CLDSA now has an official wetsuit category for its solo swims!

miklcctmiklcct London, United KingdomMem​ber

Update from social media.

Starting from 1st July this year, wetsuit swims are officially ratified as a category of its own, and also assisted swims. Now wetsuit swimmers are officially doing the Robben Island crossing!!!!!!!!! although past swims aren't retroactively ratified.

Now, CLDSA has followed suit of ACNEG in officially recognising wetsuit swimmers. Let's hope other association will follow as well.

Tagged:

Comments

  • Iconic Robben island crossing with wetsuit!
    Interesting!

    After few years crossing will be with wetsuits and fins! But to be officially u must be escorted with 3 kayaks!
    More and more "swimmers" will tell their story abouth RI crossing in the bar!
    Craz world!
    My opinion!

    curlyIronMikeLakeBaggerflystormsMLamby
  • curlycurly Issaquah, WASenior Member

    There is quite the effort by the wetsuit manufacturers to normalize using a wetsuit while swimming. And it isn't going to stop. Triathletes have completely embraced them. There are tons of comments about how they help you float better etc. I saw two swimmers in my lake the other day with wetsuits. Water temp was 78F.

    To give you an idea of how heavy and insidious the marketing of wetsuits is, I will share an experience from a few years ago. It was winter and I was swimming laps at my regular pool. At some point a fit and healthy looking couple walked out onto the pool deck wearing identically branded wetsuits. They stood on the deck looking fit and healthy for a while. Then they joined in a couple lanes and started swimming. I took great pleasure in passing them constantly, so I don't think they liked me too much.

    It must have been a bad day for them, having to swim in 82F water with a wetsuit. I think they probably were swimming as slow as possible to not overheat and die. At any rate, it occurred to me later that this must have been a marketing effort because I've never seen those two since. And nobody in their right mind would wear a full wetsuit in an 82F pool.

    KatieBunJSwimabbygirlroseevmoIronMikeruthLakeBaggerboobooaboowendyv34MLamby
  • KatieBunKatieBun CornwallSenior Member

    I don't care what people wear as long as there are separate categories. I still struggle with cold water, frequently get chilblains and every 6 hour qualifier is a huge effort, during which I spend at least four of those hours with audibly chattering teeth. I have to work hard at it, so forgive me if I feel a tiny bit strongly about the additional warmth, buoyancy and streamlining provided by neoprene. Good luck to wetsuit swimmers but it just isn't the same challenge. Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now and go and put the kettle on.

    JSwimcurlyevmoOpenh2oCopelj26IronMikeSolobruck
  • miklcctmiklcct London, United KingdomMem​ber
    edited July 2021

    @KatieBun said:
    I still struggle with cold water, frequently get chilblains and every 6 hour qualifier is a huge effort, during which I spend at least four of those hours with audibly chattering teeth. I have to work hard at it, so forgive me if I feel a tiny bit strongly about the additional warmth, buoyancy and streamlining provided by neoprene.

    You should be happy here because you can now officially enter the wetsuit category!!!!!!!!!

    I'm not as tough as you, as demonstrated by the fact that I pulled myself out at 3 hours during my first qualifier attempt in 15°C this year after I started shivering.

    P.S. I made a gross mistake in my Channel training naïvely thinking that I could swim for hours in May after I moved to the UK, keeping my fitness across continent. The result was that I put my pressure off by completing the qualifier early June, but lost so much fitness over the month that I could no longer catch it back even now in July, 2 months before my slot. In retrospect I think I should prioritise fitness over acclimation, by delaying my move until late May / early June, as it was still possible for me to build to 30-40 km per week in Hong Kong when the sea is 24-25°C in May.

    @curly said:
    There is quite the effort by the wetsuit manufacturers to normalize using a wetsuit while swimming. And it isn't going to stop. Triathletes have completely embraced them. There are tons of comments about how they help you float better etc. I saw two swimmers in my lake the other day with wetsuits. Water temp was 78F.

    To give you an idea of how heavy and insidious the marketing of wetsuits is, I will share an experience from a few years ago. It was winter and I was swimming laps at my regular pool. At some point a fit and healthy looking couple walked out onto the pool deck wearing identically branded wetsuits. They stood on the deck looking fit and healthy for a while. Then they joined in a couple lanes and started swimming. I took great pleasure in passing them constantly, so I don't think they liked me too much.

    It must have been a bad day for them, having to swim in 82F water with a wetsuit. I think they probably were swimming as slow as possible to not overheat and die. At any rate, it occurred to me later that this must have been a marketing effort because I've never seen those two since. And nobody in their right mind would wear a full wetsuit in an 82F pool.

    My attitude to wetsuits has completely changed after reading those researches proving that swim fitness does not help preventing hypothermia, as in the case of elite FINA swimmers. I have removed North Channel from my own bucket list, leaving Gibraltar and Hong Kong (both in tandem) in it. If one day ILDSA follows suit and creates a wetsuit category like ACNEG as well, I will consider doing it. (For Gibraltar I plan to do it in skin as the temperature is, IMHO, not appropriate for wetsuit, but I have a friend who has done it in suit.) A wetsuit is necessary to prevent hypothermia for an extended time in cold water, even Olympic swimmers, by definition the greatest and fittest swimmers on Earth, can't outswim physics.

    I'll buy myself a triathlon wetsuit as a reward after I complete my English Channel swim this year, in order to continue open water training over the winter to keep my fitness rather than getting too cold to continue every time. I'll put it on depending on how long and how cold I want to swim, like how triathletes are doing. For temperature 18°C (65°F in American terms) or above I won't put on one for any race distance, and for shorter races the threshold is lower until it reaches the wetsuit-compulsory threshold.

    I'll still do cold water swimming in skin in the winter, but only for short distance, as hypothermia takes about half an hour to develop even in ice water.

  • KatieBunKatieBun CornwallSenior Member
    edited July 2021

    @miklcct said:

    @KatieBun said:
    I still struggle with cold water, frequently get chilblains and every 6 hour qualifier is a huge effort, during which I spend at least four of those hours with audibly chattering teeth. I have to work hard at it, so forgive me if I feel a tiny bit strongly about the additional warmth, buoyancy and streamlining provided by neoprene.

    You should be happy here because you can now officially enter the wetsuit category!!!!!!!!!

    I'm not as tough as you, as demonstrated by the fact that I pulled myself out at 3 hours during my first qualifier attempt in 15°C this year after I started shivering.

    I will never enter the wetsuit category. It certainly wouldn't make me happy......quite apart from the fact that I hate the feeling of constriction in a wetsuit. I will continue to challenge myself. Why would I want to go backwards?

    You can't say you're "not as tough". You've done your qualifier, Michael, and you continue to do 6 hour swims at Durley. You are somebody who sets yourself difficult challenges and has high standards and you've done some amazing swims already this season.

    You have a choice......carry on building on the fantastic progress you've already made or decide to take the easy way out. For me the easy way isn't an option. Best of luck this year!

    bruckmiklcctStephenIronMikeflystorms
  • bruckbruck San FranciscoMember
    edited July 2021

    @miklcct said: A wetsuit is necessary to prevent hypothermia for an extended time in cold water

    Such a profoundly naive statement, especially as you don't define "hypothermia" (mild? moderate?) or "extended time" (how long?) or "cold water" (how cold?).

    For experienced cold water swimmers, mild hypothermia is inherent to the activity and a non-issue. Generations of marathon swimmers have demonstrated that swimming for an "extended time" in "cold water" without a wetsuit and without progressing beyond mild hypothermia is a skill that can be developed by just about anybody.

    Michael, the sooner you realize that you are coming to this sport as a beginner and understand very little, the sooner you will progress in your skills and knowledge.

    KatieBunwendyv34IronMikeflystorms
  • miklcctmiklcct London, United KingdomMem​ber
    edited July 2021

    @bruck said:

    @miklcct said: A wetsuit is necessary to prevent hypothermia for an extended time in cold water

    Such a profoundly naive statement, especially as you don't define "hypothermia" (mild? moderate?) or "extended time" (how long?) or "cold water" (how cold?).

    For experienced cold water swimmers, mild hypothermia is inherent to the activity and a non-issue. Generations of marathon swimmers have demonstrated that swimming for an "extended time" in "cold water" without a wetsuit and without progressing beyond mild hypothermia is a skill that can be developed by just about anybody.

    Ok, I define it now:
    16°C at 2 hours leading to swim ending hypothermia for the world's best swimmers participating in FINA circuit. (the research was done before the wetsuit rule was introduced, and the temperature limit was 16°C at that time)

    If you say it can be developed by just about anybody, why couldn't the top swimmers in the world do that, leading to DNFs in races?

  • bruckbruck San FranciscoMember
    edited July 2021

    Because modern pro open water swimmers don't train for cold water. There was little incentive to do so, even before the wetsuit rule. Very few pro races were held in even sub-20C. FINA open water racers do almost all of their day-to-day training in the pool.

    miklcctcurlywendyv34IronMike
  • brunobruno Barcelona (Spain)Senior Member

    @miklcct said:
    Even Olympic swimmers, by definition the greatest and fittest swimmers on Earth, can't outswim physics.

    You should understand than FINA swimming is a different sport from what we understand here as Marathon swimming. For example as a 3000m running on the track is different from cross-country. Therefore, you can't compare achievements. Or, maybe if an Olympic champ can't swim the North Channel, perhaps she/he is not that great?

    As for FINA and triathlon rules, and studies behind them, I tend to be slightly cynical and think that it's all about business, i.e. selling wetsuits. Same reason (business) why they flout their own rules and allow swims at temp >31ºC, putting lives at risk.

    You should also understand that most of us here are not at all interested in entering any wetsuit category. Our challenge is, precisely, swimming without any assistance.

    KatieBunStephenKate_Alexandercurlywendyv34flystormsMLamby
  • boobooabooboobooaboo Seattle, WA, United StatesNew Member

    @curly said:
    There is quite the effort by the wetsuit manufacturers to normalize using a wetsuit while swimming. And it isn't going to stop. Triathletes have completely embraced them. There are tons of comments about how they help you float better etc. I saw two swimmers in my lake the other day with wetsuits. Water temp was 78F.

    To give you an idea of how heavy and insidious the marketing of wetsuits is, I will share an experience from a few years ago. It was winter and I was swimming laps at my regular pool. At some point a fit and healthy looking couple walked out onto the pool deck wearing identically branded wetsuits. They stood on the deck looking fit and healthy for a while. Then they joined in a couple lanes and started swimming. I took great pleasure in passing them constantly, so I don't think they liked me too much.

    It must have been a bad day for them, having to swim in 82F water with a wetsuit. I think they probably were swimming as slow as possible to not overheat and die. At any rate, it occurred to me later that this must have been a marketing effort because I've never seen those two since. And nobody in their right mind would wear a full wetsuit in an 82F pool.

    78 with a wetsuit can be a problem....82 with a wetsuit is definitely a problem. The lakes round here are all plenty warm!

    miklcct
  • LynneLynne Member

    @KatieBun said:
    I don't care what people wear as long as there are separate categories. I still struggle with cold water, frequently get chilblains and every 6 hour qualifier is a huge effort, during which I spend at least four of those hours with audibly chattering teeth. I have to work hard at it, so forgive me if I feel a tiny bit strongly about the additional warmth, buoyancy and streamlining provided by neoprene. Good luck to wetsuit swimmers but it just isn't the same challenge. Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now and go and put the kettle on.

    Kate, for the RI crossings, it is a separate category.

    KatieBun
Sign In or Register to comment.