I sent another e-mail to Thad at the Tango. I asked about snorkels and building strange hand-paddles. Here's what I got back:
Dear Shawn,
Snorkels are allowed...bore and length? no greater than 6 feet (humor). That
bore and length question makes me curious to what your plans could be....are
you thinking of walking across the bottom?
If you come with hand paddles..go ahead and use them...just so you don't
some how fashion them into a boat. Did you consider kite power? (again
humor...maybe).
Fair Winds
Thad
Okay, so I think this will again give me more food for thought. My plan at the moment is to fashion a pretty long flexible snorkel with a small floatation device at the top, so it won't submerge. This will allow me to cruise the entire way under the surface (hopefully just a few feet), which gives the dolphin kick much more power. I want it to look like that scene in Jaws after they harpoon the shark and attach the 55 gallon drum to the cable, and he just takes off dragging that thing across the water. Of course this is all completely guesswork until I get to test it out, and see if I can maintain the dolphin form for that long. The reason that I asked about the hand paddles is that I need a counterbalance on my front end when doing the dolphin kick, especially if I fashion a bigger tail. My head moves up and down too much. So last time I was at the pool, I held my arms out like superman and used those as a sort of hydrofoil to stabilize the bow. I would like that force to be bigger, so am considering making a neutrally buoyant water wing that I can hold out in front of me and kick with a whale of a tail behind. Assuming the snorkel doesn't provide too much drag, I think this will be a pretty efficient way to go.
Matt's speedy 50 has encouraged me to see how fast I can go fully outfitted. I sure hope it's faster than people with no fins and snorkels. I guess I'll find that out soon. Gotta test this stuff, since we don't have a whole lotta time to practice now.
P.S. My local lake, where I planned to try the open-water swims has banned swimming due to e-coli. Terrific. I might have to make a few road-trips to Warren or I'm afraid I might not get any open-water experience. We don't have many deep lakes around here.
1 comment:
Huh! Walk on the bottom. Doesn't Thad know that the part of the lake we are in is the old Kinzua Creek and if you were on the bottom you would just harness the current from the creek with an underwater parachute, not to mention the vaccuum effect from water being let out of the Dam. Maybe we can contact the Corp of Engineers and they could let out a little something extra on race day? A Kite? Thad doesn't know anything about water propelsion.
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