The Old And New Of Swimming

The Old And New Of Swimming

Steven Munatones 08/13/2019 open water swimming No Comment

The Old And New Of Swimming

Courtesy of Pam Lazzarotto, Seal Beach, California.

Older masters swimmers and veteran open water swimmers remember the days before GPS and gel packs, before polarized goggles and pull buoys or training fins of all sizes and shapes.

They trained for hours without hydration or digital pace clocks.

They swam for hours without wrist watches that track a number of training parameters and water temperatures.

These old-timers never imagined jammers or techsuits in their younger years.  There were no Instagram posts, tweets, livecasts or Facebook Live feeds of their swims and events.

But technology carries on and technological improvements and innovations in the sport continue.

Fortunately, for those swimmers like Pam Lazzarotto, the kickboard that she used in the 1970s as a young teenager is still in use.  “Those boards were indestructible, most of them are still around,” says Steven Munatones.  “Even though Pam’s kickboard is a throwback to the 1970’s, but she also uses the new training gear like the FINIS Agility Paddles.

The old and new shall ever meet in the world of swimming.”

Alex Kostich recalls his days as a young age-group swimmer.

“I used to fight over the lone orange Water Wonder kickboard at the Harvard IAB pool because all the others were a basic blue. But all the kickboards had the telltale Dolphin logo on them. Having the orange kickboard for a kick set was a status symbol to a 7-year-old.”

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Steven Munatones
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