2008 SPMA Short Course Meters Championships Results are posted!

Here is a letter I got from Ken Brisbin of the Long Beach Grunions. How about that first paragraph? Best part was being there to see it all happen:

Dear: Tony Austin:

I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank you for attending the 2008 SPMA Short Course Meters Championship hosted by the Long Beach Grunions. Like last year we were lucky enough to have a fast pool with around 30 world records set. We hope you had as much fun attending the event as we did hosting it.

Looking back at this year's event, we grew to include more swimmers from more places around the country and world than ever before. With this growth came new challenges to maintain the event's efficiency, accuracy and excitement. We, as Grunions, are always up to the challenge, and are always excited to hear both positive and negative feedback from you. This is the best way to help us ensure this meet's continued success so please let us know your thoughts.

The complete results are available now at: [Link]

Thank you

Ken Brisbin

Meet Director - Long Beach Grunions ..."

The most innovative and coolest start dive I saw at the '2008 SPMA Short Course Meters Championships!'

In a breaststroke heat there was this gentleman with a "plushy tummy" in lane 8 who owned everybody on his start dive by two or three body lengths. It was so cool, so innovative, and funny that everybody in the grandstands sitting near me did a collective "WOW!"

When this gentleman got up to the start blocks he was "amped" and ready to "attack" in his full bodied, "old school," speedsuit. When the bell went off, he leaped off the blocks more straight-up in the air rather than out towards the flags and when he reached the apex of his dive, he did a pike, frog-leg style, and then made this freakishly loud "ker-plunge" into the water. The kind of sound five bags of cement would make if dropped off a 3-meter diving board!

Then the swimmer went down, down, down, seemingly to about 9-feet-deep where he sort of leveled out and then did his dolphin kick-out at a 45-degree angle upward using both the oxygen in his lungs and his "plushy tummy" as a float. I was completely baffled as to what he was doing down there till I saw him emerge 2-3 body lengths ahead. I have never seen someone travel that far from a dive

When he popped up out of the water he had traversed three-quarters of a pool length. It was Epic! Now, I want to do a 50-breast next year just to do that crazy entry dive.

The jumping frog photo comes from National Geographic: [Link]

Masters Swimming: '2008 SPMA Short Course Meters Championships' are being held this weekend!

I can barely write and I can barely think right now for I swam at the 2008 SPMA Short Course Meters Championships and my brain is as tired as my arms.

Let me get this out of the way first: I did something really 'stoooopid' today that consequently had a official berate me over the PA system at the Belmont Plaza and it certainly wasn't fun.

I took a photo today of a friend on the blocks before a race and my flash went off as I took the the photo. I have been swimming for five years and I didn't know that swim start systems use a flash device for hearing impaired swimmers as a visual que to signal the start of the race.

What's ironic is that I am officially hearing impaired; (I can't hear out of my left ear), and so when the race official said no flash photography before the race start, I didn't hear him because I am HEARING IMPAIRED. So, if you were there, I was the guy that got screamed at during the womens 200 free! Also, if you are like me and didn't know about this rule or start technology for the hearing impaired - learn from my mistake.

You all are going to be seeing a lot of world record postings at Lane 9 News in the next couple of days for as many as 15 world records were set so far during this three day meet. The usual suspects too, Jenny Cook, Erik Hochstein, Jeff Cummings et al. Best part is that Jenny Cook and Erik Hochstein swim with SCAQ. I can't tell you how lucky I m to be able to swim and learn from them.

I am back tomorrow for two more events, the 100 free and and the 400 free relay. Today I swam the 200 free, the 50 free, a 200 free relay, and finally an 800 free relay.

Looking around the most preferred speedsuits were mostly older suits but for those wearing the most up to date technology, blueseventy was by far the most worn suit by masters swimmers. In one race I saw seven people on the blocks wearing the suit.

The least worn suit I saw today was the Speedo LZR: I saw only two swimmers wearing it. The buzz around the building regarding the lack of visibility was LZR longevity issues.

The Speedo Fastskin Pro II apparently is appreciated a heck of a lot more than the LZR at the masters level. People who could afford the LZR passed on it for the Fastskin Pro II. Apparently, for masters swimmers, masters swimmers want hydrophobic material and durability.

I saw three or four people wearing a TYR Tracer Light and I was one of them, a girl from San Diego set a world record in one; extraordinary swimmer too. I set a personal best in the 50-free with a time of 28.54. Then, completely exhausted I swam a 200-free in the evening in a time of 2:29.00 which was roughly the same time I swam in the morning when I was fresh.

I am wearing the Tracer again tomorrow in both the 100-free and the 400-free relay. and then I will write a review. So far I feel very positive about my $344.00 purchase but I wan to see if my personal best and swimming near my personal best in the 200 was a fluke.