Stefan Laursen, Founder of Synergy Wetsuits

Welcome to episode seventy-four of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This week we have the Founder of Synergy Wetsuits, Stefan Laursen. Get ready to learn about Stefan’s fascinating background, his ambitious Swimrun program, and get a behind-the-scenes look at the research and development process for making their new Swimrun wetsuits.

More on this interview later in the show.

Training Update

We’re feeling like a couple of Swimrunners lately. Our pool was closed so last week was open water swimming week for us and we managed to get in three Swimrun practices since our last show. With Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay just two months away, it’s time to do some work!

Shoutouts

This week we’re shouting out Adrian Cameron. He rocked a 3rd place finish at the CapTex triathlon in Austin over the weekend and was rocking his Löw Tide Böyz shirt on the podium. Strong work out there dude!

For folks who don’t know who Adrian is, check out the addendum to Episode 38 of our Ödyssey Swimrun Austin course preview show where Adrian scoped out the course at Pace Bend Park and then shared all his intel with us and our listeners.

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is Piet Wisse from the Netherlands. This guy just casually cycled 193.44 miles in just over 10 hours. Double centuries are something that we are familiar with and they are never a piece of cake but Piet made it look easy!

Need some inspiration in your training life? Make sure to join the LTBz Strava Club and connect with fellow Swimrunners as they train and race all over the world.

This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)

Lots of Swimrun news to share this week.

The Bellingham Swimrun, hosted by Quest Races and friend of the pod Brent Molsberry, is happening this coming Sunday, June 6th. You can get all the details on their website.

Ödyssey Swimrun recently released their latest course overview video on Casco Bay. Anyone that registered or interested in registering for the original Ödyssey event should definitely check it out on YouTube.

In international news, Swimrun Sumin took place over the weekend in Sumin, Poland. It’s great to see races coming back and this one looked like a lot of fun with a mix of terrains. On a side note, the course description infographics on their site are really cool.

Swimrun Edmonton, where your’s truly won a prize at their virtual edition last year, announced that this year’s (non-virtual) edition is taking place on July 25 at Terwillegar Park. Registration is open now!

In the category of “They did what now?,” a bunch of Swimrunners from Swimrun Côte D'azur completed the 6th edition of their Ultraswimrun of the Maritime Alps. This was a 78k (67k of running and 11k of swimming) coastline Swimrun from Le Trayas to Beaulieu-sur-Mer or basically from west of Cannes to East of Nice in Southern France. Amazing!

Speaking of Swimrun Côte D'azur, their main event is now scheduled for October 24th in Beaulieu-sur-Mer and registration is open now! They offer 8k, 17k and 30k distance options and they have a really cool refund policy in place where all participants will get 100% of their registration fee refunded in the case of a COVID lockdown. If you want to learn more about the Swimrun scene in the South of France, check out Episode 48 with Laurene William and Irina Kondratieva of Team Swimrun Mermaids.

Finally, Envol Coaching’s “The Big Battle” has officially begun! Make sure you follow @envolswimrun on Instagram to see how all the teams are progressing. Swimrunners can still sign up and join a team so don’t let the FOMO take hold and sign up at envolcoaching.net.

That’s it for this week. Feel free to email us to tip us off to any events or Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Updates

So last week was a big week for LTBz. We took over Ödyssey Swimrun’s Instagram stories and put out all sorts of content including the release of the short film, Swimrun Confessions, featuring the acting debut of Chris’s wife, Susan. If that wasn’t enough, friend of the show (and our guest on Episode 28 of the show) Adam Skolnick rocked his LTBz hat on the bi-weekly podcast Roll On that he co-hosts with Rich Roll. We’re big fans of Rich and Adam and it was a major thrill for us to see our tiny show get mentioned and it was an even bigger thrill to see all our fans be as super stoked about the mention as we were.

Looking to race an Ödyssey Swimrun race this year? Use the code LOWTIDE15 to save 15% on your registration. We will be at Casco Bay, Orcas, and Austin this year so come join us!

Mark your calendars if you’re in the Bay Area because we are going to be holding an “Intro to Swimrun” session and practice at Aquatic Park in San Francisco this Saturday, June 5th at 7:30am. Precision Hydration will be providing free hydration packets for everything to check out and we have some bonus swag that we’ll be giving away as well. So if you’re new to Swimrun or just want to practice with some other people, then join us on June 5th!

Interview

Stefan Laursen was an awesome guest. Stefan’s passion about wetsuits and performance is only matched by his extensive experience and deep knowledge of the industry. In this interview we chatted with Stefan about his background and how he came to design and build his own wetsuit at age 13, how he became a pro triathlete and ultimately transitioned to making wetsuits full-time, how Synergy grew to being the wetsuits of choice for elite athletes, and why he chose to enter the Swimrun space. We talked at length about the research and development process for their new entry-level Swimrun wetsuit and their plans for an elite Swimrun wetsuit coming out soon. In short, this interview is an education on wetsuit R&D.

Need another reason to check out Synergy? Use the code SRLABS25 to save 25% off their new Swimrun Wetsuit.

You can find Synergy at Synergywetsuits.com and on all the socials.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star review. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, and on YouTube. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback and/or suggestions. Finally, you can support our efforts on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

Thank you for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris