When Lifeguards Have the Day Off

Check out this link to see what happens when illiteracy, lifeguard inadequacy and parental stupidity mix together.

Sorry, I don't have a credit. If known, please advise.

Prediction ... Breathing Liquid Air is Our Future

Expert believes that breathing liquid air is not only possible, it's been proven to work, and he believes he knows how to make it practical and has plans to do just that. Oh, by the way, the expert is a retired heart lung physician.

Check out the article by Jerome Taylor, from The Independent.

For anyone who wants to hear what smart, albeit less experienced, persons think about this topic, check out the reddit.com link with an interesting discussion of the topic.

The Zen of Water ... Be the Water

I saw this, laughed, and knew I had to post this right away ... A master (of another discipline) speaks of the zen of water.



If you are too young to know who this is, it is Bruce Lee. BL, now deceased, brought the martial arts to the consciousness of the western nations back in the early 1970's before it was all faked in the movies using CGI. The guy is an amazing athlete. If you want to see more, just go to youtube.com and see dozens of videos about him.

Yesterday's Tsunami Event in San Francisco Bay

If you were an open water swimmer in SF Bay yesterday, this is what you may have encountered. Thanks to the publisher of this clip.

Tsumani Watch Live - California Coast

Here are two sites I found that are useful for tracking the tsunami warning for the California Coast. This first one is a Live Blog: Bay Area. The second is a web cam view of Half Moon Bay shot from Sam's Chowder House. As of this posting things are pretty calm. We're praying for you guys!

If waiting and hoping for nothing to happen is too boring, here's a mini-tsunami that hit Half Moon Bay back in February, all caught on video. Watch it here. Warning, this one is a bit graphic.

Edit: For anyone who thinks I posted this out of pointlessness, check out this video what happened in Japan from the same event. Amazing and awful. Credit to SkyNews for the source.

The Importance of Lung Capacity to Swimming Well

Your lung capacity can have a huge impact on your swimming dynamics. This post discusses the hows and whys of maintaining good lung capacity while swimming and how a beginning swimmer can learn this trick with ease.

To anyone who thinks at all about swimming dynamics, this post is fairly self-evident. If you are like most casual swimmers, you probably haven't given this much thought, but it can be one of the many keys to becoming a better swimmer ... so pay attention!

My ah ha moment came in the bathtub two days ago. I was suffering from a cold and wanted to soak in a warm bath so I'm lying there trying to get as deep as I can in the shallow tub when I notice my body rising and falling with each breath. Now I don't mean my chest was rising and falling ... I was actually floating and sinking with each breath. With nothing better to do, I took deeper breaths and noticed that I could really float well if I just breathed in a bit deeper and I could maintain that float by letting out and breathing back in only sips of air (rather than the full in/out thing). I then recalled that this is how I swim. I don't take huge breaths with each stroke. Instead, I take these sips, maintaining the air in my lungs so I can keep afloat better.

I've been cognizant of the importance of lung capacity for years, but this little self-evaluation showed me just how easy it would be to demonstrate the importance of good breath control to beginning swimmers. By doing this in a tub, you can practice your breath control in a safe place.

OK, now go ahead and try it. No one is watching!

Lightening and Open Water Swimming

In case you were wondering why you've got to get out of a large body of water (e.g., lake) in a lightening storm when all that nice lightening is going to be attracted to the trees on shore, think again. Check out this picture. Thanks lohengscorner!

Edit: It appears that this has been taken down.

To "S" or Not to "S", that is the question

Should you use the "S" pull technique or not?

A locker-room regular who was trained in an elite youth swimming program and is now getting back into swimming as an adult told me today that he understands the going theory on freestyle pulling is to pull straight through rather than using the old stand-by "S" pull. I had not heard this before. I've certainly noted the differences ("s" uses only a little more than half the stroke the sequence following the "s" motion and can lead to a faster stroke down to the hip ... after the "s", while the straight pull uses the full motion of the stroke*), but am not familiar with the research.

Anyone care to enlighten the group?

* These are my observations.

New Template

After five years of writing this blog, I finally took the plunge (there's a good word for it) and updated this blog's template to something more blog 2.0ish. Hope you like it. Let me know if you find any problems. Thanks for everyone's support!

Your Spouse Wants a Sun Room - You Want a Pool

What's a rich guy to do. The wife wants a sun room and you want a pool. How about a sun room where the floor sinks down at the touch of a button and gives you a pool?!

Check out this web site from Hydrofloors.

Oh, but what about the wet floor? "Honey, can you throw me another towel, please."

Is Swimming Under Water Faster than Surface Swimming?

Is Swimming Under Water Faster than Surface Swimming? Hill Taylor, aka Dolphin Man, from the University of Texas, proves that yes it is. It's just not technically legal in an NCAA sanctioned swim meet. In this video, he beats the world record in backstroke by a full minute (cough cough).

Like my last post, I got this from the Wired feed. Don't know what's up with these geeks. Are they suddenly cool to be around?

Water Jet Packs - How Rich People Have Fun Above It All

Here's a video I found on Wired's RSS feed showing what the rich do when they get bored on the yacht. Yes, this is another jet pack video - Enjoy.

How to Make Your Swim Goggle's Lenses Like New

You can make your swim goggle lenses so they are like new again by following the simple steps in this post.

When you use a new pair of swim goggles for the first few times, you'll find they improve your vision under water dramatically over your old scummy goggles. But over time, pool chemicals and water scum (white film) builds up on the lenses. Try this tip and you'll probably find you see a lot better underwater without forking out another $10 - $20 for a new pair.

Tools: toothbrush with soft bristles (tougher bristles might work, but could scratch the lens ... try at your own risk) and toothpaste (I used Crest paste with whitener).

Just apply a dab of toothpaste to the toothbrush and scrub for about thirty seconds, rinse and enjoy. Be sure to do both sides of each lens.

What's happening? The toothpaste has a mild abrasive which removes the built up scum that will not come off with regular soap and washcloth.

Lifeguard in Action During the Australian Floods

Check it out here. Now that's an Aussie, eh, mate?!

Martin Strel Announces His Next Challenge

Just finished listening to Martin Strel on a BBC audio stream (listen here) discuss his Guinness World Record breaking Amazon swim where he swam the infamous stretch of water from end to end. Martin's portion of the clip runs for about 10 minutes, beginning at about the 11:30 mark.

Featured in the BBC discussion, Martin talks about what started him swimming in the first place (sad story here); why he prefers swimming in fresh water over salt water (I figured the latter would be easier ... he says no and why); How the Amazon swim was his dream accomplishment (no surprise there); what he thinks got him through the Amazon swim alive and kept safe (touching story); how the whole trip came to a near disaster on the final day (didn't know this and I've followed this guy every day during the swim); the diseases he caught; his 24/hr a day elixir (this still makes me laugh); how swimming is a mind game; how long he took to recover; and most exciting ... his next challenge.

Well worth the listen!

Dozens of Talented Divers All at Once

Remember in the 2008 Olympics how the Chinese awed everyone with their huge show featuring hundreds - maybe thousands - of people working in synchronization to create an amazing showcase of talent? Well here it is in a platform diving presentation. Starts getting fun to watch at about the 2 minute mark. Enjoy!

What the Health Department and Scrooge Have in Common

The pool where I do the bulk of my lap swimming in the cold months installed some new bright (LED?) lighting over the Fall months. It became clear over time that there was a new unexpected feature - the lights could change color. They could be set to blue, red, green, yellow or white. Or they could be set to rotate between selected colors. Go one lap and return and the blue is now green. Personally I thought this was a bit over the top. I liked some of the colors, but yellow made the water look like urine through my goggles. What good did it do? Well my attitude changed for the better as time went on - I got accustomed to yellow and the change in colors kept me from being so bored. And even better, as the Christmas season approached, the lights were set to red and green. Cool huh? So what happens? The health department shows up and says that the colored lights have to go. What's that about? Perhaps the Ghost of Christmas Pools needs to pay them a visit! Merry Christmas!

The Most Efficient Swimming Propulsion Device Ever

Who do you go to if you want to develop the most efficient swimming propulsion device ever conceived?  Darpa, of course.  That's the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.  They bring you simple new innovations, like say, the internet.  Anyway, they've put their minds to work and developed a cool way to send the Defense Dept's swimmers through the water faster.  Thinking a better kind of fins?  Think again.  Check out the video below.

Tiger Woods has a Lap Pool - Pic at Link

Tiger Woods has just finished updating his new home that he bought for a mere $35 million and he's put in another $15 million to touch it up.  So did he do what every other gajillionnaire does when they "upgrade" their estates and first thing remove the lap pool?  No!  Tiger has kept his and it's a dedicated lap pool (check out the pic and story here) and appears to be 50 meters!  And yes, ladies, he's single.

Removing a Buffalo from Backyard Swimming Pool - Raw Video

Georgia pet buffalo gets loose and  falls through pool cover.  Gets out at 1:08 with some cowboy action, after that he/she thrashes around a bit acting like, well, a buffalo.  Gets a bit sad as the film progresses.  More to this video than you'll see on the TV news.