A Cold Water Swim and Some Swimmer Shopping


a few kids were out trying to boogie board in the surf today

I started my day out in an impressively frosty fashion this morning. I went out to Avila and brought my wetsuit for the first time. The cold water has finally defeated me. After actually getting in the water today I’m really glad I wussed out, it was a balmy 54 degrees in the warm spots.

Wearing a wetsuit was a good and a bad thing. On the upside my internal organs were fairly roasty toasty. My feet, fingers and face were cold as hell, but at least my middle was happy. The downside to the wetsuit was the shoulder constriction. I’m really broad across the shoulders and it’s hard to find things that fit me correctly in that region. The constriction and the extra flotation was really screwing with my stroke and causing some really bad stress on the insides of my shoulder. I may need to trade up to a fancier wetsuit with the stretchier rubber to survive winter and spring.

I did one half of the buoy line today, that’s like half a mile. I was stoked to be in the ocean, I wanted to do more but my shoulder was very grind-y. Once I get past the meet in Long Beach this coming weekend I think I’m going to make an appointment with a sports massage therapist guy one of my swim buddies referred me to. I want to try and get this shoulder thing sorted out in the off season.


Niel exiting the ocean


my wetsuit without me in it

After swimming today I decided to go do some cold water shopping. I made a run up to Go For It Sports in Atascadero to get a neoprene cap and as I am prone to do… goggles. I got a more of a mask kind of set of goggles because one of my swim buddies swears by them for cold water. Something about covering more of the face. After today I’m totally on board with that! I had an ice cream headache on the way back to shore today! I also found a pair of Hydralign goggles which I’ve never seen for sale before. They kind of funny shaped and frosted on the bottom half to discourage looking up while you swim. We’ll see if they help me at all. On my way home from the Triathlon store I dropped in on a Boarders in San Luis Obispo to see if they had the book “Swimming Anatomy” in stock. A lot of people have been talking about it recently and one of my open water swim friends had a copy with her on the beach today that I took a look at. I lucked out and found the only copy they had in the store.


part of my swimmer impulse purchase-a-thon


it’s hard being this cool

November 30, 2009 | 2 Comments »

Finally Got Wet


the view from the gym parking lot

The magic of turkey day has been working against my aquatic endeavors, it’s been driving me nuts! I’ve had all this time off and tonight was my first real swim of the week. I made the drive down to Santa Maria on Friday in hopes of getting in a group workout, but that didn’t happen because the pool was closed. Boo. I tried to find people to go swim in the ocean with me because that tends to not be closed :) Unfortunately no one else had the same enthusiasm for 54 degree water that I have.

Today I finally got into the pool. I went to my gym in Pismo and started with some dryland action. I worked up a good sweat on an elliptical machine while I watched the sun go down over the ocean. My gym might not have the fanciest equipment, but the view is unparalleled! After that I changed into a swimsuit and spent about half an hour in the pool. I mainly focused on technique and head position. My head has really come down. Even though I still can’t swim long distances with a snorkel, the time spent using it has really had a positive impact on my head position. I also did some broken 200s, fly and free. I have a 200 fly coming up this next weekend and I’m a little concerned I haven’t been doing enough swimming to get prepped for it. I probably have 3 more pool swims (plus 1 ocean swim) before I go to Long Beach for the SPMA Regional Championships

I got a bonus picture from the Make-a-Splash event last Friday. Gold Medal Mel took a shot with his camera at an arm’s length while we were talking after Cullen finished his speech. Check it out!


Mel’s working his best Blue Steel

November 29, 2009 | No Comments »

Swimmer Xmas Ideas

So what do you get somebody that has a mild addiction to salt water and chlorine? Being one of these people I have some ideas to help kick start your shopping.

1. Workout Suits… especially ugly ones!
I’m proclaiming 2010 the year of the ugly/obnoxious swimsuit. While a black swimsuit is appropriate for any occasion I think an overly colorful swimsuit is much more fun. My current favorite suit is Vegas themed but unfortunately you can’t buy it anymore.

Women’s Swimsuits

Men’s Swimsuits

2. Aquatic MP3 Players


When I’m swimming solo I really like having some music. I own the 2nd Generation H2O Audio Interval Ipod case and it’s pretty decent. Not perfect, but good. I think the 3rd generation Interval would be better just because it’s so much smaller. I’m hoping to get my hands on a FINIS SwiMP3 sometime in the near future to check that out, I’ve heard good things about it. (If you buy a SwiMP3 use the code: robaquatics09 to save 20% on your order!) **UPDATE: I got myself a FINIS SwiMP3 and just posted a review here

3. Monofins!

I love monofins, they’re just the right mix of fun and good for you. I just recently bought the shooter style monofin and totally dig it. If you buy a monofin or anything else from FINIS, use the code: robaquatics09 to save 20% on your order!

4. Goggles


Goggles are never a bad idea. Personally I have a pretty impressive goggle collection because whenever I buy swim stuff I get some goggles too. I have a goggle for ever season and situation but I still end up buying more… I have a feeling that I’m not the only person that does this.

5. Neoprene Swim Cap


If you have an open water fan that you’re shopping for a neoprene swim cap is a pretty good gift. No one appreciates a frosty noggin and a fancy cap like this will make your life a little nicer. I still need to buy myself one of these things.

6. SharkShield

I just learned about this the other day… I’m not sure how legit it is but I love the idea. As much as I know it’s statistically incredibly improbable that a shark will ever take a bite out of me, I hate tempting fate. The Shark Shield isn’t cheap, but if it works it may be worth the dough.

7. Swim Vacation

If any of you want to buy your favorite blogger a present, this is it! If you send me for a week long swim vacation in the British Virgin Islands I promise to take a lot of pictures and blog a whole bunch :)

November 26, 2009 | 5 Comments »

Procrastinators Rejoice! Long Beach Deadline Moved to Tonight!

UPDATE: It looks like we’re shut down kids… we should have over 600 swimmers across the weekend! See you there!

In case you haven’t heard, the entry deadline for the SPMA SCM Regional Championships being held in Long Beach was moved out a couple days! Instead of the 23rd, the Grunions are letting people sign up online until midnight tonight (November 25th). So if you thought you missed it, here’s your second chance!

I’m excited about this meet, it’s going to be huge! The online registrations are at 590+, I don’t know how many people have sent in paper entries… regardless that’s a lot of swimmers!

If you haven’t already, go sign up today!

November 25, 2009 | No Comments »

PMS Wisely Rebrands as PacMasters


Pacific Masters Swimming, also known as PMS, has decided to stop referring to themselves by their initials. From here on out it’s either just Pacific or PacMasters. I can’t say that I disagree with this decision… I’d much rather announce that I’m going to the PacMasters Championships as opposed to the PMS Championships :) If you want to learn more about PacMasters (which also happens to be the biggest LMSC in the country at somewhere around 10-11,000 members!) and find out about events being held in Northern California, go check out www.pacificmasters.org

| No Comments »

Nature’s Coffee: 53 Degree Salt Water

Ok, ok… I know coffee comes from nature too, but it also happens to taste disgusting so I need to seek alternative sources of awakeness from time to time. Today I had an impulse to spend some time in salt water. At lunch I ran home and got a swimsuit then made my way to the beach in Pismo. According to the surf report the water was 52-54 degrees so we’ll split the difference and call it 53. It was cold but not unbearable… maybe I have my cold tolerance back… we’ll see. It’s fair to say that the people on the beach thought I was a crazy person.

Anyways I largely just played in the waves for like 15 minutes. I maybe swam 300m tops. I was hoping to catch at least one good wave body surfing but no such luck. With some better planning I think I could make this a regular lunchtime occurrence… hmmmm… I already have emergency goggles in my desk, all I need to add is a swimsuit and towel. I’ll give it another shot tomorrow and see if I can squeeze drive, swim, shower, eat into an hour.

| 3 Comments »

2009 Turkey Shoot Video from LiveSwim.net


The Events are listed down by the arrow

LiveSwim.net was out at Pierce College shooting video yesterday for the Turkey Shoot SCM Meet. I really dig it when these guys come out because it gives everybody a chance to see themselves swim. The on demand video is still being populated as of this moment so not everything is online just yet, but a good majority of the meet is available now.

I dropped my 50m fly in below… mainly because I don’t want you all to watch me get smoked in the 100m fly :) …anyways, I’m the large bald guy in lane 4 for the 50m below.

So if you swam the meet go check for video of yourself swimming here!

LiveSwim also video-taped the pool dedication at the beginning of the meet, check it out below…

November 24, 2009 | No Comments »

2009 Turkey Shoot SCM Wrap Up

**Results are now posted here.

Today I got to swim at the newly redone Steven Schofield Aquatic Center at Pierce College down in Woodland Hills. The Turkey Shoot meet had a good turn out and we had excellent weather, apparently we are just going to go ahead and skip November this year! In between the 800m and the beginning of the rest of the meet they did a dedication of the new pool and unveiled a plaque commemorating the event. It was really nicely done and video of it should hit the web in a couple of days, I’ll link out to it once it’s ready.

For me the meet was a total success socially, speed-tastically not so much. I had my coach and a few of my Conejo Valley Masters teammates with me, and a whole bunch of my SoCal swim friends were on deck… even Coach Chris from way up in Mountain View and Sylvia who swims with me out in Avila Beach came down for the event! Physically I was basically tired out of my mind! I’ve been living out of a suitcase since Tuesday and I’ve been keeping really busy. I ended up swimming tech suit-less as well today. I want it to feel fast when I hit the water in Long Beach for regionals so I just threw on an overly colorful drag suit and raced like that… you can kinda see the effect in my times (yikes!).

My first event was the 50m fly. Technically I don’t think anything was particularly wrong with it, I just wasn’t that fast. I felt a little tugging from my suit too which probably didn’t help matters. I swam a 31.7 which sucks pretty hard for me. My friend Patrick raced in the lane next to me and got some video of the race, I’m the owner of the bald head in lane 4.

Neither of us was totally sure who beat who in that race even with the video, we debated it for a little while in Facebook chat… it was close! According to the USMS database I got him by .15 seconds.

My next event got even uglier… 1:11 in the 100m fly! Oh noes! I’ve gone 1:06 the last 2 times I swam it. I’m not sure how much of that difference is my general exhaustion and how much was the drag suit. All I know is that I have multiple excuses ready to go to try and explain that swim :) After this one I just went over to the therapy pool/hot tub and sat myself down on the steps. I think hanging out and talking in the warm pool turned out more productive than pretending to be fast in the other pool!

I swam one last event, the 50m breast. It actually felt a little better than my fly events but I still didn’t do so great. At this point I decided my racing was done for the day. I got into dry clothes and hung out on deck for a while and then made the big drive home. It’s nice to actually be at the house again after a week of running all over the state, although I gotta say it was a pretty good week! Now I just need to regroup and get ready for SPMA Regionals at the Belmont Pool hosted by the Long Beach Grunions. Speaking of which… if you haven’t gotten registered you have to get it done online between now and Monday night (November 23rd) at midnight! Go here to sign up!

Oh and I almost forgot, before I left they announced that the new aquatics center has already (unofficially) hosted its first masters world record courtesy of Bob Strand in the 60-64 age group! He swam a 1:12 100m breaststroke! I can’t even do that in yards!


The outside of the newly redone Schofield Aquatic Center


The main pool


more of the main pool


the therapy pool


My Porter Valley Masters friend Helene!


Random action!

November 23, 2009 | 3 Comments »

Went to Make-a-Splash with Cullen Jones in LA Today!


Me with Cullen Jones

This morning I made my way out to a Make-a-Splash event featuring Olympic Gold Medalist Cullen Jones in downtown LA. I was pretty excited to go see Cullen talk, and I’m a fan of the work he’s doing to help kids learn to swim. I was scared to death of water until I was like 11 years old and had a few aquatic close calls growing up. If it weren’t for my mom making sure I took swim lessons every summer I wouldn’t be water safe, and I would have never started swimming competitively. Make-a-Splash is in place to help kids who otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to learn how to swim get the opportunity to do so and become safe in the water.

Amazingly I got a seat at the cool kids table. I had Mel Stewart, Chris LaBianco, and Rowdy Gaines to the left of me and John Naber to the right of me. I had a ton of fun joking around with Gold Medal Mel and listening to the speakers they had for us this morning.

We heard from a few different people involved with the Make-a-Splash program and they all did a really good job of driving home the point that a drowning death is a highly preventable death. All it requires is an opportunity for a child to get in a pool with an instructor focused on getting them water safe. To learn more about what Make-a-Splash does you can go to makeasplash.org or if you want to make a donation to support the cause you can do that over here.

After the official portion of the event was over I got to mix around, mingle a little bit, and get some pictures. Random fun fact of the day… upwards of 3 different gold medalists have now taken pictures with my iPhone :) It was very cool to get to talk at length with Mel, Rowdy, Steve from 10kswimmer, and a lot of the people that work with the USA Swimming Foundation and Make-a-Splash.


Cullen talking about the Make-a-Splash program


We Had 6 Olympians in attendance, 5 of them swimmers (Lenny Krayzelburg, John Naber, Cullen Jones, Mel Stewart, and Rowdy Gaines)


Me and Rowdy, photo by Gold Medal Mel


Me and Gold Medal Mel, photo by John Naber

November 20, 2009 | 5 Comments »

So I Went to a Meeting in Pasadena Last Night…

Just wanted to share some news… last night at the annual in person SPMA board meeting I was elected to the Member at Large position for 2010! I’m pretty excited about it and hopefully I can help do some good stuff in SPMA. So if you’re in SoCal and you have comments, questions, concerns, or ideas for SPMA feel free to send them my way!

| 2 Comments »
« Older Entries