SLOgoing wrote:
ericmulk wrote:
ZenTriBrett wrote:
dyarab wrote:
Damn. That's nuts. This may be a stupid question, and the answer is probably obvious... but how does she sight at night? A lead vessel?
You can put glowsticks on the kayak and then swim well off to the side of it. Give the Kayak the bearing and then the swimmer just stays X feet off to the side. We did this swimming across Tahoe starting at 4 am and it worked great. Told the kayak to paddle pretty much due north and I just tracked off the side of the kayak.
Interesting to see the new wetsuit rule. I'm glad for it. As a triathlete, we try to keep our weight down and then suffer in the long cold water swims. But dedicated channel swimmers just fatten up and are essentially wearing a wetsuit anyway. I never liked being penalized for eating healthy and keeping weight down. I'm not quite sure I believe that new rule is real though until I see it in print... "no wetsuits, no matter what" is pretty entrenched in their culture.
Totally agree that OW purists will never accept FINA's new ruling but here is their memo on wetsuits from 11 Jan 2017. I've put the most relevant parts in bold text for faster reading. FINA only allows wetsuits at temps below 20*C (68*F), which is still pretty cold IMO.
Ok. I have a more stupider question. When do you have to follow FINA? I get it if you are trying to qualify for the OWS olympic event, but for somebody like this gal swimming 100 miles, does FINA apply? I guess no more naked ice swimming for you northerners.
I believe the FINA rules only apply to U.S. Swimming and Masters Swimming-sanctioned events, plus of course international OWS events sanctioned by FINA. The FINA rules certainly would not apply to this 104 mile swim, even if the water were below 68* F. As I said in my reply to zentribrett, i think the new rules are causing a big rift between the OW traditionalists and the FINA level competitive side of OWS.
"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."