The open water discussion has been a little boring lately so time to add some controversy. The above quote was affixed to a plaque my swimmers gave me when I retired as Head Coach of the University of Denver Masters Swim Team. Yes, they knew where I stood on the subject. Others share my view. In my day job as a stock broker I came across an article in the Wall Street Journal “Wimp or Triathlete, You Probably Like That New Wetsuit" by Kevin Helliker, published on September 24, 1999. In it were several memorable quotes on the subject. "How pathetic, says Betsy Brennan a Lake Michigan swimmer" "When I see people in wetsuits, I think: wimp." Another Chicagoan Ted Erikson, who did a double crossing of the English Channel without a wetsuit, said on the increasingly use of wetsuit by swimmers in Lake Michigan. "I ask them, 'Why don't you just get a boat? Boats have heaters.”:D
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I never trained in water under 60 degrees unless I had to. I raced in any temperature but could never say I enjoyed cold water. I was known as a cold water swimmer but did not like it.
Lake Ontario could be 70 degrees when I went to train by the time I got there it would be 60 and I would go in then an hour later it would be 55. Off shore breeze meant cold water.
When it was cold I would drive an hour or two to find warm water. Sometimes swimming in some pretty polluted water eg the Credit River just west of Toronto.
I never trained in water under 60 degrees unless I had to. I raced in any temperature but could never say I enjoyed cold water. I was known as a cold water swimmer but did not like it.
Lake Ontario could be 70 degrees when I went to train by the time I got there it would be 60 and I would go in then an hour later it would be 55. Off shore breeze meant cold water.
When it was cold I would drive an hour or two to find warm water. Sometimes swimming in some pretty polluted water eg the Credit River just west of Toronto.
