Swimmer's Daily

  • Lewis Pugh swims in the life-threatening conditions of the Antarctic Ocean where killer whales, leopard seals and the freezing temperatures of the water could kill him. And he does it all while wearing a Speedo.

    Pugh recently completed three swims in the Ross Sea where the icy water is 29 degrees Fahrenheit, and the only thing colder than jumping into that water is climbing out of it: The frigid air hits wind gusts up to 47 mph.

    Contrary to what you might be thinking, Pugh isn’t crazy, and he definitely doesn’t just do this for fun. He’s swimming in vulnerable ecosystems as an effort to bring attention to the impact our actions have on the oceans.

    See USA Today

  • And waterproof to boot, see PetaPixel

    Lily is a new robotic camera drone that aims to shake up not only the drone industry, but the camera industry as a whole. It’s the world’s first “throw-and-shoot camera” that lets anyone capture cinematic aerial photos and videos without needing to do any piloting.

  • For two weeks in May, our One Ocean Media Foundation helped organize, and film, a unique learn-to-swim project on the remote Maldivian island of Eydafushi. Despite living just a couple feet above sea level, many of the locals here never learn to swim. With the support of the SLOW LIFE Foundation and the Soneva Fushi Resort, our goal was to get moms and kids more confident in the water, in part as a means to impress upon them the importance of taking better care of the beautiful ocean that surrounds them.

  • On May 3, 2015, the Stanford Aquatics team hosted their Spring Swim Clinic where they taught participants how to improve on their freestyle and backstroke. In addition, they also showed different ways on how to tighten your core. Check out this great feature and learn how you can join in future clinics hosted by Stanford Aquatics.

  • With summer right around the corner, children of all ages will be flocking back to the pool in hopes of beating the summer heat. But when is the right age to begin teaching children the basics of swimming? According to swim instructor Daniel Roberts, there is no time like the present.

    Roberts said that waiting too long to teach children the importance of swimming can cause them to fear the water, making it much more difficult for instructors to teach fundamental skills.

    “It varies a lot by kid, but I do generally say the earlier the better,” he said. “If you wait too long, they can develop a fear of water. It can just be based on something like they saw a scary movie like ‘Jaws’ when they were too young — that kind of phobia that kids develop. So earlier is better. Little kids have no fear of water. There is no natural fear there, so they take to it a lot easier.”

    Read Liberty Tribune

    Photo by North Charleston

  • The knifefish doesn’t swim the way a trout or tuna does, waving its tail fin back and forth. Its propulsion comes from one long fin on its belly, and when it swims, the fin, not the body, undulates. A continuous wave passes along the fin, and watching it can be mesmerizing.

    This method of swimming, which makes for good maneuverability but not great speed, is unusual compared to other modes, but common enough that engineers at Northwestern University studied 22 underwater creatures that use it, including invertebrates like cuttlefish and the colorful Persian carpet flatworm. All of them had not only the same kind of movement, but precisely the same wave pattern. Each wave was 20 times as long as the side to side movement of the fin, the amplitude.

    When very different creatures evolve similar traits, that’s convergent evolution, and it’s no big surprise. Bats, birds and insects all have wings, because they seem to be a pretty good way to fly. But Malcolm A. MacIver, Neelesh A. Patankar and other researchers at Northwestern did not just make this kind of qualitative comparison. They used computer analysis and studies of a robot with an undulating fin in a water tunnel to determine that the 20-to-1 ratio was the optimal engineering solution for this kind of swimming.

    They were therefore able to show how closely the species converged to a precise number, and why. Evolution honed the motion to fit the medium. Given a long fin and the undulating movement, and the physical and mechanical constraints of moving a fin in water, the trial and error of natural selection came up with the 20-to-1 ratio at least eight different times in the history of life.

    The research, reported in PLOS Biology at the end of April, showed the role of “necessity vs. chance,” Dr. MacIver said. There were variations. The 20-to-1 ratio was not always met exactly. But, he said, “we were able to highlight where nature should feel free to play jazz and the places where you’re really off the song.”

    See The New York Times

  • Katie Ledecky, the three-time All-Met Swimmer of the Year and reigning world record holder in the 400-meter, 800 and 1,500 freestyle events, made the much-anticipated decision to defer enrollment at Stanford University for the 2015-16 school year Friday, choosing to remain at home to train in the most important year yet of her young career.

    “After careful consideration and joint discussion with both my current club coach, Bruce Gemmell of Nation’s Capital Swim Club, and Stanford Coach Greg Meehan, I have decided to defer my enrollment at Stanford for one year so that I may continue my training in my home environment in Maryland leading up to the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials,” Ledecky said in a statement issued by Stone Ridge School, where she is a senior.

    Read The Washington Post

  • Olympic swimmer Rowdy Gaines has revamped programs at the organization’s 30 pools and is promising that no child will be turned away for swimming lessons no matter their ability to pay.

    See Orlando Sentinel