Swim 150% faster

Triathlon Forum
1

I was flipping through ESPN the magazine and there was a blurb about the powerswim so I looked it up and it is a design being updated by the DARPA project to aid swimmers, mainly military SCUBA types, 3-4 times faster. Doesn’t look like it will soon be a mainstream toy for tri dorks.

A similar device designed 40 years ago was never adopted but allowed combat divers to drop their 1500 meter time from 45 minutes to 24 minutes which is motoring. It is called the aqueon invented by Calvin Gongwer.

For any combat divers out there I’ve found that if I’m not on the compass then I can swim very easily by doing the dolphin kick whereas I sometimes struggle and get tired with a regular scissor kick. So the dolphin kick must be more efficient. Looks like this device multiplies these movements.

Anyway this is all very interesting and if you want to do more reading, some links from google…
www.darpa.mil/dso/thrusts/bio/biologically/powerswim/index.htm

gizmodo.com/gadgets/military/darpas-powerswim-brings-out-the-aquaman-in-you-318195.php

www.scubaboard.com/forums/archive/index.php/index.php/t-197422.html

2

I can swim very easily by doing the dolphin kick whereas I sometimes struggle and get tired with a regular scissor kick. So the dolphin kick must be more efficient.

Dolphin kick is very fast and powerful… watch a good backstroker, she’ll stay underwater dolphin kicking for as long as she can off the turns. It’s nice and fast :slight_smile:

3

There are some videos on youtube of the aqueon. It’s a little big but the guy really moves with minimal effort.
The original brochure
http://www.innerspacethrusters.com/Aqueon.htm

4

Eye-catching header - got my attention - but it seems that you actually need the device with you to go that fast.

5

Seriously though, without any training aids the best most of us could expect if we are lucky would be somewhere less than 10% improvement.