i'm swimming in the chesapeake bay swim in about a month, and know most people will be wearing wetsuits. i don't have a wetsuit, and i don't want a wetsuit, but i don't want to be pulled out of the race 3 miles in, shivering, miserable, and maybe hypothermic. i'm planning to do some training swims in the 3 weekends i have left - and in new york, where it's a good bit colder. the coldest swim i've done (last fall) was 53 for 19 minutes without any pre-training. any advice would be appreciated...
i expect to do the swim in about 2.5 hours.
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Former Member
I bought a Hot head cap some years back, they come in many sizes but their not what I would call a snug fit as their fabric. Personally I did not like it. They are really designed to be a outer cap for warmth. I have seen lots of people wearing them with race issued caps over them. I tried that myself and it was hard to do but just took time .You can always cut a small hole in the race cap to get it on better as the web page suggests. With a hothead cap you should not need another cap for that water temp. however the race organizers want people to wear their caps for color coding the waves of swimmers so you will need to put it on over the hothead. Then I would put on the goggles so they hold the cap in place so you dont loose it . You will be a DNF in some races if you loose the race cap for safety reasons . ( If you have another cap on I dont see why if its a bright color like the Hothead.) Whatever you come up with as I say get used to it before the swim. You may find ear plugs
will help too . The Hothead is not water tight in any way and water will come in which may or not bother you.
My favorite combo is a silicon cap pulled low over my ears and a bubble strap cap over that same as the yellow one in the web page. Warm waterproof cheap and stays on even tumbling in the surf getting knocked around like a doll playing with a boogie board as I have found out.
I bought a Hot head cap some years back, they come in many sizes but their not what I would call a snug fit as their fabric. Personally I did not like it. They are really designed to be a outer cap for warmth. I have seen lots of people wearing them with race issued caps over them. I tried that myself and it was hard to do but just took time .You can always cut a small hole in the race cap to get it on better as the web page suggests. With a hothead cap you should not need another cap for that water temp. however the race organizers want people to wear their caps for color coding the waves of swimmers so you will need to put it on over the hothead. Then I would put on the goggles so they hold the cap in place so you dont loose it . You will be a DNF in some races if you loose the race cap for safety reasons . ( If you have another cap on I dont see why if its a bright color like the Hothead.) Whatever you come up with as I say get used to it before the swim. You may find ear plugs
will help too . The Hothead is not water tight in any way and water will come in which may or not bother you.
My favorite combo is a silicon cap pulled low over my ears and a bubble strap cap over that same as the yellow one in the web page. Warm waterproof cheap and stays on even tumbling in the surf getting knocked around like a doll playing with a boogie board as I have found out.
