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Wetsuit ban

CCSCCS Posts: 53
Just got an e-mail...owing to the balmy (23.5 degrees) water temperatures, there is a wetsuit ban at Dorney lake this weekend.
How on earth am I going to float now?
Can I borrow my daughter's armbands or something like that?

Any words of wisdom greatly appreciated for a brick-like swimmer who is scared of deep water!

Comments

  • CCSCCS Posts: 53
    ...I need more kit....?
    The audit committee at home will have a field day (as it is, I need to sneak my new bike shoes in hidden in a bag)
  • smernickismernicki Posts: 16
    Indeed - this fills me with dread. I understand why this policy mightbe in place but surely it should be a guidline rather than a rule? I would guess that 99% of entrants have never done a suitless o/w swim of any real distance - I certainly haven't. The temerature in only just over 22d so I believe it should be left to comeptitors to decide on this wearing or not.
  • BmanBman Posts: 442
    My heart also sank when I got that email. Im going to try get some long distance in tonight without the wetsuit to see how it feels. Not nice, I can imagine. I feel a lot more relaxed in a wetsuit.
  • gdh250467gdh250467 Posts: 237
    My heart sinks for you all. DId my first OD race on the weekend, and the wrtsuit was my comfort blanket. Don't think I would have tried it without a wetsuit. Can do the distance in the pool, unrushed, but OW and racing. Hope they provide more safety craft, as exhausted swimmers in trouble won't be able to lie back and flaot in wetsuits until their rescued. I hope the good weatehr continues, but not to the extent that other venues I'm booked into warm up to the extent Dorney seems to have.
  • I was actually thinking how nice it'd be to swim in OW without the wetsuit on a while back but thought it wasn't really allowed, I did quite a long sea swim a couple weeks ago in the South of France, just in a pair of draggy Hawaiian Jams (and cheap steamy goggles) .. I'm not the best of swimmers by any means but if anything swimming without the wetsuit feels more natural to me, it's wearing and breathing in the suit that took the getting used to. Saying that i do understand that it's a comfort it terms of buoyancy on the longer distances, but I'm sure once you're in it'll all click into place .. perhaps do a shorter circuit to start and see how you feel.
    Just imagine you're a kid away on summer camp .. first thing you do is go flying into the lake and swim your heart out, of course that's always without consideration of any safety.

    are there any big fish in Dorney lake ?!
  • actually, sorry I'm thinking of Datchet lake, Dorney is the Eton venue ...
    well, i'm sure the usual advise would still stand, try and relax, start slow and find your pace .. and as much as possible, enjoy it.
  • CCSCCS Posts: 53
    Appreciate the risk of overheating if I were to wear a wetsuit - but I do like my swimming pool to be about 28 degrees - so 23 still seems pretty cold!

    Do I expect to see people rubbed in lard to keep warm in the manner of a cross channel swimmer (or is that just an urban myth put about by Blue Peter in my youth...?)
  • cammykcammyk Posts: 36
    i thought the cutoff point was 25C
  • durhamvamdurhamvam Posts: 246
    oh dear, I hope it isn't that warm up here - got my first OW session this afternoon and was sort of looking forward to trying out the wetsuit (always assuming I can get into it before everyone else has got out ). I think we might be verging on it though since I believe the venue is somewhat of a puddle and it sure is warm today (30 C in the lab at the moment - makes working in the cold room at 4 C almost appealing)
  • smernickismernicki Posts: 16
    Panic over. I spent an hour in the water this mornign without wetsuit ploughing away and put in more than enough meters to cover the OD at Dorny this Sunday and I am reminded that it's not really that much harder - in fact, as suggested by a previous poster, I'm now looking forward to a non-suit swim this weekend. For those of you who shared my initial concerns, I'd say don't worry too much - the thought is worse than the reality.
    Now.....the only question is do I use my new SpecializedTransition which I've only spent an hour on so far, or stick with the tested Tarmac Comp? Oh the pressures of the modern day amateur triathlete!
  • I'm doing the Steelman on the Sunday - I can't work out whether the wetsuit ban is good news or not. On the minus side, I would probably be about 2 minutes faster in a wetsuit so, by the time you take off the saved transition time, I'll probably be a good 1-1.5mins slower than I could have been. On the plus side, I've never done an open water swim without a wetsuit, and it is quite cool to be doing the triathlon the same way that the elites normally do. I certainly doubt we'll ever get a second chance to do an open water swim in the UK with a wetsuit ban. The PB might just have to wait for next year....
  • Im SpartacusIm Spartacus Posts: 204
    Just thinking ahead a little, what is the likleyhood of a ban being enforced at London ? gulp.

    Bloody typical, just get over my fear of ow swimming as I cant sink in my wettie and now this !
  • TommiTriTommiTri Posts: 879
    I just thought say that I swam in our lake this morning and I believe it was 22-23 degrees, I did one lap in the wetsuit and then had to get it off as I felt incredibly restricted and couldn't breath.
    So I did the next 2 laps without one, it was so much nicer and I felt so much less restricted

    That said, I did the first 1k lap in approx 15 mins, second and third laps in about 17:30! So that shows that even though I felt horrible in the wetsuit it was still significantly faster.
  • gingertrigingertri Posts: 277
    so are all OW swims currently allowing non-wetsuits? was going to go to reading tomorrow, so if i dont need a wetsuit, i can cycle, swim, then cycle home!
  • Im SpartacusIm Spartacus Posts: 204
    Nope, you are free to wear a wetsuit if you wish, I checked.
  • Im SpartacusIm Spartacus Posts: 204
    Wot no edit ?

    Reread post, you don't need to wear one if you don't want.
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