Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast

Welcome to episode seventy-three of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!This week we have Jennifer Devers and Bridgit Phillips on the show. They are a Swimrun team out of North Carolina with one of the best team names that we’ve seen in a while: Team Phyllis Hold My Shower Beer. More on this interview later in the show.Training UpdateWe got redemption on last week’s irony fest and got in our two-hour Swimrun this past Friday. We busted out the tether for the first time of the year and ended our training with a 15’ pier jump before our last swim. We even did a bonus Swimrun practice on Tuesday! Fun times!ShoutoutsWe have two shout outs this week. First shoutout is to our buddy Alex Sigal. He’s not a Swimrunner yet but he shared a ton of intel with us for a potential Swimrun adventure while on a trail run on Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay this past weekend. It looks pretty promising and we’ll be going out there in a few weeks to do some more recon. Good looking out Alex!Our second shoutout goes out to Oskar. His instagram handle is @enidiottvaklassiker (One idiot doing two Swedish Classics) and he sent us a DM thanking us for our ear plug recommendations. It worked out great for him and solved a major problem for him and his partner. So happy we could help!Feats of EnduranceThis week’s winner is Will Ramsey. We know that we make fun of triathlon a fair bit in our memes but races are happening and it’s great to see our Strava Club members out there doing stuff. Will raced Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga over the weekend and his swim split was very spicy! Strong work buddy!Make sure to join the LTBz Strava Club and get inspired by your fellow Swimrunners as they train all over the world.This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)Lots of Swimrun news to share this week.The Bali Swim Trail Challenge took place over the weekend and it looked like a fantastic event. Friend of the show and YouTube sensation, Patrick Delorenzi, tipped us off about this event (and it was his first official Swimrun race) and he said that the course was great and he’s definitely keen to do more races.There are a lot of Swimrun events being confirmed in Europe now that COVID restrictions are being lifted in many countries. Swimrun Côte Sud Landes is taking place from June 18-20 in Southwestern France. Swimrun Gran Canaria is taking place on June 12th. Swimrun Victoria in, wait for it, Victoria, British Columbia is on! The race is set for August 15th and registration is open now.In ÖTILLÖ news, Swimrun Utö is confirmed for June 19-20th with some modifications since the authorities are limiting the fields to 150 participants at a time. Check out their website for all the details there. Make sure to check out ÖTILLÖ facebook channel as well for a live/recorded presentation regarding Utö and the rest of their race series.Speaking of Utö, we just learned that they have created a permanent Swimrun trail on the island similar to what Erika Rosenbaum did at Hellas. (Make sure to check out Episode 22 of the show to learn more about Erika and why she’s one of our favorite humans.)For anyone interested in joining us at Ödyssey Swimrun Orcas Island in late September, Lars, Aaron, John and the rest of the team over there held a super comprehensive Zoom chat all about the race this week. You can check it out on YouTube.Finally, Envol Coaching’s “The Big Battle” is starting on June 1st. Individuals can join teams from all over the world to do as many Swimruns as possible during the month and “battle” for top honors and prizes. In case you missed our video, we have a team in the “battle” and everyone is welcomed to join if they can pass the vibe check (being super stoked on Swimrun.) We only have a few slots left so make sure that you sign up soon to be part of the fun.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.UpdatesWe have a couple of discounts to share with folks. Looking to race an Ödyssey Swimrun race this year? Use the code LOWTIDE15 for 15% off your registration. We anticipate all the races selling out so don’t wait! Our friends at Precision Hydration set up the discount code LOWTIDE21 for 15% off of your order. That code is good through the end of May so don’t wait if you want to stock up for the Summer.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 on 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!Our latest video on the NU Orza Pull Buoy is up on YouTube. Check it out and let us know what you think.InterviewJennifer and Bridget were just delightful to talk to. We loved their attitude to training and racing and it was pretty obvious from our interview that they are super stoked on Swimrun. We chatted about how they found each other, how they decided on their team name, and how they found Swimrun. We chatted about Swimrun NC and Swimrun Lake James and got a mini-race report for their 2nd place finish at Swimrun Lake James a few weeks ago. Good stuff for sure!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

27 Mai 20211h 2min

Welcome to episode seventy-two of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!We got something pretty awesome for you in this show. Unless you were living under a rock that didn’t have wifi access this past weekend, then you probably heard about the EX Swimrun’s Ark Supersprint event. This was a first of its kind event in the sport and we have the race director mastermind behind this event, Nicholas Roman, on the show to chat all about it!We’re super stoked for this one! More on that interview later in the show.Training UpdateThe irony was crushing this past weekend as we decided to go for a 2-hour Swimrun practice at a beach with notoriously low tide muck a couple of hours before low tide. Anyway, the tide was too low! On the brightside we didn’t lose any shoes in the muck. Onward and upward though.ShoutoutsThis week we are shouting out Justin Searcy. He’s been through our old catalog of shows and he slid into our DM’s with some great ear plug recommendations for Chris. Super cool of you for reaching out Justin. Feats of EnduranceThis week’s winner is Marie Anderzen. We think that it’s only fitting that this week’s winner be somebody from our Strava Club that competed in the EX Ark Supersprint event over the weekend. Great job out there Marie!Make sure to join the LTBz Strava Club and get inspired by your fellow Swimrunners as they train all over the world.This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)We have a lot of Swimrun news to share this week.As we already mentioned, the sport of Swimrun saw something novel happen over the weekend. EX Swimrun hosted the ARK Supersprint Invitational. This was the world’s first Swimrun Supersprint. The course was super short: 1.2km in total distance, and consisted of two running legs of 1000m total with a 200m swim leg in the middle. Probably as a surprise to no one, Desirée Andersson, won for the Women’s side. On the Men’s side Max Andersson took first place.Our friends at Swimrun Portugal recently announced that a new race, the Lagoa Swimrun, will be taking place on October 31st. This race looks like it hugs the southern coastline of the city of Lagoa in the Algarve region and our super extensive internet research (30 seconds on Google) showed us that this location looks to be an incredible location for a Swimrun. Registration isn’t open yet so make sure you are following them on Instagram to get details on that.In local news, the next two Swimrun events in the U.S. look like they will definitely be happening. The Bellingham Swimrun, hosted by Quest Races and friend of the pod Brent Molsberry, is scheduled to happen on Sunday, June 6th. Get all the details on their website.A week later, the PBR Swimrun Knox event is happening on Sunday, June 13th in Knoxville, Tennessee (in case that wasn’t obvious.) This race has long (17.2 total miles) and short course (8.2 total miles) options so something for everyone. Registration is open now so head on over to their website to learn more.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.UpdatesOur latest episode of Gear Talk with the Swimrun Labs is out. We reviewed the NU Orzo Swimrun Pull Buoy and we all thought it was great...or did we? Only way to find out is to check it out!We have a couple of discounts to share with folks. Looking to race an Ödyssey Swimrun race this year? Use the code LOWTIDE15 for 15% off your registration. We anticipate all the races selling out so don’t wait! Looking to dial in your hydration strategy? Our friends at Precision Hydration set up the discount code LOWTIDE21 for 15% off of your order. That code is good through the end of May so don’t wait if you want to stock up for the Summer. We did!As a programing alert, we will be taking over Ödyssey Swimrun’s Instagram feed next week and frankly we’re impressed that they let us do it again! Anyway, we are going to be doing a bunch of cool stuff on there all week long (including giving away prizes) so stay tuned for that.InterviewIt was great to get to chat with Nicholas Roman, Co-Founder or EX Swimrun, about ARK Supersprint that happened over the weekend. Not only was it a cool event, it was obvious from listening to Nicholas just how super stoked he was with how it turned out. In this interview we discuss everything about this new race from how they came up with the idea, to location, to format, and ultimately, to race day. We also chatted with Nicholas about the other events that EX Swimrun has for the rest of the year. All in all, this interview was jam packed with enthusiasm for the future of Swimrun while we celebrated the birth of a new iteration of the sport.Make sure to check out EX Swimrun’s website for photos of the Supersprint event and learn about everything else that they are cooking up. You can also follow them on Instagram.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

20 Mai 202147min

Welcome to Gear Talk with our friends Annie and Brooke from Swimrun Labs.In this installment we talk about one of our favorite topics: pull buoys! And not just any pull buoys, but the NU Orza Swimrun Pull Buoy. He had a lot of thoughts on this one and can’t wait to share them below.Gear UpdatesChris and Chipper tested out the Ark Sports KORP wetsuits in open water at their first Swimrun practice of the year. They both stand by their ratings in the review but they both experienced air/water pockets in the back of the suit. They also tested out the Frank Paddle carbon fiber paddles in open water and they remained as awesome as they were in the pool. They guys switched paddles (medium-sized Ark Sports Blades) halfway through the practice and the difference was night and day. The Ark Blades felt super bendy by comparison to the Frank Paddles. This got Chris thinking that perhaps using a small Frank Paddle might be equivalent to using a larger regular paddle which could help keep the stroke rate up and keep the shoulder fatigue low. For a full discussion on all things swim paddles, check out our Gear Talk episode “Paddles for Swimrun” with special guest John Stevens.     New Gear First ImpressionsThe awesome folks at Synergy Wetsuits recently sent the crew four of their new Swimrun Wetsuit to test out. This is an entry-level suit coming in at $200 with male and female specific options. It’s great to see another entry-level/affordable option for folks new to the sport. There will be a full review of this suit coming soon so stay tuned for that.You can see the first impressions video here to get a complete overview of the suit.Tethered ThoughtsChris used his old faithful Ark Sports Keel pull buoy at their Swimrun practice and he noticed after the starting that the paracord for his simple pull buoy mount had stretched. So much so that he had to wear the paracord as a sling over his shoulder to keep it from falling down below his waist. So a general reminder for everyone out there to check your gear before going out there to make sure that everything is tuned up and you won’t have to resort to random stuff to keep your Swimrun practice/adventure/race from going sideways on you.NU ORZA Pull Buoy Gear ReviewThe Orza is a Swimrun-specific wetsuit that costs $50. It weighs in at 150 grams and the dimensions are 24x27x10cm. It has a unique pontoon-style shape designed for optimal positioning and comes with a thin paracord already attached for those interested in using a simple waist mount attachment. Swimming ImpressionsChris used the Orza in both the pool and open water and used the Ark Sports Keel for comparison. The Orza was super comfortable to use. It does have less buoyancy compared to the Keel and he was about two seconds slower using the Orza versus the Keel.Brooke thought that the Orza was the most comfortable pull buoy that she’s used. She thought that it was a little bendy where the two pontoons connect but hasn’t experienced anything breaking off or anything like that. Overall, she thought that this pull buoy fits in between the Swimrunners Piraya and the Ark Keel. She was a little bit faster in the Piraya and Keel by about one second per hundred. (Listeners can check out the full pull buoy comparison chart on the Swimrun Labs website.)Annie loves the Orza pull buoy. For her size, she thought that this was the perfect pull buoy for her. In pool testing, she was over a second faster per 100 compared to the Keel.Chipper experienced similar floatation issues to Chris and wished it was a bit bigger. He was a bit worried about how low-profile it was and thought that he was going to lose it on a run. He would switch out the paracord to something a bit thicker than the one that’s included.Transition/Running ImpressionsOverall, the Orza was super easy to run with and it would stay in place nicely. Transitioning from run to swim, the Orza was pretty easy to wrangle between the legs.Pull Buoy Rankings RankingsChipper: 4 Pull BuoysChipper thought that the Orza was a pretty safe pull buoy for folks looking to just have one pull buoy in their stable. He also thought that if a Swimrunner is more on the larger side of things (height/weight) that this pull buoy might not provide enough flotation. He liked that it included the paracord attachment and took away some of the DIY anxiety that folks might feel about cutting holes in their gear. Brooke: 4 Pull BuoysBrooke thought that the shape was awesome and was super comfortable. She liked how she doesn’t feel it when she’s running. For training, she would give it 5 pull buoys. She might rate it higher overall but she hasn’t tested it in a full kit.Chris: 4.5 Pull BuoysChris gave it a bunch of rankings: 5 for comfort and 5 for running and transitions. While he wouldn’t use it for racing because he would like more buoyancy he still thinks that if it provides the right amount of buoyancy for the user, then this is an excellent pull buoy and only took off .5 pull buoys because it didn’t have universal applicability.Annie: 4.5 Pull BuoysAnnie loves this pull buoy while it is the pull buoy for her, it isn’t for everybody for all the reasons that were discussed. She loves the feeling and comfort of it while in use.Overall ImpressionsThis is an amazing pull buoy and listeners can’t go wrong with the NU Orza for either a training tool in the pool or for Swimrun events if it provides enough flotation for you.That’s it for this week’s Gear Talk show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions, and/or meme ideas. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

18 Mai 202148min

Welcome to episode seventy-one of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!This episode is the latest installment in our ad hoc series: Swimrun 201-Advanced Topics in Swimrun. On this show we discuss in detail the concept of “Heads Up Racing.” Prepare for some knowledge bombs, but first....Training UpdateChris was out of town for work this past weekend so we didn’t get a Swimrun practice in but our training for Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay has officially begun. We will be ramping up our joint training sessions and look forward to sharing our progress (such as it is) with you. Now that we are training, we are going to start working on dialing in all of the key phases of racing to make sure that we’re as ready as we can be. On that note, it’s time for our first knowledge bomb of the show! We reached out to our friends at Precision Hydration to share their insight on the unique aspects of hydration for Swimrun and Andy Blow, the Co-Founder of Precision Hydration and previous guest of the show back in Episode 25 offered to share his wisdom as a hydration expert and experienced Swimrunner regarding the unique hydration demands that Swimrun events present to athletes. If that knowledge bomb wasn’t enough, Precision Hydration set up the discount code LOWTIDE21 for 15% off of your first order. That code is good through the end of May so make sure that you place an order and help make us look good.ShoutoutsThis week we’re shouting out a couple of our listeners that reached out to us over the past week. First, big shoutout to Alex Linas and his partner Cam Holman for rocking the short course with a first place finish at Swimrun Lake James and then doing it again at Swimrun Maryland this past weeked. These guys are new to the sport but you wouldn’t be able to tell by these performances! Strong work guys.Our second shoutout this week goes to Scott Turner. He’s been a fan of the show for a while and just raced his first event at Swimrun Maryland. He got second place in the Solo Long Course Category and handled all the weather that got thrown at him (including thunderstorms and hail!) with aplomb. Super proud of you and hope to see you at Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay in a few months. Feats of EnduranceThis week’s winner is NorCal local Jonathan Pascual who recently completed a big 30km trail run in our backyard trails of Mt. Burdell and didn’t invite us! We’ll forgive him this time...Make sure to join the LTBz Strava Club and get inspired by your fellow Swimrunners as they train all over the world.This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)We have a lot of Swimrun news to share this week.First, congratulations to everyone that raced Swimrun Maryland this past weekend. As far as Swimrun events go, this one checked off a lot of boxes: it was cold, there was a thunderstorm and hail at one point, and there were a lot of smiling faces at the finish line. There were also a lot of first-time Swimrunners at the race which was awesome to see.If anyone is still on the fence about signing up for Ödyssey Swimrun Mackinac Island we have two pieces of information for you. First, get off the fence and sign up! Second, Aaron and the rest of the Ödyssey recently hosted an info session about the race that you can check out on Youtube to help get you to comply with our first point to sign up! Atea Jönköping Swimrun, Presented by Speedo is set to take place on June 6th! This might be one of the first large Swimrun events to be taking place in Sweden this year and we couldn’t be happier. The event takes place in the town of Jönköping in southern Sweden has a 15km distance and a 35km distance that is also an ÖTILLÖ Merit Race. Registration is open now on Raceid.com.     Speaking of ÖTILLÖ, they recently announced that they will begin hosting live interviews on Facebook on May 19th. The first interview will be with Co-Founder, Michael Lemmel about how the 2021 race season is developing and what participants can expect at the races. They will also be doing interviews the week before their races so that participants can ask questions and get a better understanding of what the race courses will look like and other relevant information. Finally, we wanted to give a huge congratulations to a long-time friend of the show and two and a half-time guest, Helen Wilkmar, on being named the CEO of Ark Sports. We are super stoked for her and super stoked for Ark. We have a special place in our heart for Ark since they were the first company to really give us the time of day and not only reply to our DM’s but agree to be interviewed way back on Episode Seven when Co-Founder (and the most interesting man in Swimrun) Christofer Sundberg came on the show. Onward and upward for Ark!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.UpdatesLooking to race an Ödyssey Swimrun race this year? Use the code LOWTIDE15 for 15% off your registration. We anticipate all the races selling out so don’t wait! We’re going to be putting out a lot of Ödyssey-related content in the next few months including course preview episodes for Casco Bay, Orcas, Luddington, and Mackinac Island so stay tuned for all of that. Envol Coaching’s “The Big Battle” is starting in less than a month. In case you missed our video, we have a team in the “battle” and everyone on the team has been passing the vibe check (being super stoked on Swimrun) with flying colors. Our team is already half full so if you want to be a part of it, sign up soon. We’re going to try to have a lot of fun with this so even though we won’t be winning, we’re going to look good, real good!The folks at Synergy Wetsuits were cool enough to send us a couple of their new Swimrun Wetsuits to try out and we’ve put together an overview video that you can check out on our YouTube channel. We will be doing a full review on a future Gear Talk show soon so stay tuned for that!SWIMRUN 201: Advanced Topics in SwimrunIn this edition of Advanced topics, we dive into the concept of “Heads Up Racing.” In Swimrun, heads-up racing is super important to make sure that event participants have the best experience that they can. We get the race director's perspective from Lars Finanger on what that side of things considers when they are designing and marking the courses. We also chatted with Marcus Barton to get his perspective on heads-up racing during a Swimrun event. Add it all together and the takeaways are this: be prepared before the race, have good communication with your partner and rely on your course preparation and not on other participants, and finally, take time to reflect after the race to come up with areas of improvement for your next event.That’s it for this edition of Advanced Topics in Swimrun. We hope that you found it useful and we would love to hear any feedback that you might have for us on topics that you’d like for us to cover and/or whether these types of episodes are helpful.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 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

13 Mai 202137min

Welcome to episode seventy of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!We’re headed back to the U.K. this week (North Wales to be exact) to chat with Anna Naylor, founder of Smoc Smoc. Don’t know what Smoc Smoc is, well you’re about to get an education!More on this interview later in the show.Training UpdateWe did our first Swimrun practice of the year on Saturday! Went to our usual stomping grounds of Aquatic Park in San Francisco and had fun testing out the NU Orza pull buoy, Ark Sports KORP wetsuit, and Frank Paddles swim paddles in open water. (We will save our impressions for our Gear Talk show so stay tuned for that.) We did 6 runs and 4 swims with the runs increasing from 1 mile 3 and then back down with the swims staying static at around 400yds. The water was 56F (13C) so the shorter swims were just fine for our delicate bodies.We were stoked to be back out there and it will start being a regular thing now that we are about three months away from Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay. ShoutoutsThis week we’re shouting out everyone that’s headed to Boonsboro for Swimrun Maryland happening this weekend. The start list had some pretty funny team names so bonus shoutouts to: The Her-ricanes, Team Amphibilicous, Big Otter Energy, Please Bring Me My Whine, Grumpy Squared, This Tether’s For Strangling, Buoy oh Buoy, Doing This Again!, and We Put the F in Swimrfun.Yet another race that we would love to race but alas, we’re trying to keep our happy marriages happy and Chris will be in Texas for work. Feats of EnduranceThis week’s winner is Ben Kennedy from the U.K. Not only did he post a cool looking Swimrun workout this past week, the location was extremely British sounding. Ben ran in Druridge Bay County Park and swam in Ladyburn Lake that is located in Northumberland.Make sure to join the LTBz Strava Club and get inspired by your fellow Swimrunners as they train all over the world.This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)We have a couple of updates to share this week.The race reports are flying in from Swimrun Lake James. Check out a really great one by Team Adorkable on their website.Our friends at Swimrun Portugal recently announced that it looks like everything will be a go for Swimrun Tamega Powered by HEAD Swimming due to a turn for the better in terms of the COVID situation in the Country. The race will be happening on June 6th so head out there if you’re able to. We know we would!Finally, we heard about a cool Swimrun event happening in Ocean City, NJ in late July to honor fallen soldiers called The Ocean City Iron Soldiers Swimrun. This event is a 1.5K ocean swim followed by a 4K beach run. There is no entry fee and all donations go directly to the charity Philadelphia Treats for Troops. Make sure to check this event out if you’re in the area.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.UpdatesHead over to our store if you’re looking for ways to show your Low Tide Pride with a hat or shirt or both when you’re going around town and at races.Looking new or used Swimrun gear but don’t know where to go? Check out our Swimrun Swapmeet Facebook Group to buy, sell or trade Swimrun gear.Looking for a Swimrun challenge to do in June. Then you are in luck because Envol Coaching’s “The Big Battle” is happening in June. Individuals can join teams from all over the world to do as many Swimruns as possible during the month and “battle” for top honors and prizes. In case you missed our video, we have a team in the “battle” and everyone is welcomed to join if they pass the vibe check (being super stoked on Swimrun.)This Week’s InterviewIt was great to connect with Anna from Smoc Smoc. She has a super interesting origin story and her commitment to sustainability and protecting the oceans is infectious. We chatted with her about how she came up with the idea for Smoc Smoc, why she chose to keep production in the U.K. rather than outsourcing it, the magical properties of bamboo, and why she thinks that people love her products. We also chatted about her connection with two of our favorite people Mia and Fanny from Wild Swimrun. (Don’t know why they are our favorite people? Check out Episode 10 of the podcast.) Finally, we talked about what the future holds for Smoc Smoc.You can learn more about Smoc Smoc on their website and on Instagram.That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please 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, and Google Podcast. 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 us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

6 Mai 202150min

Welcome to episode sixty-nine of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!We got something new for everyone. On this episode, we welcome Marcus Barton and Lee Greene of Team Swaggy Zaddys for a special guest race report from Swimrun Lake James. It was  almost too much fun to chat with Marcus and Lee but somehow we managed to get through it and share a cool race report from a couple of great ambassadors for the sport. But first...Swimrun Lake James Is In The Books!Swimrun season is here with Swimrun Lake James taking place over the weekend. We were definitely experiencing major FOMO and will definitely be at the starting line next year. It was really cool (and still unbelievable) to see so many people rocking Low Tide Boyz gear in photos that we saw at the pre-race packet pickup and race briefing. We loved getting all the messages and tags from folks all weekend as well. Special shoutout to Nancy Morris (Go Team Morris!) for her really nice email to us after finishing her first Swimrun with her daughter Lydia as her teammate. ÖTILLÖ Merit Race/Long Course Podiums:Women's:1st: Behme Me Up, Wheatley (Amy Wheatley and Carrie Behme)2nd: Phylis Hold my Shower Beer (Bridget Phillips and Jennifer Devers)3rd: Team Adorkable (Trista Mennen and Amy Bush)Mixed:1st: Boston Wet Sox (Brownen Price-Dierksen and Greg Dierksen)2nd: Radkat (Juli and Matthew Davenport)3rd: Hot Mess Express (Sarah Breaux and Johnathan Lejeune)Mens:1st: Keith and The Unicorn (Kanoa King and Keith Lundquist)2nd: The Mighty Boosh (Jack McAfee and Greg Harper)3rd: Kraken/Race Like a Viking (Lars Finanger and John Stevens)We asked on IG for some mini-race reports and as usual our fans didn’t disappoint. Here are the greatest hits:@Samanthafallon_: Wet and Wild!@b.pugh941: Great race, great people (Kristen, Tony, etc.), great course. LTB 2022!@d_sapp17: I’m apparently a grown up and wasn’t able to swing it with work…@amybush: (she had several submissions) 1. Hilda, don’t chew your feet. 2. My parts don’t work anymore. 3. Why does the water feel warmer than the air? (Turns out it was) 4. Why is this 7 mile run 29 miles?!@this_is_trista: The Low Tide Boyz were missed, and missed out@onewarriorprincess: Absolutely perfect course and venue! Top notch event! Definitely racing again next yr!@gdierksen: Fun trails; great swims; lots of transitions; fast race. And good beer to finish it out.@bernard.waugh: Who would have thought the cold temperatures and pouring rain would be perfect?@sarahdvick: They seem to need bigger podiums@blakenuttall: transition transition transition transition transition transition transition transition transition@brookesfallon: Not for wimps!Guest Race Report Time!It was really great to have Marcus and Lee on to break down every aspect of their race last weekend at Swimrun Lake James. We chatted about how they met, what their training looked like, what gear they decided to go with, and of course, how their race went. The conversation was really funny at times and super serious at others. In short, listeners will get a great feel for the race and understand why Swimrun Lake James is on our bucket list.You can follow Marcus and Lee’s adventures on Instagram and on Speedylizard.com.That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please 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, and Google Podcast. 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 us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

29 Apr 20211h 21min

Welcome to Gear Talk! As always, this show is co-hosted by our friends Annie and Brooke from Swimrun Labs.In this installment of Gear Talk, we review one of the hottest new pieces of Swimrun Tech on the market: Frank Paddle’s carbon fiber swim paddles. The founder of Frank Paddle, Fredrik Bengtsson, was cool enough to send us a medium and a large pair of paddles to check out and--spoiler alert--we’re super stoked on them. You can learn more about Fredrik and Frank Paddle on Episode 50 of the podcast.But first, we have an untethered thought submission by our friend (and previous guest on the podcast way back in Episode 18) Marcus Barton blew our collective minds.New Gear First ImpressionsWe have a couple of new items to discuss this week. Swimrun superstar Trista Mennen mailed Brooke her KORP suit that is a size small for her to check it out. We’ll report back.Chipper tried LMNT hydration after hearing that friend of the show, Adam Skolnick, had tried it during his recent feat of endurance. LMNT has some pretty cool flavors and Chipper has been digging it.Will Watt from Above Below recently sent us one of their super popular RuckRafts to test for the show. We are super stoked to check it out in open water soon. The RuckRaft is an inflatable raft that comes with a built in dry bag to tow pretty much anything across the water. This thing looks perfect for a true Swimrun adventure. Stay tuned for a full review of the RuckRaft coming soon.Untethered ThoughtsMarcus reached out to us in response to our last Gear Talk show where we reviewed the Ark Sports KORP wetsuit. He mentioned his thoughts on what the back zipper pocket was for after hearing us go on and on about how we thought the placement was weird. Essentially, the zipper is for your partner to easily access, not yourself. You carry your partner’s nutrition or what have you and they carry yours. Not only does this make a ton of sense, it’s also totally in the spirit of the partner aspect of Swimrun. We then go philosophical for a bit...We collectively loved Marcus’s reasoning so thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. You can learn more from Marcus on his website.Tethered ThoughtsWe wanted to remind everyone of the new Swimrun Swap Meet forum on FB. This is a forum for people that are looking for Swimrun gear to buy, sell or trade. So if anyone got one of the KORP suits on faith but the sizing didn’t work out, we have a place for you to try to trade it. Join the Swimrun Swap Meet today! Frank Paddle Gear ReviewThese paddles are the original carbon fiber swim paddles. Fredrik’s story is a great one and it’s hard not to root for Frank Paddle as a company. These paddles are essentially made by hand and a lot of thought and experimenting went into creating these. You can check out Episode 50 to get the whole story.We were sent the following size paddles:M: length: 21.5cm, width: 19cmL: length: 23.5cm, width: 20.5cmSince we only had one set of each, Chris sent his Large paddles to Brooke to test and Chipper sent his Medium paddles to Annie.So they look cool, they are super light and really stiff. Now, do they work?Swimming ImpressionsFrank Paddle is something completely different. They feel super light and it was a different swimming experience due to the stiffness of them and how much water was being moved. The only way to get to how they perform was to test them.Brooke tested the paddles (with the caveat that the Frank Paddles are larger than the ones that she normally uses) and was about 2 seconds faster per 100yd even though her stroke rate went down noticeably. Over a longer distance, she did two 1-mile (1,650yd) swims, one with her normal synergy paddles and one with the Frank Paddles. In that test the Frank Paddles were almost 2 minutes faster than the regular paddles. Shoulder fatigue was enhanced using the Frank Paddles. Brooke wasn’t a fan of the paracord attachment.Chris saw similar speed improvements to Brooke, albeit less scientific. The feel of the water was very different and every stroke felt very powerful due to the combination of stiffness and lack of holes.“It moves water with aplomb” was the way that Annie (and her friend Caleb) would describe it. While she wasn’t used to using paddles as large as she tested, she saw 4 seconds per 100yd improvement but less so over longer sets due to shoulder fatigue. Annie’s friend Caleb, a born and bred open water swimmer, was cool enough to try the paddles out. He thought that the paddles resulted in one of his faster swims on an open water route that he swims often. He did say that he lost the feel of the water because the paddles were so effective at moving water.Chipper felt that the paddles were super light and was wondering if he would get used to it after using them for a while. He also liked the hole pattern of the paddles and the paracord attachment. Transition/Running ImpressionsWe were all really concerned about durability but Fredrik assured us that they can take a pounding. Sharp pointy things are the enemy of course, but other than that these paddles are designed to handle the rigors of swimrun.We also all agreed that these paddles shouldn’t be an issue on run legs other than the fear of losing them because they are so light or the unsubstantiated fear that they will break if you fall.Other than the paracord straps that are more of a personal preference, the setup for transitions and Swimrun in general are a non-issue. Pull Buoy Rankings RankingsChipper 4 Pull BuoysChipper felt that this paddle wouldn’t be an everyday paddle but they are awesome. They will make you faster (whether placebo effect or not) and are the hottest rage in Swimrun. He will be racing in them.Annie 4 Pull BuoysAnnie thinks that there is no denying the tech in the paddles that even made her faster. She docked points for the price point being so high. She would rate her Synergy paddles a 3.5-4 pull buoys and those are $8. If she was trained up for them, she would use the Frank Paddles.Chris 4.5 Pull BuoysChris would give Frank Paddles 5 pull buoys but for the cost. He thinks that these paddles are a total game-changer if you’re trained up for them and looking for extra speed in the water. He’s a big fan and is a total convert.Brooke 4 Pull BuoysBrooke thinks that if she was able to try a smaller paddle that she would have awarded them 4.5 pull buoys. She thought that they were awesome but she wasn’t a fan of the strapping and the price point. They are the nicest paddles that she’s ever swimming with and thought that they are the real deal.Overall ImpressionsWe all thought that these are the real deal and a total game-changer for swim paddles. If you have the funds and/or desire definitely check out Frank Paddles. They are an amazing piece of tech. Period.If you want to learn more about swim paddles in general, check out our Gear Talk episode all about Swim Paddles with special guest John Stevens.That’s it for this week’s Gear Talk show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions, and/or meme ideas. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

27 Apr 202158min

Welcome to episode sixty-eight of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!On this week’s show, we’re taking another trip across the pond to Southern England to chat with Vinicius Vecchiatti and Sarah King of Söuthsea Swimrun. It was great to hear about how they are sharing their love for Swimrun and building community in Portsmouth, England. More on this interview later in the show.It’s Race Week!Swimrun season in the U.S. is officially kicking off this weekend at Swimrun Lake James in North Carolina. Best of luck to everyone racing either the short or long courses and remember to thank all the volunteers out there.ShoutoutsThis week we are shouting out our newest Patron on Patreon, Ryan Smith. Thank you so much for the support to help us keep the “lights on” and keep pumping out good content for everyone. Feats of EnduranceThis week’s winner is last week’s honorable mention, Mike McMillian. He’s been crushing it in the gym and everywhere else apparently with a cool “Swim the Bridge - Double Crossing” workout that looked pretty awesome.Make sure to join the LTBz Strava Club and get inspired by your fellow Swimrunners as they train all over the world.This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)We have a couple of updates to share this week.As we mentioned earlier, Swimrun season officially kicks off in the U.S. with Swimrun Lake James this weekend. This event is an ÖTILLÖ Merit Race (which means that Long Course teams will earn points towards qualifying for entry into the World Championship selection lottery.) Check out our recent podcast episode with Race Director Kristen Jeno if you want to learn more about the history of this race and get a mini-course preview.Speaking of Lake James, Wild Swimrun ambassador and our friend Trista Mennen is hosting a meet-and-greet on Friday, April 23 at 4 pm at Fonta Flora during packet pickup for Lake James for anyone who wants to learn more about Wild Swimrun. If you don’t know about Wild Swimrun (then you need to listen to more of our podcast episodes) they are a group of women who support women athletes to discover the sport of Swimrun. If you are a female, support a female, or just generally interested in what we do, come to say hi. For our German listeners, Swimrun Rheinsberg recently opened registration for their June 20th event. This race looks like it has it all: a kids race and super sprint, sprint, and long course distances. Get all the details on their website. This race is also part of the Deutschland Swimrun Cup consisting of ten races across Germany taking place throughout the year. Some of their urban Swimruns look--in a word--DOPE!In other event news, Envol Coaching announced their new “The Big Battle” virtual event this week. Individuals can join teams from all over the world to do as many Swimruns as possible in the month of June and “battle” for top honors and prizes. The registration fee is $13. You can find all the rules on the Envol Website. If you want to take part, feel free to join Team LTBz when you register. Teams are capped at 30 members so join us before we hit our cap. 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.UpdatesWe have some upcoming programming alerts for everyone. We have some cool shows coming up in the next few weeks including a special guest race report from Swimrun Lake James, our full review of Frank Paddle’s carbon fiber swim paddles, the next installment in our “Advanced Topics in Swimrun” series, and other cool stuff. Stay tuned for all of that! This Week’s InterviewIt was a blast chatting with Sarah and Vini from Söuthsea Swimrun. We always love learning about people that are super stoked on Swimrun since they are our people. We especially love when they are doing their part to build community in their locales to share their love for the sport and encourage others to try it. We chatted with Sarah and Vini about how they discovered Swimrun and their journey to start the Söuthsea Swimrun club. We talked about how they handled COVID restrictions and managed to have safe weekly Swimrun practices all year. We also chatted about what they think the future holds for their club and for Swimrun in the U.K.You can learn more about Söuthsea Swimrun on their website and follow them on Instagram.That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please 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, and Google Podcast. 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 us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

22 Apr 202156min