Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast

Welcome to episode fifty-four of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!We have a great show for you this week that seems really timely given everything that’s been going on in the world lately. We have Sociologist, Sports Psychologist, and elite Swimrunner Susie Moonan of Push On Coaching. This interview is all about the mental side of training and racing and worth every second.More on this important conversation later in the show.ShoutoutsThis week we’re shouting out our friend Sarah for finishing the TogetheRelay Challenge. What is this thing you might ask? Well, it's a self-guided race around the entire Bay Ridge Trail totalling over 400 miles in 70 segments with a total of 72,000’ of climbing. Chris ran a couple of the segments with Sarah a few weeks ago and has no desire to do the entire challenge by himself like Sarah did. Tip of the hat to you Sarah!Adventure Time/Training UpdatesWe went out to Lake Sonoma over the weekend and surveyed a potential Swimrun course that looks like it will be pretty cool. Now that we’ve sighted all the potential swim entrances and exits the next step is to suit up and see what happens. We’ll have more reporting on this soon.This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)We are solidly in the Swimrun off-season so no race updates to share.Ödyssey Swimrun has opened registration for Orcas Island, Casco Bay, and Austin. They also have a new race on the calendar for 2021: Swimrun Ludington in Michigan. There’s a cool hype YouTube video out for that race with a previous guest of the show John Stevens that everyone should check out.The registration window for the ÖTILLÖ World Championship is closing on January 20th. Go to their press release to get all the details on how to enter. 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.This Week’s InterviewAs mentioned at the beginning of the show, our conversation with this week’s guest is really timely. Susie Moonan joins us to talk about the mental side of sports and swimrun. We first learned about Susie during the Champions Christmas Challenge Gala where she shared a message to all the participants that immediately got us thinking that we wanted her on the show. She’s an elite Swimrunner, Coach, Sociologist, and Sports Psychologist with her own coaching platform, Push-On Coaching. In this interview, we discussed her elite swimming background, her goals of qualifying for the Swedish Olympic team at age 16, and how she wasn’t mentally prepared for the intense pressure of those goals. These experiences set her on the path to study sociology and psychology and ultimately find her passion for helping others mentally prepare for athletic achievement. We also discussed how she found Swimrun and ultimately qualifying for the ÖTILLÖ World Championship in 2018. She finished in 4th place that year and finished 2nd place (Women’s Division with her partner Anna Hellström) in her second World Championship in 2019.The bulk of the conversation was about being mentally prepared for training and racing. There’s too much knowledge to summarize properly here but learning how an individual identifies and reacts to stress and then learning how to cope with these situations with positive thoughts and mental cues. Susie also mentioned the importance of thinking through potentially stressful situations before a race to have a “crisis plan” to deal with setbacks, should they occur. Visualizing the race in as much detail as possible before the event to help your mind be prepared for what’s to come since the mind can’t tell the difference between what we imagine from what actually happens. (Insert many minds blown emojis here)Susie Moonan is a coaching treasure and we will be sure to have her on the podcast in the future. You can learn more about Push-On Coaching on her website and follow Push on Coaching 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.

14 Jan 202155min

Welcome to episode fifty-three of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!This is officially year two of the show and we have something really special this week. So special in fact that we’re afraid that we may have set the bar too high for ourselves with this one. On this show we have Co-founder and chief designer of Ark Sports, Daniel Sand. This is the guy that literally came up with the concept of a Swimrun wetsuit and revolutionized the sport when he was with Head Sports and then took it to the next level when he started Ark Sports and revolutionized the sport again with the introduction of the next generation of Swimrun suits.More on this cool conversation later in the show.ShoutoutsThis week we are shouting out our wives, Kristen and Susan, for their seemingly limitless (although there is a limit) support of us and our labor of love for the sport of Swimrun. As we embark on the second year of the show, there is literally no way that this show would be possible without them.Adventure Time/Training UpdatesWith the holidays past us, we are ready to buckle down and start making some progress on our plans for charting a cool Swimrun course at Lake Sonoma. We have maps, gels, hall passes, and other stuff lined up to make this happen. We’re also starting to plan a road trip to San Diego in March to spend a weekend training with SoCal crew of Andy, Mel, Kelsie, Sean, Phillip, and the rest. We hope that this will be first of many road trips taking the show (and the training) on the road.In other news, Chris joined Tower26 and is committed to making more gains in the pool to be able to keep up with Chipper. If you want to know why, check out Episode 32 with Tower26 Founder, Gerry Rodrigues and Episode 42 with Tower26 coaches Megan Melgaard and Jim Lubinsky.This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)We’ve got some Swimrun-related news to share this week.Ödyssey Swimrun has opened registration for Orcas Island, Casco Bay, and Austin. Register by January 14 to sign up at the lowest prices of the year. They also have a new race on the calendar for 2021: Swimrun Ludington in Michigan. Registration hasn’t opened for that event yet but we have two words that should inspire you to register when it does...SAND DUNES!For those of you looking for a truly epic event to race, Rockman Swimrun registration is open on Raceid.com. The race is on August 14th. If you haven’t seen the Youtube videos of this race, make sure that you are sitting down when you do. Check out Episode 26 with Rockman Race Director Thor Hesselberg to get even more stoked to take a trip to Norway in August.The registration window for the ÖTILLÖ World Championship is open. Go to their press release to get all the details on how to enter. Registration is open until January 20th so make sure that your race results are up to date and best of luck getting a spot on the starting line.Finally, we wanted to let everyone know that Swimrun NC had to move the date of their 2021 event from October 24th to November 7th due to park permit issues.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’ve got some fun things in the works for 2021 including focusing on Swimrun teams in February, helping to promote the “All The Way: The Making of Swimrun Champions” movie in March, and hosting some  live podcasting while on the road at events (COVID permitting.)  We’ve added some new content to our website that folks should check out. Under our resources tab, you can now find a 2021 US Swimrun Race Calendar for all the races that we could find. (If we’re missing one, please let us know!)This Week’s InterviewAs we mentioned at the start of the show, this week’s interview is so good! Daniel Sand is a Co-Founder and Chief Designer at Ark Sports and is singularly responsible for the Swimrun wetsuit that we all take for granted. Daniel’s journey to revolutionize Swimrun started in 2014 when he started to design the first Swimrun-specific wetsuit for HEAD. In 2017, he revolutionized the Swimrun wetsuit again when he co-founded Ark Sports and created the Swimrun wetsuit design that is commonplace today.In this interview, we cover the history of the Swimrun-specific wetsuit, its innovation over the years, and Daniel’s role at the center of that. We talked about his rationale for leaving HEAD to start Ark Sports. We also broke down the design process behind some of the key Ark Sports wetsuits like the VIGG, ORNÖ, and UTÖ and, of course, the Keel pull buoy. We asked the tough questions about product durability and learned how Ark Sports is working on that. Finally, we talked about what the future holds for Swimrun equipment and Ark Sports.If we sound like Ark Sports fanboys during this interview it’s because we are. It's hard not to root for them. You can learn more about Ark Sports here.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.

7 Jan 20211h

Welcome to episode fifty-two of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!We are kicking off a new series called “Advanced Topics in Swimrun” where we deep dive into specific aspects of Swimrun. In this episode, we discuss Swimrun Flow. What do we mean by Swimrun Flow? It’s hard to describe but it basically means achieving optimal Swimrun technique and moving through nature as seamlessly as possible. We feel like we really unlocked or leveled up on our Swimrun Flow at the Ödyssey Swimrun Austin in early November and we thought that we would share what we learned during our best race performance to date.There were three reasons why we think we had our best race to date. First, hosting this podcast gave us a wealth of knowledge that we applied to the best of our abilities. This included having a detailed race/nutrition/hydration plan that we stuck to. Second, we made sure that our transitions were smooth and our time at the aid station was kept to a minimum. We probably saved 20 minutes just from having practiced transitions during our Swimrun practices. Finally, we kept the tether attached for the entire race. Keeping the tether attached during the runs really helped with our pacing and allowed us to move more seamlessly through the course. For teams that are looking to advance in the sport, working on the skills mentioned above are low hanging fruit that can help teams unlock their Swimrun Flow.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.

31 Des 202018min

Welcome to episode fifty-one of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!This episode is our inaugural Year in Review/Fireside Chat. In this show, we talk about the origin story of the show, how the show has grown, and our plans for 2021. We also discuss some of our favorite moments and how we’ve tried to keep everyone entertained during the pandemic. Finally, we chatted about our 2020 races and what we hope to race in the coming year.This show would not be possible without the support of our Patrons on Patreon (Andy, Grace, Dirk, Carolyn, Max, Marcus, Bob, and Miguel), our Gear Talk co-hosts Annie and Brooke from the Swimrun Labs, the crew at Ödyssey Swimrun, and all our listeners around the world. We also really appreciated all the feedback that we’ve received and it really helped us improve the show. Looking forward, we are super stoked for 2021 and we’re committed to keeping trying to produce interesting and useful content for all the Swimrunners around the world.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.

24 Des 202035min

Welcome to episode fifty of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!We’re dubbing this show our carbon fiber episode. Today we have the founder of Frank Paddle, Fredrik Bengtsson. As most, if not all, triathletes (current or former) would, we geek out a lot in this interview about carbon fiber, the design process, and the future of swim paddles for Swimrun. We can’t wait to share this interview with you! More on this later in the show.ShoutoutsThis week we’re shouting out to our listeners in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Looks like they have a burgeoning Swimrun scene in Southeastern Brazil and we’re grateful for you all tuning in to the show. Muito Obrigado!This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)A cool race took place this past weekend in Cape Town South Africa. The #GetWrecked Cape Experience Swimrun put on by Torpedo Swimrun looked like a lot of fun. On their website they refer to the sport of Swimrun as “wildly cool” and we obviously agree. The photos of the event looked amazing with beach runs, rough ocean swims, and a lot of smiling faces. As a bonus programming alert: we’re already looking to get their race director Richard on the show to chat about the Swimrun scene in South Africa.Our friends Fanny and Desirée’s Champions Christmas Challenge is on its third week. The social media photo theme for this week is Christmas trees so post up your workout pics wearing Christmasy stuff for a chance to win some awesome prizes…even a coveted Löw Tide Böyz t-shirt.Finally, ÖTILLÖ has opened its World Championship Registration window. Go to their press release to get all the details on how to enter. Registration is open until January 20, 2021 so make sure that your race results are up to date, and may the odds be forever in your favor.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’ve got shirts and stickers shipping out so head over to our website if you want to show your Low Tide pride. We’re also thinking of getting some hats made so let us know if you think that’s a good idea or not.This Week’s InterviewAs mentioned at the start of the show, we have the Founder of Frank Paddle, Fredrik Bengtsson. He has a super interesting background and an early love for all things carbon fiber from his pro windsurfer days led circuitously to triathlon and ultimately to Swimrun. In this interview, we chatted with Fredrik about his windsurfing days traveling the world, how he found triathlon and became a certified coach, and how he did his first Swimrun race on a whim. We also talked about all things carbon fiber, how he came up with the idea for carbon fiber swim paddles, and eventually to go all in and start Frank Paddle. We talked about his design process and what he thinks makes for great swim paddles.You can learn more about Frank Paddle 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.

17 Des 202056min

Welcome to episode forty-nine of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!In this week’s episode, we have a long-time friend of the show who we were lucky enough to meet in Catalina: Helen Wikmar. She was a previous guest way back on Episode 9 of the podcast and then again on our ÖTILLÖ Engadin Course Preview episode. It was great to have her back on the show to talk about her story and how she’s perpetually building community in her hometown of Gothenburg, Sweden. More on this later in the show.Adventure Time!With COVID restrictions about to be reinstituted in Northern California, we are a bit worried that state parks will be officially “closed.” Chris has come up with a rough map for the first test exploration at Lake Sonoma and hopefully, we will be able to get out there and see what happens.ShoutoutsThis week we’re shouting out Joseph Dickinson. He’s been a listener of the show for a while and he’s always been great about giving us feedback which we really appreciate. We hope to see you out a race in 2021.This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)We didn’t hear about any new events taking place this past week other than another cold day at the Hellas Frostbite Swimrun. It doesn’t look like it was any warmer this week.In other news, if you’re interested in checking out Finland and score some ÖTILLÖ merit points in the process, the Folkhälsan Swimrun just opened registration (on Raceid.com) for next year’s event to be held on September 18, 2021. The race looks dope with three distances available and team and solo categories for those interested in that sort of thing.Our friends Fanny and Desirée’s Champions Christmas Challenge is on its second week. The social media photo theme for this week is animals so post up your workout pics in your best leopard print tights, bunny ears, butterfly wings, or whatever to have a chance to win some awesome prizes.UpdatesOur latest episode of Gear Talk where we chat with the ladies from The Swimrun Labs about the essentials for cold open water swimming is out now! We recommend checking it out while sipping on some hot tea or cocoa.No other big updates this week, just a programming alert. We will be taking a week off from the show (we mean it this time!) the last week in December and will be back with our normal schedule programming in 2021. We may throw in some bonus content that week but that’s TBD.This Week’s InterviewIt was great to get to chat with Helen Wikmar to hear her story. For those who don’t know who she is, Helen is a mother of 3, Head of Operations at Ark Sports, and just happens to be a bad ass Swimrunner and one of the sport’s best ambassadors. She’s also super cool so there’s that.In this interview we chatted with her about her athletic origin story after starting a family, how she met and teamed up with her racing partner Isabella Hedberg, and how she builds community wherever she goes. This was a fun one and we think that you will enjoy this conversation.You can (and should) follow Helen 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.

10 Des 202046min

Welcome to Gear Talk: The Löw Tide Böyz and Swimrun Labs review show!In this episode, we chat about all things cold open water swimming. We breakdown the science, strategy, and gear for swimming in the cold with a smile. (Smile optional)Before we get into that, we have some gear updates.Gear UpdatesJust a few short gear updates this week.Brooke tried out some curved paddles at the pool and she didn’t like them because they didn’t suit her stroke very well. Winter Swimming ScienceThere are a lot of things to take into account before swimming in open water when the water temp is getting cold. Both physically and mentally, winter swimming requires some preparation. Whether it’s “cryo-gina” or cold shock, taking a measured approach while going into cold water includes walking slowly into the water, control your breathing, and wait for your mammalian dive reflex to kick in. The mammalian dive reflex is basically designed to prioritize oxygen to the body’s most important organs and send blood flow to those organs. Adam Skolnick (previous guest of the show) wrote a book (One Breath: Freediving, Death, and the Quest to Shatter Human Limits) about freediving and spent some time explaining this reflex well.Athletes starting to swim in cold open water should take their time to get used to the cold shock and acclimate over a period of weeks. It’s important to honor the time that it takes to make sure that you make sure that you’re being safe out there. Coldwater also makes you pee a lot more. This means that you should make sure that you’re well hydrated.Hypothermia is probably what scares people the most about cold water. There are some early warning signs to look out for. When you start losing coordination, get brain fog, or your form breaks down that is a sign of cold incapacitation. Cold incapacitation is what most people consider to be hypothermia and swimmers should be super-mindful of their extremities while swimming to watch for the signs. Shivering in the water is a very bad sign.The Outdoor Swimming Society is a great resource for more information about swimming in cold water safely. Getting out of cold water and “re-warming” is very important. Your body can continue to get cold up to 30 minutes after swimming. Swimmers should start re-warming slowly and get dry and don’t try to jump into a hot shower right away. Cold Water Gear for Open Water SwimmingThis is a gear show so we listed out all the important gear from head to toe that you should consider if you’re going to be swimming in the cold stuff.Head: TYR Neoprene Swim Capsblueseventy Thermal Neoprene Skull CapROKA Strapless Thermal Neoprene Swimming HoodTYR Warmwear CapsDouble up on random Silicone CapsEarplugs:Silicone PuttyWetsuit:blueseventy Thermal Reaction WetsuitROKA Maverick Pro Thermal WetsuitZone3 Neoprene Warmth VestGloves:AquaLung 5mm Thermocline Dive GlovesNRS Maxim 3mm Neoprene GlovesBooties:blueseventy Thermal Swim SocksSeavenger Seasnugs Socks (Brooke’s favorite)Post-Swim:Dryrobe Advance Long Sleeve Change RobeSwimrun-Specific ConsiderationsFor Swimrun, heat/cold management is super important. Luckily there are some easy ways to keep your core temperature where you need it to be. Keeping your swimcap on and not cabbing down after a cold swim can help you warm up during the run leg. Using the right gear, such as socks, can also help keep your core temperature where you want it to be. Being cold can compound over a race and if you can’t properly warm up during a run leg, cold swims can take their toll and lead to a DNF.Another consideration is that being cold uses more energy and, as such, you may need extra nutrition to account for the additional calorie burning.Closing ThoughtsSo now you’re prepared to try to go into cold water. It’s good for you both mentally and physically so give it a shot. Good luck and godspeed.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 and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions, and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

8 Des 202055min

Welcome to episode forty-eight of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!We have a great interview this week. In this episode, we take you to the South of France to talk with Laurene William and Irina Kondratieva of Team Swimrun Mermaids and organizers of the Mermaids Swimrun Club. This conversation was a lot of fun and we’ll talk more about that later in the show.Adventure Time!We took a week off from planning this week due to Thanksgiving but we weren’t totally unproductive. After several months of compiling emails, we are super stoked to announce that our International Swimrun Adventure Guide is finally live! This is a living document so keep sending us your suggestions for Swimrun locations to include in the guide.ShoutoutsThis week we’re shouting out Anders Nyberg from Sweden. He participated in the Hellas Frostbite Swimrun over the weekend and when we commented on his Strava post, his reply was a true classic: “a bit nippy!” You wouldn’t catch us in that cold water but it gave us plenty of meme ideas so for that we thank you Anders!This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)The Champions Christmas Challenge is in full swing. Our friends Fanny and Desirée are hosting a 24-day challenge to get folks to move at least 1km per day and have fun, win prizes, and attend virtual galas. What’s not to love? The challenge started on Nov. 30th so make sure that you head to the raceid.com website to log your kms.In other news, the Hellas Frostbite Swimrun kicked off over the weekend. True to its name, it looked really friggin’ cold! Check out their Instagram page to see photos of the event…and to gain a new appreciation for the comforts of warm water.UpdatesOur last column of the year for Triathlete Magazine, The Swimrun Pull Buoy – A Love Story, is out on the digital newsstands. Check it out and let us know what you think.Do you need some new t-shirts and/or stickers? Head over to our website and use the code LOWTIDE for free shipping on all orders through December 6th.This Week’s InterviewAs mentioned at the start of the show, we had a really great chat with Laurene and Irina of Team Swimrun Mermaids. Based in the South of France, Laurene and Irina are great ambassadors for the sport and work with their organization Mermaids Swimrun Club to help get more women into the sport. We talked about how they found Swimrun (and each other), why they started the Mermaids Swimrun Club, and why the South of France is a great place for Swimrunners. We also talked about their packed 2020 race season and how their mindset changed due to COVID including signing up for races at the last minute and race with gratitude. We covered a lot of ground and can’t wait to make a trip to France to get a tour of their training grounds.You can follow Laurene, Irina, and the Mermaids Swimrun Club 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.

3 Des 202045min