Swimmer's Daily

  • camren-mitzel

    A former Ashland High School volunteer swim coach convicted last year of having a sexual relationship with an underage team member is headed to prison after reconnecting with her over the Internet and trying to lure her to Georgia.

    Camren Mitzel, 26, pleaded guilty Monday in Jackson County Circuit Court to second-degree online sexual corruption of a child and violating his probation. He was sentenced to 40 months in prison and three years’ post-prison supervision, according to Deputy District Attorney Terry Smith-Norton.

    An original charge of first-degree online sexual corruption of a child was dismissed, court records show.

    Read Mail Tribune

  • Since 1920, every New Year’s Day Vancouverites have taken a cool dip in English Bay in one of the world’s most popular Polar Bear Swim events.

    There were just a handful of people taking that chilly plunge back in 1920, but they were doing so at the behest (and in the company of) Peter Pantages. Pantages was the nephew of the vaudeville theatre circuit giant Andrew Pantages, and he had moved to Vancouver from Greece to make the city his home.

    See vancitybuzz

  • Children at Dursley swimming pool got the chance to design their ideal swimming teacher over the festive season.

    Young swimmers entered the competition to win free family swim sessions.

    Councillor Chris Brine, Chair of Stroud District Council’s Community Services Committee, said: “We were delighted with the huge number of entries we had and will be putting them on display in the pool area in the New Year, after the Christmas break.”

    An ideal swimming teacher from the year six category
    An ideal swimming teacher from the year six category

    Read Stroud News & Journal and see photo on Gazette

  • Erin McNulty has been swimming six days a week since she moved to Humboldt County when she was 11.

    In high school, McNulty was the fastest swimmer at the Humboldt Swim Club.

    Now age 20, she swims the fastest 100-yard butterfly on the Division I collegiate swim team at University of Hawaii — without being able to kick.

    McNulty was an aspiring collegiate swimmer when she began to get excruciating pain in her ankles when she swam.

    The pain came from an extra bone spur in her ankle and a hole in her anklebone — an osteochondral defect or OCD, most likely caused by swimming or running — that filled with cartilage and caused swelling.

    Read Times-Standard

  • What does the average John Doe have in common with 18-time Olympic gold medalist swimmer Michael Phelps? From a legal standpoint, the answer might be more than you’d expect—they’re both: a.) human, and hence predisposed to momentary lapses in judgment; b.) subject to the same laws and equal treatment before the justice system; and c.) oblivious or uninformed regarding the intricacies of the legal system. The takeaway? Unfortunately, DUI arrests can happen to anyone, and when they do choosing the right DUI/DWI defense attorney is critical for any defendant—regardless of superstar status. A closer look at Phelps’ most recent arrest provides an excellent case study on effectively managing a DUI charge from start to finish.

    Read Eye on Annapolis

    Image courtesy of Marco Paköeningrat, CC BY-SA 2.0

  • No boats this year, but plenty of pallets

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  • A group of divers in Russia’s Far East decided to be the first to celebrate the coming of 2015 – by drinking champagne and swimming in circles around a New Year tree at the bottom of a nearly frozen bay.

    “The feeling is amazing, visibility is good, water temperature is about -1C. I think that in a day or so [the bay] will freeze over completely,” one of the divers told RT’s Ruptly agency.

    See RT

  • The creators of the QuadH2o quadcopter have developed a new drone designed to shoot video in the air as well as underwater.

    This quadcopter, called HexH2o, is designed with an epoxy fiber/carbon fiber body that is waterproof and can float, and is the Thailand-based company’s original creation, according to Gizmag. As a result, users can fly the drone out to anywhere in calm water, land it, record anything they see, and take off to another spot.

    Via HGNG

  • More people than ever have asked in the past week-plus, “Is the Alki Polar Bear Swim on for New Year’s Day?” Longtime organizer Mark Ufkes has just confirmed, yes, indeed, it is. Can it break last year’s record (~500 swimmers)? Why not!

    See West Seattle Blog