Simon Says...Open Water

Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.

Gerry Rodrigues, founder of Tower 26 open water workouts, will be a guest on the Simon Says Show, hosted by popular West Coast personality Simon Gowen at 11:00 am Los Angeles time on Thursday, August 13th.

Simon often has endurance gurus and triathlon pros on his show and will pepper Gerry on how he coaches everyone from open water swimming newbies and world championship athletes, teaching them how to go beyond what they think possible in the open water.

Check out the interview here on the Simon Says Show.

Copyright © 2009 by World Open Water Swimming Association

One Hard-Core Open Water Coach

Gerry Rodrigues is one serious open water swimming coach.

Before his ocean practices at 6:00 am in Santa Monica at Tower 26, he sends his athletes a pre-workout report. Here is one example:


"We are expecting pristine conditions as it is forecasted to be sunny, warm water at 70-72˚F, low tide and little wind. With these conditions, all speeds and levels can attend once you can swim about 600 yards non-stop."

"Bring your water bottles as Prolong Energy, the Ultimate Endurance Fuel, will be pouring samples for you."

"Tomorrow's workout will be moderate intensive. We'll be working on buoy turns: positioning and approach into the turn, sighting the buoy, strategy when approaching buoy turns, how to turn and exiting the turn. There's just been too much 'soft peddling' at the buoy turn as I observed from Wednesday's speed circuit workout with people stopping or just hanging out at the turn."

"As usual we'll run several circuits with two buoys in organized groupings after the structured warm-up."

"Friday's forecast is 1-2 feet surf with fair conditions every 12 seconds, south-southwest surf direction, tide is coming off a 5:00 am low tide, rising to high tide by 11:15 am (i.e., LESS swimming because the water is LOWER on the beach), wind speed is 3-4 knot NNW (i.e., mild wind conditions, so it should be similar to Wednesday's speed circuit, with a bit lower tide)."

Tower 26 Tips On The Dwight Crum Pier-to-Pier Swim

Gerry Rodrigues, founder of Tower 26, provided 14 tips on how to swim well at this weekend's Dwight Crum Pier-to-Pier Swim in Southern California, one of the most competitive open water races in America.

We will Twitter from the starting and finish piers about the Pier-to-Pier Swim tomorrow.

The Dwight Crum Pier-to-Pier Swim is arguably America's fourth most competitive race behind the new international NYC Pro Swim in New York City, the fast RCP Tiburon Mile in San Francisco, and the tactical USA Swimming National 10K Championships in Ft. Myers, and up there with the popular Waikiki Roughwater Swim in Honolulu, the Lake Berryessa Swim in Northern California and the Great Chesapeake Bay Swim in Maryland.

The Dwight Crum Pier-to-Pier Swim is part of the annual International Surf Festival and is a 2-mile pier-to-pier race between the Hermosa Beach Pier to the Manhattan Beach Pier, a beautiful stretch of Southern California sun, sand and surf where many television and film industry types live and play.

Gerry's 14 tips for the race on Sunday, August 2nd are as follows:

Race day forecast: sunny, 1-2 foot surf every 7 seconds, high tide, possibly slight north current with low winds (i.e., smooth, lake-like conditions).

Tip #1: Do not start to the farthest right unless you are a 1:10 per 100-yard swimmer or faster.

Tip #2: Look for open spaces or pockets to enter as the horn sounds, both while running in the water and swimming at the start.

Tip # 3: It is possible there will be a dip or inshore hold due to the high tide. Be aware. You should check for this during your warm-up.

Tip #4: Keep looking for open spaces as you swim at an angle toward the Hermosa Pier.

Tip #5: Tightly round the pier, but swim approximately 15 feet or more if you are NOT a 1:10 per 100-yard swimmer or faster.

Tip #6: Begin sighing frequently for the Manhattan Pier, every 6-10 strokes.

Tip #7: There are three objects to assist in your navigation: (1) your position as you swim toward Manhattan Pier, (2) your position as you swim away from Hermosa Pier, and (3) your lateral distance from shore (you will need some right-sided breathing).

Tip #8: Draft as best you can off a faster swimmer, either at their feet or on their hips. Keep sighting frequently.

Tip #9: Buoy line - there are several buoys placed between the piers, use them as navigational targets.

Tip #10: If there is surf, it is best to stay a more outside course. But, the suggested course for this year's predicted conditions are a direct line, neither inside, not outside. However, any inshore or off-shore currents should be checked. Ask the lifeguards. Any positive currents, either in- or off-shore, would dictate a more inside or outside course.

Tip #11: As you round the Manhattan Pier, fast swimmers (1:10 per 100-yards or faster) can usually hug the pier with the anticipated low-surf conditions. Slower swimmers should approach the pier a bit wider, about 15-25 feet from the pier. Inexperienced swimmers should take wider turns at greater than 25 feet.

Tip #12: As you approach the finish, sight behind you, looking for waves so you are not surprised with a volume of water crashing on you. If you are confident, attempt to ride every wave as they should be rather small.

Tip #13: Expect in-shore holes or uneven ground. Swim or dolphin over them.

Tip #14: Smile as you run-up the beach. You just swam one of the most beautiful race courses in Southern California.

Photo of 2006 race finish.

Copyright © 2009 by World Open Water Swimming Association

Analyzing Open Water Dolphining Techniques

Gerry Rodrigues, the founder and organizer of Tower 26 open water swimming workouts, was tested using the highly sophisticated SwiMetrics last week.

The SwiMetrics tested Gerry Rodrigues on his open water dolphining technique that has been equated with Michael Phelps' wall turns in the pool. Just as it is rare that Michael Phelps is beaten off the walls in a pool, Gerry was rarely beaten going into or coming out of the ocean in open water races.

Similar to the SwiMetrics velocity, force and acceleration measurements and tests that were utilized to analyze Michael Phelps' turns in the pool, SwiMetrics was used to analyze Gerry's open water dolphining technique in a pool. Gerry's SwiMetrics velocity data was measured in a pool and can be seen here and below.

Imagine that the pool shown in the video is the ocean floor or lake bottom in an open water race with an on-shore start and finish.

You can see Gerry pushing off at a 45° angle and, very importantly, he also pushes off the bottom with his two hands. With his legs, Gerry peaks at about 2.3 meters per second in an measurement of his instantaneous velocity. But, he also generates about 1.9 meters per second speed when he pushes off with his hands. You can also see that he remains streamlined throughout the pushoff and entry back into the water in his dolphining technique.



The white line represents the instantaneous velocity measured 60 times per second using the SwiMetrics technology. The intersection of the green line and the white line indicates the velocity (speed in meters per second) reached by Gerry at that specific moment.

Please keep in mind that this dolphining technique is appropriate for flat and calm conditions and must be modified when the ocean surf is large.

Copyright © 2009 by World Open Water Swimming Association

Tough Targeted Tower 26 Open Water Workouts

Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Disneyland, Los Angeles Lakers, the Academy Awards...Los Angeles is known for many things, but the open water swimming workouts in Santa Monica have created a growing buzz among local open water swimmers.

The workout, held at Tower 26 in Santa Monica Beach, just south of the Santa Monica Pier, is a vigorous Open Water Training and Transitions workout where the coach drills open water swimmers, triathletes and multi-sports endurance athletes over 70-90 minutes of specific open water drills, sprints and aerobic work in the ocean.

Gerry Rodgrigues is the head coach and organizer of the group and its workout. The workout is a qualitative and targeted beach workout that gets short-distance open water swimmers and triathletes what they need to be fully prepared to race...fast and well. Like a well-managed workout in the pool, Gerry breaks up the large group into smaller groups and creates a motivating environment as he hands out pearls of wisdom to the athletes and subgroups who compete around turn buoys and in-and-out of the surf.

We once observed the famously successful American football coach Pete Carroll's practices at USC which are very focused, competitive and an efficient use of every athlete's time and capabilities. If there is a Pete Carroll in open water swimming, our best guess is that it is Gerry Rodgrigues at Tower 26.

Upper photo by George Kamper.