I organized a swim recently and we had non-wetsuit and wetsuit categories. I'm fine with accommodating wetsuits for open water swimming. However, the challenge comes up in the awards portion. Should wetsuit swimmers be entitled to the exact same type of awards as non-wetsuit swimmers? The problem this poses as an organizer is that suddenly you need to purchase twice the number of awards to accommodate a separate division (wetsuit), even though everyone's swimming the same race.
What might be fair for next time (learning as I go) is to award the top 3 male/female non-wetsuit swimmers for each event, but just the #1 male and female in the wetsuit category for each event. They at least get acknowledged for their efforts.
Curious if anyone else has thoughts on this.
blame it on the suit manufacturers not the event organizers who are trying to maintain a (sea) level playing field.
Ironic that someone brings up the NYC Swim policy... seems to me, the relevant issue in the context of this thread is not jammers vs. briefs, but the fact that wetsuits aren't distinguished from skins in the results (in water 68F or below).
So I get Dave's point about a level playing field - but only in the narrow sense.
blame it on the suit manufacturers not the event organizers who are trying to maintain a (sea) level playing field.
Ironic that someone brings up the NYC Swim policy... seems to me, the relevant issue in the context of this thread is not jammers vs. briefs, but the fact that wetsuits aren't distinguished from skins in the results (in water 68F or below).
So I get Dave's point about a level playing field - but only in the narrow sense.
