The Garmin Swim can track your kickboard drills as well. It's just a few extra steps to put it in drill mode, and once you've completed the drill, you enter the distance. Here's the info it collected from last night as displayed in the Swim.com app:

The weird 2nd drill data is from turning around in the middle of the pool and limping back to the edge and stretching to de-cramp. The mixed stroke (#10) is when I did some breaststroke and free combined. It does a pretty good job at detecting strokes, though I've not attempted butterfly.

I swear I don't get a commission or work for Garmin. I really like the watch. It's only for swimming and useless for steps or any other activity including open water swimming. But it does the data collection thing for lap swimming pretty well, in my opinion. The battery is user-changeable and the watch turns off its display when it doesn't detect movement for a minute or so. I used to keep it in my swim bag and switch watches at the pool but lately I've been wearing it full time.

Snorkel - that sounds like a good idea. Is it one of those funny looking front snorkels?

My Speedo backpack. My husband and swim-buddy-daughter got it for me for my b-day and I love it. I look like an aging high school swim kid, but it's so nice to have a place for everything and everything has a place...

AQ, I swear by my prescription goggles. I pay around $US 7.50 a pair and they last several months. I LOVE them. I was wearing contacts and regular goggles, but this is so much better. I buy them online two pair at a time

Had not seen this thread before, cool information and now I must check out the Tempo magic pro, as I have just been playing what makes me happy. Should be interesting to see what happens.

Swim gear includes: speedo vanquisher goggles which I love, speedo silicon cap (even with short hair I am used to wearing one), Audioflood iPod, speedo hand paddles (the old fashioned rectangular ones that are red/medium sized) with the back strap taken out, speedo pull bouy, sporti training fins (cause kicking sucks and these make it more fun), speedo swim suit and I borrow a kick board from the place I work out. Yes, I tend to lean towards speedo brand. I know.

As for digital clocks, it is funny because until that was mentioned about the pie chart, I translate the digital to pie charts. I rather liked the look of @sjbuescher watch. Very cool.

Thanks all for sharing...interesting stuff!

Yup, protect the hair.

Apple Watch for lap times and counting. Waterproof MP3 with audiobooks for boredom busting.

Update on the goggles. I read on line that baby shampoo can be used for preventing fogging up. So I tried it.
Turns out it actually does work. But it takes a couple times to get a film that keeps fog away for my full swim.

Does anyone here use Myswimpro? It is an app kind of like myfitnesspal for swimming.
It allows you to log your workouts, they have videos and suggested workouts.
There is also a social aspect where you can follow your friends and see their workouts and comment.
If you have an apple watch you can use it directly in the water to do your workouts.

I have been using it for about a month, for now just for logging. It's pretty cool.

@theowlbox Aren't those masks for face only?

@theowlbox This is really awesome to know. My wife uses those a lot, and I start my swim training in about 6 weeks, so I'll be in the pool a good bit each week. Thanks!

emmab0902 wrote: »

@theowlbox I've never heard of those masks. What is the brand etc. I wonder if we can get them in New Zealand

There are tons of brands of sheet masks. Google it or look on Amazon and see your options. For basic moisture and staying in a low price range check out The Face Shop, Tony Moly and Innisfree. These are great for trapping moisture in your face before you lock it in with your facial moisturizer. Another option is to look around for an "essence". A thin, loose liquid moisturizing product that often feels like thickened water. If you can find lower cost ones You can use it on larger areas. You can pat it in first then cover your skin with a more traditional moisturizer (typically opaque) that acts as a barrier cream. I also often use under eye hydrogel masks (like petitfee, etc.) to plump up my eye area post goggles. Fyi, I do these things because I get super dry and I'm super vain. It's just a way to keep my skin in good health. Some people don't need anything like this.

bama6977 wrote: »

For anti-fogging I use baby shampoo. Couple of drops and quick rinse they won't fog. Do the same with my SCUBA mask when I dive. "

DITTO DITTO! Get a small trial size of Johnson's Baby Shampoo and it'll last you a VERY long time, easy to travel with and totally does the trick.

I did not get the Apple Watch specifically for swimming, but I sure was glad it did keep track in the swimming for me. For those of you who are curious - here is screen shots of the updated stat screens from Apple Watch with latest updates for swimmers:

Basic stat screen (note it auto detected stroke used)


The auto set counter stats for my crawl