New to swimming, been practicing with my local masters group for about 6 weeks and am slow but fairly strong.
Finally have a vacation planned! When I'm at the beach, I'd like to keep up my workouts in the ocean. How do lifeguards take to fitness swimmers? Am I going to get the whistle for crossing over jetties or going out further than most?
Any etiquette i should know?
Thanks!
New to swimming, been practicing with my local masters group for about 6 weeks and am slow but fairly strong.
Finally have a vacation planned! When I'm at the beach, I'd like to keep up my workouts in the ocean. How do lifeguards take to fitness swimmers? Am I going to get the whistle for crossing over jetties or going out further than most?
Any etiquette i should know?
Thanks!
I had a somewhat funny experience with this in Delaware sometime in the 1990s (when I was foolish and was a distance swimmer). I started in Dewey beach and headed north to the end of Rehoboth and was headed back to Dewey. Rehoboth has jetties every few hundred feet or so, so I swam just past each jetty to pass but would then go back closer to shore until the next jetty. Anyway, on my way back there is a bobbing lifeguard waiting for me at some point. He told me swimmers may not cross between jetty areas (except by getting out and going back in). I said, "but I just swam past all of the jetties and I'm on my way back." He said, "I know - I saw you. But by the time I would have swum out you would have been past my area so I let you go. But when I saw you coming back..."
Then something odd happened. The water had been quite cold (for me, not for RobC) and after just a couple minutes of walking on the beach I started shaking uncontrollably (mind you I only had my cap and goggles and a speedo). What I later learned was I was hypothermic and when I got out of the water the blood returned to my finger tips and toes, losing heat to the environment and then going back to my central organs and dropping my core body temperature. By pure stroke of luck former summer league parents recognized me, got me in a towel and eventually drove me back to Dewey.
What's the moral of the story? Focus on the 100 IM instead... :)
New to swimming, been practicing with my local masters group for about 6 weeks and am slow but fairly strong.
Finally have a vacation planned! When I'm at the beach, I'd like to keep up my workouts in the ocean. How do lifeguards take to fitness swimmers? Am I going to get the whistle for crossing over jetties or going out further than most?
Any etiquette i should know?
Thanks!
I had a somewhat funny experience with this in Delaware sometime in the 1990s (when I was foolish and was a distance swimmer). I started in Dewey beach and headed north to the end of Rehoboth and was headed back to Dewey. Rehoboth has jetties every few hundred feet or so, so I swam just past each jetty to pass but would then go back closer to shore until the next jetty. Anyway, on my way back there is a bobbing lifeguard waiting for me at some point. He told me swimmers may not cross between jetty areas (except by getting out and going back in). I said, "but I just swam past all of the jetties and I'm on my way back." He said, "I know - I saw you. But by the time I would have swum out you would have been past my area so I let you go. But when I saw you coming back..."
Then something odd happened. The water had been quite cold (for me, not for RobC) and after just a couple minutes of walking on the beach I started shaking uncontrollably (mind you I only had my cap and goggles and a speedo). What I later learned was I was hypothermic and when I got out of the water the blood returned to my finger tips and toes, losing heat to the environment and then going back to my central organs and dropping my core body temperature. By pure stroke of luck former summer league parents recognized me, got me in a towel and eventually drove me back to Dewey.
What's the moral of the story? Focus on the 100 IM instead... :)
