Thread: Open water survival kit

Friday after Thanksgiving I went for a 5 mile ocean swim. The swim was made much easier with my brother on an ocean kayak behind me. Without the gatorade from him, it would have been much tougher. While swimming I was wondering if any one has ever put together a swim belt of some sort that can contain some drinks & emergency flotation without causing too much drag.

If there is some on the market, I'd like to buy it. If not I am building one.

Let me know what you think.

I don't know of anything, but it sounds like a good idea. I think a belt with bottle would work if the bottle were on your back. Alternatively, have you ever swam with either surgical tubing or a parachute. In that case, you wear a belt and the drag pulls from around your waist. You could do a similar thing with a feeder -- wear a waist belt and drag a torpedo-like buoy.

Note, ideally a pilot boat or paddler does more than just store your food. The pilot can navigate, consider wind and current, and looks out for your safety (sharks, jellyfish, etc.). Food can help you stay out there longer, but having someone with you can be safer.

Did you really have to say sharks?! Come on!
Stop reminding me that they are out there!

As for a belt you could take while you swim. Why would you want to? You're not going to race with it.

I train how I race. If you train to use gatorade during a swim, then you go race, your body will be expecting gatorade. Then when it doesn't get it. Your body will be pissed off and let you know it.

And if you do race with it. WHY?!?! You are only slowing yourself down.....

Not only that, but you don't need drinks during swimming.

Drink before/after training. Swim training isn't nearly as long as run/bike. That and you aren't losing nearly as much fluids since you aren't sweating as much because you are soaked and surrounded in water anyhow.... You do sweat, but not even close to as much as bike/run. And again, swim workouts should not be that long.... Even the Ironman training for swimming shouldn't require fluids during training.....


Just my 2 cents. I'm a little confused on why you would ever want to consider that..... There are far to many negatives.....

I agree that the swim leg of a tri is pretty short. Even an IM swim takes well under 1 hour. There's no problem foregoing hydration until your on the bike.

I know it's beyond the scope of this forum, but there are plenty of open water swim events -- 10K, 25K, etc. These would be nearly impossible without hydration.

I don't necessarily agree with the comment about, "training how you race." I swim with a masters program and I swim a lot. Most of the training is interval training. I rarely swim sets where the distance exceeds 1000m. And, I always try to drink while training. This is obviously pool swimming, not ocean swimming. But, I can see someone wanting a drink while open water training. Besides, the ocean taste bad and Gatorade taste really good when your mouth is polluted with salt water.

Speaking of sharks ... I was in snorkeling with my family in Hawaii 2 weeks ago. I saw a 6' white tip reef shark. White tips are nocturnal and feed on small reef fish. There was no real danger, but it was a bit disconcerting to see one slither by.

By "Train How You Race", I just meant use the equipment that you're going to use on race day.


Example: Don't switch running shoes the day before the race after you've been training in your other ones.

Just saying if I took gatorade during all my training sessions, I wouldn't take Accelerade on race day. Why confuse and upset your body, right?

Got it ... thanks ... agreed!