I received this email from someone and I wonder if anyone would help out with an answer??? I usually wear a bright colored home made fabric waterpolo type cap when swimming along the shoreline. I never swim alone.
re: swim buoy I am looking for a streamlined buoy that can be towed behind an open-water swimmer to assist others on shore or in boats to see the swimmer. In this case, my mother, now 80, swims about a mile a day. She enjoys going to the ocean in the Caribbean and swimming out and back, quite a ways. Were she to use a tow buoy, and/or a form-fitting life vest with a depth-sensitive inflating device would provide family members more comfort. When I have been there, I kayak alongside. I'd be grateful for your advice.
I don't know where you would go to buy one, but a couple of years ago while staying at the Rockerfeller Center on Lake Como, Italy, I swam every day in the lake. The center strongly advised swimmers to pull a plastic buoy to make themselves more visible to speedboats, and I did so a few times, though most of the time I went without and kept close to shore. Other than the ankle strap to which the buoy was tethered, I really couldn't feel its presence at all—certainly there was no drag. The buoys themselves were like inflatable plastic beach balls, but tear-shaped with a small flag at the pointy end. They were about 3 feet high and red and white striped with a 6 or 8 foot tether. They were obviously commercially made for this purpose.
I don't know where you would go to buy one, but a couple of years ago while staying at the Rockerfeller Center on Lake Como, Italy, I swam every day in the lake. The center strongly advised swimmers to pull a plastic buoy to make themselves more visible to speedboats, and I did so a few times, though most of the time I went without and kept close to shore. Other than the ankle strap to which the buoy was tethered, I really couldn't feel its presence at all—certainly there was no drag. The buoys themselves were like inflatable plastic beach balls, but tear-shaped with a small flag at the pointy end. They were about 3 feet high and red and white striped with a 6 or 8 foot tether. They were obviously commercially made for this purpose.
