What should USMS do about the suits?

Sounds like the FINA Masters decided to ignore the USMS recommendation for shoulder-to-knee suits. Yeah, I guess I misread it at first. I thought the statement was saying this was USMS's recommendation to FINA.

Yeah, I guess I misread it at first. I thought the statement was saying this was USMS's recommendation to FINA. I misread it at first as well. The good news is we have 'official' clarity through January and I can wear by B70 next weekend!:)

I agree. Anyone who drops $400+ on a tech suit and then doesn't compete is probably certifiable. However, I think that if one has gone so far as to enter meets in the past - with or without a tech suit - the new reg's probably should not cause one to stop competing. At worst, there will need to be a period of "adjustment" to non suit aided times. Everyone gets an asterisk! People are likely more addicted to swimming & competing than addicted to the suits ... At least a goodly percentage. If FINA decides we masters must really swim in microscopic suits, I'm going to blame all my slow times on failure to taper. :) I hate tapering with a vengeance anyway; now I have a good excuse to just avoid it. :D I wonder if Europe or other masters federations will fall in line with FINA? Or even bother to enforce its rules? And since "textile" hasn't been defined (has it?), I wonder how long before neoprene is woven into fabric?

How many folks out there refused to make peace with the (albeit temporary) tech suit paradigm? Some of those people still showed up to meets and swam despite being at a disadvantage. I think this is a great point. Especially at the big, end of season type meets there may well have been swimmers out there who elected not to swim since they knew they wouldn't be competitive without dropping major coin on a suit.

I thought the USMS statement was sort of bizarre. What accounts for the change from recommending shoulder to knee suits?

I thought the USMS statement was sort of bizarre. What accounts for the change from recommending shoulder to knee suits? Sounds like the FINA Masters decided to ignore the USMS recommendation for shoulder-to-knee suits.

I know I have been asking for USMS to rule, but tieing ourselves to whatever FINA may do come January at this point seems premature. If we were sincere in our recommendation to FINA to carve out a limited masters exception, it seems we ought to be considering our options right now. But by my reading of this announcement we took that off that table, and will now blindly follow whatever FINA rules. Which may be zipless (and evidently tieless) jammers and tanks; may be the original USMS recommendation; may be B70s/Jakeds mandatory (no one wants to see all that old flesh exposed!); or may be nothing at all, contained in a pronouncement that FINA doesn't care about masters. So please remind me why are we wedded to FINA again? So our LCM/SCM records count? So we're not considered a beer league? Because our rules say so unless we choose to go our own way, as we have for butterfrog? None of those reasons seem compelling enough to announce at this time that we are on board with whatever move FINA makes next. I would have liked to see a little more consideration given to the concerns expressed by the USMS swimmers. Some seemed to be a stretch (modesty), but some appeared to be at least facially valid (zippers needed, SCY is a separate animal, we spent good money, etc. etc. etc.).

The only thing I know for sure is, regardless of whether the bureau accepts or rejects the committee's recommendation, we'll be hearing gripes for months to come... :) Some would call it whining.

Any reason why USMS would not consider delaying institution of a ban until the end of short course season? An official statement along those lines would be appreciated.

Is it my imagination or isn't it a tad arrogant to think that the USMS recommendation should be the one that FINA adopts? The measure was adopted by a slim margin within our own organization, which would seem to give it even less weight. There is a world full of masters swimming organizations out there, so is ours necessarily more powerful? I don't think we've seen the end of this.