Swim Buoys: A Must-Wear for Open Water Swimming


It’s bright. It’s floaty. And yeah, on windy days it can be a pain in the ass, but STILL…all open water swimmers should be using a swim buoy aka tow float (as they say in the UK).

For nearly six years I’ve been swimming with a New Wave Swim Buoy. In that time I’ve tried different styles and colors. The company has evolved its offering to many varieties: 15l or 20l, bubble or bag-type which is handy for stashing a Go Pro, or an encased phone (which the company also makes—waterproof cases), etc. A couple swims I’ve even tucked in a sundress, cash and light flip flops for a long point-to-point swim when upon exiting, I just dressed and got coffee to warm up.
Some swimmers feel bound or constricted wearing a buoy, but it’s really nothing at all. If you have good form there is no reason you cannot wear one and swim seamlessly. Play with the strap lengths; it works.

Why have one?
·     Visibility in places where there are (errant) boaters zipping around. Like lakes, or near marinas. Because nobody wants to be run over.
·         Selfishly, to track your fellow swimmers! I don’t care if I’ve swum the same spot hundreds of times. I want to know where everyone is at all times. When you swim at different paces over long distances, these bright little beacons are fantastic to spot even hundreds of yards away.
·         Superstitiously, I think since we are so often in wetsuits, we look like seals. Having this neon plastic appendage I feel wards off pinnipeds and other creatures out there to stay back—or at least not associate us immediately as fellow pinnipeds. That’s just me!
·         They light up great with a little LED bulb or flashlight tucked into the bag for pre-sunrise or night swims. I don’t night swim but I do a few before-the-light swims…as few as possible, ha!
·         This is grim but serious on the above topic of visibility: rescue and/or recovery. A swim friend who did a marathon swim no sooner crossed a finish line, had a heart attack and perished in a swift river. The event did not mandate swim buoys. His body was eventually found not far from the finish area but almost two days later. Imagine if he had a float; it’s possible he would have been found and his life might have even been saved.


Even though I’m still working on a few swim buddies to cross over and be perennial buoy-bearers, on longer swims I have seen more friends “clip in” and it makes me happy. I personally feel safer knowing I can see them, swim to them if needed and that they are being seen, too.  Best $35 you’ll spend!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The family curse

Image
We have a family curse not unfamiliar to millions of Americans: alcoholism. Especially for the males on both sides of my family, the drink has really challenged the men. My maternal uncles came through it using the 12-step program. My father quit at age 76, cold turkey, after a cascade of serious health problems delivered the final ultimatum: quit or die soon. One aunt by marriage somewhat recently had and survived a liver transplant—which is fantastic. But my brother, Brion, is on a different and heartbreaking journey.  As I write this, I’m at home in the PNW while my mom is at Brion’s bedside in a San Diego hospital based (inpatient) hospice. Things are so fragile. Time is short. I’m still processing what I’ve witnessed in the last few months and the progression to this present-day byproduct of alcoholism: hepatorenal syndrome (HRS) at end-stage liver disease from alcohol-related cirrhosis. Our family members got a crash course in all the processes, medications, terminology, trea...
Read more

A glimpse at now (and where did 2022 go)?

Image
  Jersey UK, Summer 2022 MV Lionheart, our pilot boat It has begun: Another year of training this middle-aged bod to be athletic for a long San Diego swim.   I say that in relative terms. “Long” isn’t doing the entire English Channel, but it’s not a 5k goal either. In 2013, I had yet to swim a straight 5k! In 2021 I finally edged up to 18.6 to swim around Coronado. I thought I was sated on marathon swimming until I signed up for another route in San Diego that intrigued me: Pt Loma to Ocean Beach, aka The 15k PLOB. October will bring this adventure, with swim pal Becky tandem-ing the entire route alongside. I’m thrilled (awed!) to swim this very cliff-lined coastal route and see a part of San Diego from an angle I’ve yet to see. Since mid-December I’ve been grunting it out at weekly CrossFit p/t, sprinkling in swims and additional gym workouts, and focusing in on nutrition. The ravages of perimenopause are sucky! It takes all the interventions to feel normal, let alone athle...
Read more

Bridge to Bridge Swim 10k, San Francisco

Image
You had me at "current assist." Yeah the distance between the Golden Gate Bridge and the SF-Oakland Bay Bridge is 10k/6.4 miles-ish, but timed to swim inland on a moderate flood tide you get a nice little ride. For bigger tidal exchanges you get an even faster ride!  The COVID-19 scare was just setting in when we did this swim--March 8, 2020. Initially it was to be four Seattle swimmers on a charter with SF's The Pacific Open Water Swim Co. Fees were paid, flights were purchased and hotels were booked. The very swimmer who initiated this idea ended no going on the swim and stayed in Seattle with concerns about the pandemic. The other three of wanted to jump on the chance to do this swim before we were mandated to quarantine, which is exactly what would follow weeks later.  Swimmers Clare O'Connell, Mitchel Schoenfeld and I piled into an Uber and made our way from the wharf to Sausalito in still dark morning. We had our flight carry-ons and the boat crew protested it w...
Read more