Hi,
I've really enjoyed a swimtrek-style trip, Big Blue Swim thebigblueswim.com/lefkada. I've also gone on a few trips with members of my local USMS team.
I love these kind of trips, but I feel like I could work the same benefits into my ordinary routine, because I work remotely, and I don't really get much marginal enjoyment from swimming more than 5-6 hours a week. I also don't really enjoy swimming by myself. My feeling about swimming is similar to road biking with my local cycling club: I get some cameraderie from cooperating with other people, regroups, occasionally drafting, etc. I'm not really interested in competition per se.
So I'm trying to find a club or group that I can swim with for 6-8 weeks this coming winter, to avoid the winter blues (short days, less opportunity for outdoor exercise), swimming maybe 3-4 times a week, with the following characteristics, which it turns out is not trivial:
- Beautiful open water without too many waves, or with backup depending on wind direction etc
- A group of people who do several open water swims a week, hopefully on a regular schedule
- Probably in a location somewhere between Hawaii and the Caribbean so that my workday can overlap with my main office in US/Mountain Time
- Tropical or southern lattitude for longer days (this is one of my main problems with my California winter)
- *Extremely* reliable and reasonably fast internet (I do regular video conferencing). Ideally I would work from where I stay/live.
- Convenient options for getting food, including a couple healthy restaurants very close by
- Convenient transportation and not much commuting for swimming. Ideally I would bring my travel bike and bike around as I do in my normal life, but I would rent a car if necessary.
- Housing less than 2k a month
What I am looking at so far is Finfolk swim club in St. Croix, and San Pedro Swim Club in Ambergris Caye, Belize. I have heard back from some Finfolk people, who have been very helpful, but I haven't yet worked out the details of my working/living situation. I have not heard back from San Pedro Swim Club.
My swim pace is middling: supposedly my lane at the pool is 1:40/100yd, but that's a little aspirational sometimes. In open water I imagine I'm closer to 2:00/100yd, and I don't mind swimming with people a little slower than myself, e.g. 1:50/100yd in the pool, and could would be happy to use fins to speed up.
I also enjoy cycling, trail running, and hiking.
Also if anybody is in a similar situation, it's possible we could team up, and then I might not need a pre-existing club. Another option might be working out a deal with a swimtrek group at an appropriate hotel, where I do longer term, and not all of the swims. But they probably aren't optimizing time in the way that is consistent with a 40-50 hour workweek.
Any ideas? I will take a look at outdoors swimmer magazine and see if there is a relevant forum associated with that.
thanks
Clay
