Do you want the tech suit back for SCY?

Also, we have 50,000 people in USMS of which, what, 4,000 compete, that's less than 10%. And how many of those people follow the forum? This is very much the kind of a questions this effort will be faced with, within the USMS too. If you formulate it slightly differently... We have 50,000 people in the USMS, 4-5K compete, and (for the argument sake lets say) maybe little more then half want the tech suit back. What does it take to bring the tech suit back, how much does it cost, how does it service our membership as a whole, what about the people who didn't express their opinions, but are paying dues... etc etc... I'm not bringing this up to try and rain on the parade. Proponents of this has to have a devils advocate working with you, thinking of all the cons that the oppositon may come up with, and have an answer (and a solution on how to overcome the obstacle) to make it fly. Especially when you have to turn the tide on a rule that's already in place. Don't let me be one, you guys can find one among yourselves. i'm just giving you few starter examples. This is not the case with just the tech suit, but with anything really, the whole case has to be put together soundly and logically, and lot of what if's addressed, and solution offered. Another one could be... in most cases USMS moves with FINA and USAS, find out the reasons why (things like credibility, pooled resources, recioprocity of qualifying times and I don't know what else), find out what they are, and how to address them.

Wow, I guess I'm glad for my nice peaceful LMSC. : Me, too :) I think one of my biggest frustrations about this being brought up now is the sudden rush, too. The rule just went in to effect but yet we knew it would for months now and suddenly there is a rush to change it. Give it time... if we change it now we will look like whiners, flip floppers and grumpy old people in the eyes of other swimmers. I practice with age groupers and trust me, I hear this. So drop it now. Wait until 2013.

Chris, thanks for explaining the background on this entire tech suit saga (Forumites, see Chris' last post above; it's too long to quote). It was quite helpful to this newbie Masters swimmer who was unfamiliar with the details. And, while I'm at it, I'm with you AND Swimshark on this thing; regardless of the "irony" Aquageek seems to find in that!

Me, too :) Hopefully our will return to peaceful operation very very very soon. The current ruckuss is a very unusual situation, I think it will get remedied very very soon. I forgot to mention earlier, yes, Chris explained the tech suit background events well. I agree with it all :)

Oh, I know the answer that will satisfy you Californians! Let's allow Local Teams to wear tech suits while Regional Teams cannot! :bolt: :afraid: You think you're being funny or sumpthin, huh, huh, huh???? You get to do the crowd control at *that* event :p I wrote a nice long response to your other questions which may explain things... and really don't dare to post it. I honestly don't know where to draw the line about what I should and shouldn't say. A lot of it has to do with the anti-establishment faction taht has been brewing for a while, and it spans a lot more things then just the tech suit. The Tech suit is just the latest 'argument'. I actually feel bad for people with sincere interest in the tech suit, because this hoopla is doing them a disservice. :censor: :censor: :censor: :censor: :censor: :censor:

Oh, speaking of equipement and odd events, I thought this was cute: At one of our meets we hold a "Fun-Fin-Relay", an unofficial event where we do a relay letting all swimmers use fins. Usually it's a riot. Last time, the announcer goes "Enjoy it, this is the fatest you will ever swim in a meet" :rofl:

I wrote a nice long response to your other questions which may explain things... and really don't dare to post it. I honestly don't know where to draw the line about what I should and shouldn't say. Connie, for those of us who are 1) outside the loop, and 2) still love gossip, the more incendiary the better, and 3) live in places like Pittsburgh and have a bit of resentment towards the weather enjoyed by you southern californians, would you please consider.... spilling the beans? I don't know what is going on any more than Jim, but I don't think that this forum is the right venue to air it out. For one thing, much beer needs to be flowing first... :)

To quote many famous TV policemen, "There is nothing to see here, keep on moving."

Our LMSC seems very tame by comparison. Personally, I don't think USMS had much of a choice than to go along with the FINA ruling, and that the path chosen was the most reasonable. Changing the rules in the middle of the SCY season would not have been fair, with some swims "teched" and some not. Keeping the existing rules to the end of the season and then switching was clearly the best choice. Still, if you happen to have a pool, a timing system and some people willing to host a meet, you can host a "cheatin' suit" meet on your own, it just won't be sanctioned by the USMS and the times won't count for FINA. Run what you brung and have fun in the pool with the tech suits. Heck, even have a mono-fin relay, that would be a blast. It depends on what motivates you -- putting up good numbers for yourself, or going faster than your peers, or having fun, or ... But for USMS, let's just swim with the same rules everyone else has. It is still fun.

The current ruckuss is a very unusual situation. Connie, for those of us who are 1) outside the loop, and 2) still love gossip, the more incendiary the better, and 3) live in places like Pittsburgh and have a bit of resentment towards the weather enjoyed by you southern californians, would you please consider.... spilling the beans? Of late, it seems like there have been all these weird little postings here and on Facebook that suggest some plate tectonic-like power struggle of epic savagery is going on out there in your neck of the woods. The cognoscenti know what is going on, and can tell from a glimpse of the array of ice berg postings all the intricacies below the surface. But the rest of us are clueless! What gives? And if no one is willing to tell us little people what is going on, then I think these forums are a bad place to be tantalizing us with odd brief glimpses that something is amiss in the castle. For California is to USMS what Buckingham Palace is to the Monarchy. We may be serfs not to the feudal manor born! Yet we deserve to know the scandalous comings and goings of our Duchesses and Archbishops and all too many Queens. Don't we?