What should USMS do about the suits?

Desyphers Your post just reinforces why FINA should issue an all out ban on so called tech suits and why they should have never been allowed in the first place. In fact, it’s been quite well known for over 100 years that people can swim faster by using some kind of “technology” like simple flippers and paddles and new suit materials are just another form of mechanization. Accordingly any “new superhydrophobic textiles and the surface shape at the all-important viscous boundary layer” and their application to faster suits is nothing but an academic exercise in hydrodynamics and nothing of any real virtue for athletic swimming. Furthermore, setting new records through the use of "technologically assisted" swimming is viewed as being pretty "Hooo Huuum" and considered as more of a cheat sheet approach rather than a reflection of the actual skill of the swimmer. In fact, many question whether the new records should even be counted as legitimate times. The whole tech suit issue has become an utter monstrosity (and getting even worse with every new product that comes out) and grotesquely side tracking the whole objective of the sport. As I’ve said many times, FINA should just TIVO back to the rules for suits in effect in the 1970s and 80s -and leave them that way. Case closed. D2

Desyphers Your post just reinforces why FINA should issue an all out ban on so called tech suits and why they should have never been allowed in the first place. In fact, it’s been quite well known for over 100 years that people can swim faster by using some kind of “technology” like simple flippers and paddles and new suit materials are just another form of mechanization. Accordingly any “new superhydrophobic textiles and the surface shape at the all-important viscous boundary layer” and their application to faster suits is nothing but an academic exercise in hydrodynamics and nothing of any real virtue for athletic swimming. Furthermore, setting new records through the use of "technologically assisted" swimming is viewed as being pretty "Hooo Huuum" and considered as more of a cheat sheet approach rather than a reflection of the actual skill of the swimmer. In fact, many question whether the new records should even be counted as legitimate times. The whole tech suit issue has become an utter monstrosity (and getting even worse with every new product that comes out) and grotesquely side tracking the whole objective of the sport. As I’ve said many times, FINA should just TIVO back to the rules for suits in effect in the 1970s and 80s -and leave them that way. Case closed. D2