drive an hour or more to swim a couple of events that last a combined 10 minutes. No thanks. I only got back into swimming a few years ago because of the open water opportunities. And luckily for me I live in Austin where there are many great open water swim throughout the year. Thank you Dr. Bell.