So, I wake up and I see I got an email from Swim Outlet. The subject header says, 'New 2010 Racing Suits."I clicked on the email and there I saw the photo of the January 2010 "racing suits" featured above!
"Oh noes, it's really happening!" There will be be no Easter bunny, no US Calvary coming over the hill, or some Deus ex Machina to save technical suits for another year.
So I go to work, talk to Clay Evans in the afternoon about it and he yelled at me for five-minutes about how rotten speedsuits are, about how unfair they are, and how they corrupt kids too...
Well, actually he only ranted for 30-seconds but he went over the same 30-seconds, 10-times.
Sort of like a workout set: 10-rants on the :30, raise your voice 1-5, and then do it again 6-through-10 - Ready, goooo!
So, I come home and I see that Swimming World has a post that FINIS is having a polyurethane speedsuit sale of their newly approved AMPhibian Tech Suit.
Here is what I read:
AMPhibian™ Tech Suits:
Uniquely engineered racing suits that are bred for the water. Utilizes dual fabric technology, specialized compression networks, and stabilizing strips to help you achieve the optimal body position in the water.
* Male & Female Long John:$349.99$60.00
* Male & Female Short John:$299.99$50.00
* Male Race Tight:$249.99$40.00
* Male Jammer$199.99$25.00
[Link]
TYR and b70 have much better looking product, but I hope I can fix that with some oleophilic spray paint!
Ultimately price point has made me switch brands for a while. I will post a review when I get it in a week or so. :-)
14 comments:
I LOL'd at the workout.
So is it true?
Clay is starting to repeat himself in his middle age?
Thank goodness he is so revered and we all still love him!
Thanks, but I didn't! 0_ΓΈ
He's mad that someone he never heard off set a world record in the 200 free in his age group wearing a speedsuit when in college this person was benched.
He said speedsuits are bad for kids, make swimming less fair and asked the rhetorical questions as to where you draw the line.
Also, what is frustrating is that Clay has the ability to be the Erik Hockstein of his age group. He could be unbeatable and be setting WRs.
You saw hi sfly. frustrates me that the desire isn't here
Has either FINA or USMS made a decision regarding the suits and masters swimming yet?
The USMS nor FINA Masters has come out with an official decision.
I made my purchase "betting" that masters swimming will allow speedsuits.
I am "guesstimating" that FINA does not want to pick that fight since globally Masters Swimming is fragile outside the United States..
Thank you Tony. I'd also guess that the tech suits are going to be allowed for a while longer in masters swimming, but for a different reason: it's a sop to the suit manufacturers, an opportunity for them to unload their excess inventory so they don't have to take a complete bath on it.
That ad also makes me sad. I don't want to swim in jammers. I don't want to shave my body. I actually thought you doctored up an old ad Tony, and posted that. How discouraging.
"Also, what is frustrating is that Clay has the ability to be the Erik Hockstein of his age group. He could be unbeatable and be setting WRs."
Thankfully he had his fill of swimming up and down a pool in his youth - if all the ex-Olympian's returned to compete as Masters it would leave all the rest of us with a decidedly deflated opinion of ourselves. ;>}
You must have gotten the email too and saw it was for real?
I felt the same way.
You two would really get along well. When you come to L.A. I will introduce you.
Definitely felt that email ad blast selling the 2010 racing suits was a reality slap in the face. The suits are not only old school... but unattractive looking. Boo hoo!
And hey!
Clay Evans not only rocked the pool as an Olympian nad NCAA D1 swimmer, but for years schooled the masters swimming world with fast racing.
Look up past results.
Masters swimmers do not realize how difficult and time consuming it can be for their coaches to "encourage" athletes to swim in masters meets.
After a few years most of them get burned out and move on to goals of building teams that resemble heath clubs.
Thats' where the revenue is and the reality of a successful program in the eyes of most organizations GM, BODs, and or team owners.
I remember swimming against Clay when we were both 25, 26, and 27. I had been an ordinary high school and college swimmer; he had been a Canadian Olympian, an All-American at UCLA, and (I think) an Olympic finalist in the 100 lcm fly, with a best of 56.0, back when the WR was still a 54.27 by Spitz. And he had four perfect strokes. I felt like a boy swimming against a man. Back then he, Steve Baxter, and Jim Montgomery were tearing up the masters record books left and right. As Scott said, thank goodness they're gone. (Montgomery still competes, but doesn't seem to be dong it with any great passion.)
It's interesting, when you look at the masters record books, the guys who hold the records in the younger age groups were almost all studs in their youth, if not Olympians then at least NCAA finalists or people of that caliber. It's only when you get to the older age groups that there's room for little geeks like me, obsessives who just hung on for thirty years. But even then, whenever one of the former studs decides to come out of retirement, he blows the rest of us away.
has anyone tried the Amphibian? good suit?
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