-- I have to think that, for "purity of sport reasons" that there has to be reasonably strong arguments in favor of the suits for USMS to go its own way (throwing in an element of Kant here).
Chris
How "pure" is our sport?
Just a question,anyone out there who was against wetsuits for OW but OK with tech suits for pool?If so what is your rational?
I’m anti-wetsuit for USMS open water national championship swims because I’m just a retro stout he-man who likes to mock those who wear them :) Now-a-day’s most good open water events have dual divisions (wetsuit and non wetsuit). Since there are so many variables in open-water there are no time records to be broken and you can't really be sure it was a personal best. So swimming with a conventional suit is just fine, and with race fee’s going up I don’t really want to cough up more for a suit. So let’s keep it cheap and retro for the OW and let the tech suit wearers swim in the wetsuit division.
As far as pool swims go I don’t really care what happens other then having fun posting bicycle pictures; however I have to admit the prospect of a personal best at age 48 is an attraction.
Just a question,anyone out there who was against wetsuits for OW but OK with tech suits for pool?If so what is your rational?
I am pro-wetsuit for open water races. My reasoning is selfish, I don't like being in cold water. My threshold is 67 degrees. Even then I don't relish the thought of dipping my little toe in the water. I understand the advantage given by the rubber. I accept that I am in a different classification due to my choice. I even understand the name calling by the stout he-men who choose to mock me. I have been called worse names by some here. Alas.
I am anti-tech suit for pool racers. Two divisions in the pool would suit (sorry) me fine. It seems that the two groups are cut from a, ahem, different cloth.
Jon Urbanchek on the suits:
Q: Is the suit issue behind us?
Jon: It is starting to be, and will continue to be more behind us as we move in the right direction. We will remember 2009 as basically the suit and exuberance. Remember how we had the stock market and housing bubble exuberances? They all crashed eventually. We had that with the suits, and they crashed too. And I knew it would. This year, there are going to be a lot of ocean waves about this – 60 footers – going around, but next year, it will calm down, and soon after that it will be no longer be an issue. We have an “order” in swimming, and that order was upset by the suits. The number one thing in the order was the suit, the talent was number two, and training was number three. Now we got back to the talent being number one, the training being number two – and the suit is no longer an issue because we will all have the same suit on. It should start to become case-closed on this. By the time the next Olympic rolls around, we should be back to normal. The only problem we have right now is this world record mess. My recommendation is to turn world records back to December 2007, before the first high-tech suit came out from Speedo, and use that as a base. What I envision is having the “world’s fastest time” set with these suits, and the world records themselves, set outside of the period from 2007 to the end of this World Championships. What does a world record mean anymore with this suit issue? They have no meaning any longer. But the suit issue will die down. We’re back on the right track now.
www.swimnetwork.com/.../20_question_tuesday_with_jon_urbanchek-5625.html
Jon Urbanchek on the suits:
www.swimnetwork.com/.../20_question_tuesday_with_jon_urbanchek-5625.html
Well, I am not a fan of the suits, though I was willing to grin and bear it while they were legal in mainstream swimming.
But I'll play devil's advocate on this one: I think the suit furor would have died down regardless, as the technology standardized. I see nothing inherently "out of order" with them.
I do think we will settle in a better place (though with slower times and far fewer suit malfunctions) without them than with them, though that's just my personal opinion.
But I'll play devil's advocate on this one: I think the suit furor would have died down regardless, as the technology standardized.
Agreed. Fabric innovations couldn't continue forever. Eventually all the suit makers would have similar suits and everyone would have the same advantage because of them.
Just a question,anyone out there who was against wetsuits for OW but OK with tech suits for pool?If so what is your rational?
I'm against wetsuits because triathletes have ruined the OW events by obsessing about the water temp and whether they will wear the wetsuits. Universally, wetsuit or not, they are all beaten by us swimmers in our ratty lake suits. The type of person that wears a wetsuit in an OW event is typically not the same calibre of swimmer that wears a tech suit at a pool meet. This year and last I did start to notice some tech suits at OW events.
