Channel Grease
Leadhyena
Member
So last night I mixed up my first batch of channel grease, and from what I read on the internet, there were varying opinions on what the proportions should be between petroleum jelly, lanolin, and zinc oxide. Tried a mix of (by weight) 2 parts zinc oxide, 7 parts lanolin, and 3 parts petroleum jelly judged solely on desired SPF of next day's swim and consistency. Seems like the formula worked really well for a 6-hour swim in warmer water, but I had a heck of a time getting the stuff off. The only thing that seemed to work was dishwasher detergent. Will this mean that for my swim in late August (colder water) I need to bring dish soap or is there a better alternative? Maybe a different mix?
Comments
http://www.marathonswimmers.org/forum/discussion/comment/819#Comment_819
Because 110% is better than 100%, right?
loneswimmer.com
It's unclear from your posting but are you using your Channel Grease mix as your primary sun protection?
You only really need to use grease on whatever your personal "hotspots" for chafing are (e.g. for me that would be armpits, groin, neck), so you typically would be using a separate sun protection strategy. Having Zinc Oxide in the grease isn't going to hurt, but whatever you use for sun protection for the non chafing parts can also be applied to the chafing parts.
If you are covering yourself entirely in channel grease + Zinc Oxide mix you are going to very very messy.
Also worth mentioning that you can actually apply more grease while in the water, so you don't necessarily have to go overboard getting it on ahead of time.
http://notdrowningswimming.com - open water adventures of a very ordinary swimmer
It has only a placebo effect on heat retention.
Its messy and destroys suits, towels, goggles, and boaters hate cleaning it off their boats.
In the event of an emergency it makes it very difficult to get a swimmer out of the water.
I have found that a moderate amount of vaseline is enough to get me through anything 20 miles or shorter.
I am concerned now about the mess to be made on the boat taking me over... and that's a really good reason to back off (especially since 1/2 of the swim will be at night). And mmead, you are right in that it didn't provide any heat retention at all, but with the water around 70 this time of year, I really couldn't tell. Furthermore I'm concerned with ZnO possibly getting in muscous membranes where it's absorbed (not sure about TiO2).
Or is it just my imagination that it minimizes stings?
-M
Apologize if this question has a a prior discussion elsewhere (could not locate one). What suggestions and recommendations are there for grease or other products to apply prior to a swim?
Thanks for the info. Where do I find channel grease or is it homemade?
Homemade proportions according to personal taste.
loneswimmer.com
Agree 100%. Greasing ip is highly overrated. Spend the time to train in cold water is the only way to defeat it when it matters.
Thanks for all responses. Very helpful.
@mlkma1, I would say that something like grease is beneficial if you, like me, rash up. My pits and inner thigh rash up something fierce. I get what my wife and I lovingly call "baby butt cream," aka Desitin. I slather it in my pits, inner thighs, some on my neck, and it takes care of the problem.
Now if you're thinking grease for heat retention, then see above.
We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams
I use Bag Balm, but I'm not under the illusion that it retains any heat. I am fairly prone to chafing, even sometimes for a long pool workout, so i apply fairly liberally, but only to areas that are prone to chafing (armpits, shoulders because of my chin, groin because of my suit)
Sport Slick is my choice for chafing protection.
Hadn't heard of that before. The Mission 5 hour stuff I sometimes use in the pool doesn't come in a roll on fashion anymore, which I find unfortunate, and body glide doesn't last very long. How long does this stuff stay on?
I may have to experiment with this in the coming weeks/months.
Quick question, do you have to heat up the channel grease to use it? Or is that only during the creation process with vaseline. Thank you!
I've thrown out many a hotel room towel scraping that crap off of me after a race. It's never let me down until it was time to get it off.
I've never been a true believer that lanolin/Channel grease helps with heat retention. Maybe it helps with the initial shock of the cold water. The only time I ever used it was during my Channel swim. I had a small amount smeared on my shoulders. I'll use the analogy of a triathlete spending a ton of cash on some nice aerobars or Zipp wheels. Yes, they might give you a small advantage, but there's no way for stuff like that to overcome not being ready or in shape. Lathering yourself up with grease to the point you look like a wedding cake isn't going to do you a damn thing if you haven't trained the miles or suffered in the cold before the Big Day.
Chris