Want to bring your tunes to the pool or lake and let everyone listen while you swim? Then check into the Ego Ice.
“The EGO ICE™ Waterproof iPod® Sound Case by Atlantic is a waterproof, spill-proof, shatter-proof iPod speaker case that floats.” The accompanying 3 Watt waterproof speakers ensure you’ll be able to hear your tunes all around the pool.
The materials are designed to withstand chlorine and salt, so you can listen at the beach or the pool. A thin membrane keeps the iPod click wheel accessible through the protective barrier. The iPod Classic, iPod Photo, iPod Video and all iPod Nanos can fit into the waterproof case.
$120 at Waterproof Music.
If you love lap swimming, but hate counting laps, then you could wear an aquameter to keep track of your distance. Similar to a pedometer, the aquameter gadget is just for swimmers.
“Users simply enter the pool length (25m or 50m), stroke style (freestyle, backstroke, butterfly, breaststroke) and weight prior to swimming a single lap for calibration. The aquameter automatically counts the number of laps, number of strokes, elapsed time, and calories burned, allowing you to focus on your swimming performance instead of a clock.”
If you enjoy gadgets that let you track workout statistics over multiple sessions, then you’ll appreciate that the aquameter “remembers” up to sven workouts, so you can monitor your progress.
$120:
If you’ve ever swum with fins on, you know it’s a blast. Suddenly you’re zipping through the water twice as fast. While regular fins work fine for dolphin kick, you can make your feet even more efficient with a monofin.
Monofins have been around for a while, but most folks haven’t seen them. Here’s a blurb on monofin usage from Wikipedia:
“To differentiate between the use of monofins and conventional fins, the latter are sometimes referred to as stereo fins or bi-fins. The monofin swimmer extends arms forward, locking hands together, locking the head between the biceps. The undulating movement starts in the shoulders, with maximum amplitude towards the hips, the legs almost don’t bend to transfer the movement to the monofin. This technique is called the dolphin kick.”
Finis and other outfits make them, and you can pick up a pair online with prices starting around $50:
For ages, runners have been using heart rate monitors to find their target zone and keep track of calories burned. For swimmers, it’s been a different story. But now technology has brought us some waterproof heart rate monitors that can be used in the pool, lake, etc.
This heart rate monitor clips to your goggles and even talks so you can get your stats without breaking a stroke.
“The device’s infrared sensor clips to your earlobe and monitors light pulses on the skin caused by capillary blood flow. It converts the pulses into beats-per-minute (BPM) and uses bone conduction technology to transmit clearly spoken heart rate readings through your temple bone to the inner ear. As unobtrusive as a Bluetooth earpiece, the heart rate monitor attaches to a goggle strap and does not rely on chest or wrist straps, ensuring it won’t inhibit swim strokes. You can set it to automatically relay readings from 20 seconds to five minutes apart, or you can receive immediate readings with the touch of a button.”
Pretty darned cool if you ask me. And at $160, it’s comparable to other heart rate monitors on the market.
Swimmer’s Talking Heart Rate Monitor
If you’ve been to a gym any time in the last 30 years, you’ve probably seen a rowing machine. But I bet you haven’t seen one of these:
The Vasa Ergometer Swim Bench lets you workout your swimming strokes without getting wet.
Swimming pools are fun and all, but not many of us have room (or can afford) dedicated lap pools in our home. While the Vasa Swim Bench isn’t exactly cheap ($1899), it’s a lot more compact and may be more practical for more folks. Also, you don’t have to put chemicals in it or clean leaves out of the gutters.
“The Vasa Ergometer is the perfect tool to increase specific stroke power, stamina and speed for kayak, canoe and Dragon boat paddling. The versatile Vasa Trainer is the athletes total gym, designed to build sport specific strength, power, plyometric jumping power, and injury prevention or rehabilitation by using body weight as resistance.”
More information at http://www.vasatrainer.com/
Meet the Aqua FM Snorkel, a piece of equipment that lets you listen to the radio while you cruise along the Hawaiian lagoons (or your backyard swimming pool) looking for exotic fish (or exotic things the kids left on the bottom of the pool). I’m not sure something like this is as practical as a gadget that let’s you listen to your ipod while you’re swimming, but it’s still an interesting who’d-a-thunk-of-doing-that gadget. And in my lifeguarding days I did see people who lap swam with snorkels. This might have helped keep them entertained on all their trips back and forth through the pool.
The FM Aqua Snorkel is waterproof up to 10 meters and works on 2 AAA or LR03, 1.5 V batteries. It’s available from Vacation Gadgets for $95.
If you’re taking the water aerobics class at the local swimming pool, chances are you’ve just got some of those little styrofoam barbells for exercise aids. Well, these “Swym” hydro resistance training aids from Speedo are supposed to be a little more high tech. They’re kind of like wrist and ankle weights for the water. Pictured here are the arm versions; you slip them on, and they provide resistance when you’re doing exercises where your arms are under the water. You can get matching leg trainers, which make it more of a workout to move your legs around. Use these in conjunctions with those styrofoam barbells, and you’ll be shedding pounds in no time.