Swimmer's Daily

  • Most broken-down vehicles end up in a junkyard — not this retro French bus.

    It’s getting a second life as a quirky swimming pool.

    Artist Benedetto Bufalino, whose work often involves turning vehicles into whimsical water installations, gutted an old charter bus, removing the seats, flooring and side panels. Tipped on its side, the bus was fitted with a custom liner so that the basin could hold water. The finished pool measures almost 30 feet long and 8 feet wide, with the capacity for 10 swimmers at a time.

    The surreal installation, located in Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin, A UNESCO World Heritage site, is part of a local arts program called “Odyssée Euralens,” which the town hopes will attract tourists to the area.

    The pool, which opened in August, will be moved to three more sites before it finds a permanent home.

    See the New York Post

  • The Alaska School Activities Association will not decertify the official who disqualified a female Dimond High School swimmer for wearing a suit that showed too much of her buttocks.

    But it appears the official, Eagle River’s Jill Blackstone, won’t be able to referee any swim meets for the rest of this season.

    The Anchorage School District requested the decertification, which would strip the official of her ability to referee swim meets in the Anchorage area.

    The district will bar the official from participating in any more district-sponsored swim meets as long as existing uniform rules remain in place, a spokesman said Wednesday. The district is responsible for providing officials for three district-level meets Friday as well as regional competition at the end of the month, officials say.

    Blackstone — who ASAA didn’t name in its statement — won’t work the state swim meet either, according to Billy Strickland, Alaska School Activities Association executive director.

    “I want the attention to be on the students and their achievements,” Strickland said. “I’m not going to put her in a position of doing it. And I don’t even know if she’d do it if asked.”

    Blackstone released a brief statement Wednesday praising ASAA’s decision.

    “I am thankful the Alaska State Activities Association rejected the Anchorage School District’s request for my decertification as unwarranted under the circumstances and rules in place at the time of the disqualification,” she wrote in an email to the Chugiak-Eagle River Star.

    The controversy made national headlines amid accusations of body-shaming from some in the Anchorage swim community. The Dimond swimmer involved, senior Breckynn Willis, appeared on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” last Friday. Willis and her younger sister are among the state’s best swimmers.

    Read Anchorage Daily News and KTUU

  • Incredible images show a fever of thousands of Mobula rays — also called devil rays — swimming in near-perfect formation just off the Mexican shore.

    The images were taken by ocean photographer Nadia Aly, SWNS reports. Aly, 35, had been swimming for four hours near the group in Baja California, Mexico, when she snapped the pics.

    See WDRB

    https://youtu.be/urKxCtfNHuA

  • An 83-year-old male freediver who was found unresponsive in about 8 feet of water this afternoon off of Heeia Kea Pier in Kaneohe Bay was pronounced dead at the scene, Emergency Medical Services said.

    The Honolulu Fire Department responded to a diver in distress with seven units, including Air 1, and 20 personnel.

    The first unit, which arrived at 12:40 p.m., launched a rescue craft and investigated, according to HFD spokesman Scot Seguirant. It was reported that a diver had gotten into trouble while diving.

    Two divers were freediving and one diver returned to the boat. After some time he realized that the second diver had not surfaced and notified 911. HFD personnel located the unresponsive man in about 8 feet of water.

    Read Star Advertiser

    Photo by Bob Linsdell

  • Today, one out of three people don’t have access to safe drinking water. And that’s the result of many things, but one of them is that 96.5% of that water is found in our oceans. It’s saturated with salt, and undrinkable. Most of the freshwater is locked away in glaciers or deep underground. Less than one percent of it is available to us. So why can’t we just take all that seawater, filter out the salt, and have a nearly unlimited supply of clean, drinkable water?

  • Swim The Loop is a Without Limits Event. The race starts and finishes at the Dockside Restaurant, which is located on Airlie Road (Wilmington side of the Intracoastal Waterway). The race will start at a high tide to ensure an even tide pattern throughout the 3.5 mile swim. Don’t be fooled though; there will be times of slight incoming tide, slight falling tide and a mostly slack tide.

  • Enjoy this look back at Michael Phelps’ historic performance at the Summer Olympic Games 2008 in Beijing, China.

    https://youtu.be/3o7I0FxFNeQ

  • A former Rocklin High School swimmer who is among the first Placer County Special Olympians ever to win two silver medals at the Special Olympics World Games is about to embark on another international trip. This time the focus isn’t on medals, but instead spreading a message about inclusiveness. “It’s a great opportunity, I think, to spread Special Olympics all over the world,” said Alec Heuermann.