I have a Garmin 310 that I bought a few weeks ago. There is no swim mode, just something called “other”. What do I need to do? Some kind of software update or what is the trick? Any other advice on how to use that watch for swimming.
just use it with other.
Other is the mode I use for open water swimming. You can setup the data fields to track normal parameters, eg time, distance etc. When you download the workout onto Garmin Connect, you will have the option to change the workout at that time to Open Water Swimming, Lap Swimming etc. Lots of good information at www.dcrainmaker.com. Just remember you will in all likelihood lose the satellite signal if you have the watch on your wrist. I put mine in my swim cap.
Use “Other”.
Also don’t wear it on your arm. You won’t get accurate GPS readings. Tuck it in your swim cap and you will get accurate distances. I use the Quick Release mount for mine, so I nly need to tuch the unit itslef and not the straps in my cap, which helps.
Make sure you have the latest firmware on the watch. Once you have that, you need to enable swim more:
Switch mode to other
Then, in settings, select
Settings → Other Settings → Swim
Set swim to yes
310xt on arm produces somewhat acceptable results, but best to put on goggle strap, under cap, or on your wetsuit strap.
I know I need to work on my sighting, but I don’t think I swim as crooked as my 310XT says I do, even though I had swim mode activated.
And here I am swimming laps in the outdoor pool:
.
Water messes with the gps. It’s not just a Garmin problem. I do like how mine says I swim 4 miles when I really only did 1 mile. Makes me feel badass.
Screw that… I like how on a 2 mile swim I have 300 ft of elevation gain… Yes… I swim up stream and waterfalls I guess
Keep in mind that even after the newer firmware update that corrected the swim distances, the map still looks raw. The swim correction is applied in post-processing which normalizes the distances but doesn’t revise waypoints recorded. In other words- it only applies the correction to the numbers, not the map.
I have a Garmin 310 that I bought a few weeks ago. There is no swim mode, just something called “other”. What do I need to do? Some kind of software update or what is the trick? Any other advice on how to use that watch for swimming.
Here ya go - this explains it all, the idea behind it, and what it’s useful for:
http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2010/06/new-garmin-forerunner-310xt-openwater.html
In short - swimcap method is better. 
It sure is nice to have people like you around here to help us out with this kind of stuff.
Thanks 
jaretj