Pool Clothing

[Suz]

Flipping through pics of the pool session and I thought I saw a drysuit or drytop on someone there. Thought I should mention that pool water has loads of chemicals in it - some use chlorine based and some use others. Regardless, it tends to be pretty destructive to anything you use in the water. I always recommend using OLD gear in the pool and still rinsing it thoroughly. For me that includes an old PFD and an old wetsuit. I wouldn't use my drysuit or a drytop in a pool at all - not even to "test" it out and make sure it is dry.

Ask any regular pool swimmer how their bathing suits stand up to use.

[bob budd]

I swim a mile twice a week, around forty minutes, at the Danvers Y. The inexpensive suits ($10-$20) I buy last several years, usually I replace them when they are torn and not when they "wear out". Public pools use alot less chlorine than they used to, partly because of the potential detrimental effects of inhaling the gases to lifeguards and children (both of whom spend extended time in/around the pool). I've worn first layers for a bit of warmth at pool sessions and rinsed them afterwards with no obvious reduction in their useful life (still have two I bought years ago). I've never worn any sort of wet/dry suit in a pool, never thought it necessary, I guess if you want to get the same fit? Your mileage may vary.

[Deb Millar]

Flipping through pics of the pool session and I thought I saw a drysuit or drytop on someone there. Thought I should mention that pool water has loads of chemicals in it - some use chlorine based and some use others. Regardless, it tends to be pretty destructive to anything you use in the water. I always recommend using OLD gear in the pool and still rinsing it thoroughly. For me that includes an old PFD and an old wetsuit. I wouldn't use my drysuit or a drytop in a pool at all - not even to "test" it out and make sure it is dry.

Ask any regular pool swimmer how their bathing suits stand up to use.

I second Suz's advice about "pool wear". I wear the oldest stuff I have, including worn out "wet" shoes and an ancient PFD. I do wear a bathing suit under my old neoprene/Hydroskin, but I haven't noticed any wear to it; perhaps that extra layer protects it from too much wear.

As for someone in the pool in either a drysuit or dry top: if this was this past Saturday's session in Portsmouth, no one was wearing one and the participants were decked out in a variety of neoprene.