Sponsored by KAATSU Global, Huntington Beach, California. Becca Mann, one of the world's fastest freestylers in both the pool or open water, described her experiences in competing at the FINA World Swimming Championships against the world's best on today's edition of WOWSA Live. The 22-year-old published author and screenwriter at USC, who was the
Photography courtesy of Mike Lewis, Ola Vista Photography, California. Andrew Gemmell is considered a genius in the open water swimming world with a navigational IQ that is off the charts. The 2012 Olympian's choice of direction in every condition during every race is calculated internally by his own cranial GPS, but his courses are set like he has a
Around the pool deck, it is rumored that open water swimmers have bad flips turns. While that may be true, turns are defined differently by open water swimming community. Great pool swimmers know how to quickly get in and out of the walls - and how important that skill is. World-class pool swimmers gain momentum as they streamline off the wall with
We love the massive turn buoys used in Brazil. They are big, they are easy to see, they promote the sponsors. Because they are so big and easy to sight, when the currents are flowing especially laterally (either perpendicularly or diagonally to the turn buoys), swimmers can easily modify their course to take advantage of the currents AND hit the buoys
Professor Ricardo Ratto was out on Copacabana Beach in the pitch darkness at 3 am this Sunday morning in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. "We come out early and set the [rectangular] turn buoys according to our GPS readings," explains the FINA referee. "We have to know what the winds will be so we then set the buoys according to the impact of the winds on the
Sometimes you are just stuck in the middle of a huge pack of thrashing, splashing open water swimmers or triathletes clad in black. You cannot swim left and you cannot swim right. You are boxed in and cannot move from your position. You are frustrated and you may even be the recipient of unintentional physicality. What do you do? You have several
The thing we greatly appreciate and respect about open water swimmers is their integrity. There is no wiggle room in the sport; there are no shortcuts. Swimmers face Mother Nature head-on. They traverse from one shore to the shore; they swim around the buoys; they cannot avoid oncoming currents or punishing waves. Open water swimming is a simple sport
Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California. Athletes of every sport spend hours of time preparing for a race, match, game, or event. Preparation includes practice, workouts, drills, scrimmages, weight-training, dryland work, rehabilitation, and mental preparation. While majority of athletes accept that it is the work they put in beforehand that
Ten Big Ideas for the future Open Water Swimming, predicted in 2013 by the World Open Water Swimming Association
