A Typical Saturday Morning Workout: March 29, 2008

The early Spring sunlight was streaming in through the windows and the pool water was just about perfect for a Saturday morning workout at the Huntington Y. And just what is a "typical workout" at the Y? Well, it usually involves a bit of talking and catching up as some of our Saturday/Sunday Swimmers have jobs in the city which prevent them from joining in the fun on Monday thru Friday 6AM till 7:30AM -- and then there's the actual swimming which usually goes about 2,500 to 4,000 yards depending on skill level and the amount of "catching-up" chat that is being done!

Scott, Rich, Sal and Paul take a break between sets. Scott had already been out running and Paul -- well, if we let him, he'd probably run all day long! Speaking of Scott, see if you can spot his underwater smile in the video below:

Coach Bob was on the deck so I asked him to take a picture so I could finally get in one -- see below.

A little fuzzy you say... I think that I'm going to have to give Coach Bob some picture taking pointers -- like maybe no red wine the night before! L-R is Sal, Mike (the author), Rich, Scott, Don and Paul. Here's another video of the guys swimming in a row -- audio included by request of Rich:

Tom's Trip To Argentina

Buenos Aires is the capital of the Republic of Argentina and the country's largest city. Plus, its a really long trip from Huntington. Not to worry, thanks to Tom and his prolific picture-taking, we don't have to fly there we can take a quick visit via the following photos. Oh, and by the way, Welcome Back Tom!

A typical street scene in downtown Buenos Aries.

Casa Rosada - the Government Palace. Can you guess how it got its name?

Wherever you have cattle, and cattle ranches, you have people on horseback tending to them. In Argentina, they're the gauchos.

Iguazu Falls stretches along a 3 kilometer (nearly 2 mile) long rim that is shared by Argentina and Brazil. It thunderously plunges the height of a 24-story building. So how come Tom didn't get in any swimming?

Is that guy in the sign playing golf? We know that the guy leaning on the sign isn't playing any! Ah well, it won't be long now! Tom, thanks again for the great pictures.

C.W Post Wins. HUMS goes 2 for 2 on the Weekend

Continuing the on the success of Rich's swim on Sunday, Ken, Jeff and I had to raise our games to match the Huminski output of medals. As a group the Sunday swimmers had 4 firsts and 4 seconds.

100 Free
2nd.. Jeff 57.10

50 Free :
2nd.. Jeff 25.39
2nd...Ken 26.47
2nd.. Rob 28.95

100 Back
virtual first : Ken 109.1 ( he swam Back in the free race due to events being close together ).

50 Back
1st .. Ken 31.0

50 Brst
1st .. Rob 33.89

100 Brst :
1st .. Rob 1:15.84

One significant hilight of the morning was watching the assistant coach at CW Post ( Mike Travers ) do a 22.7 50 Free and a 49.8 for 100 free.

Valentine’s Day Swim Meet at Kings Point USMMA

This years Valentine’s Day Swim Meet was held Saturday February 9, 2008 at Kings Point United States Merchant Marine Academy in Port Washington. Huntington Masters was glad that Rich went as he had a GREAT Swim Meet!

Rich took a first in three of the events that he entered: the 50 Yard Freestyle (28.79), the 100 Yard Freestyle (1:04.75) and the 200 Yard Freestyle (2:23.05). Rich took 2nd in the 500 Yard Freestyle (6:28.54) and in the 100 Yard IM (1:21.66).

Rich was a one-man-wrecking-crew for the Huntington Masters Swim Team. Way to go Rich!

Ken's Underwater Turn At Post

Thanks to Rob for this UNDERWATER Video of Ken at the Post Meet This weekend. Rob reported: "A few firsts and seconds from Ken and I for the HUMS team and a couple Personal bests on my part ( 1:15 and 33.8 ) Jeff was there as well with some excellent swims ( 57 for the 100 free )." Formal results will most likely be available in a few days.



Rob has MORE Videos from this meet up on YouTube at the link below; Go and Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/user/nymstrswimmer

Tim Wishes All a Healthy and Happy 2008

How have you all been? Sorry I missed the holiday festivities. And boy do I miss the pool!

Wishing all a healthy and happy 2008. Send my regards to everyone and I hope to see you all again soon.

The new job is going great, but the schedule doesn't allow for much workout time in the morning and I don't usually get home until 8 p.m. So I work out what little I can in the mornings and slog through the long run with the guys at Caumsett on Saturday. Sunday is my only "sleep in" morning, so that limits my pool time. I can hear Paul saying that I have a "ticker problem" and my "priorities are out of order." Anyway, I hope to get our schedule figured out so I can get back in the pool soon. Until then, my best regards to all. -- Tim

January 5, 2008: Rob Does His Open Water Swim Off West Neck "Ice" Beach

Rob told me he was going in at 9AM and boy was he prompt! I got there just a few minutes late and was able to see him swimming back towards shore as I was driving up. I was only able to get these "after swim" pictures but Rob's son was there "clicking away" so as soon as Rob manages to thaw out and email me the "action" swim shots, they will be posted to for all to marvel at! (Editor's note: the first 4 pictures below have been supplied by Rob who has finally thawed out.)

And marvel you should as there was ice in the water -- not just a little but a lot. And don't forget, Cold Spring Harbor / Bay is salt water not fresh so the freezing point is even lower than 32 degrees. It was COLD with a capital "C"!

Swimming out -- but not to far as there were no lifeguards on duty...


Swimming back -- time to pick up the pace!

Do you blame him for looking like he was having trouble breathing -- he was walking and swimming through ice. Some 24 hours after this picture was taking, Rob said of his record-breaking January 5th, 2008 Open Water Swim: "its the coldest I have ever ever swum. No numbing. Just knives into my face and hands." We can all believe that understatement!

Bundle me up, bundle me up!

Bundle this swimmer up quickly -- though with an air temperature around 34 degrees it might have actually been warmer on the beach than in the water. Rob was expecting a water temperature of around 45 degrees but the 12 degree cold snap we just went through caused enough icing in the bay to really lower the surface water temperature. On Sunday, the day after his swim Rob emailed me the following: "I measured the surface temp and it was in the 20's" WOW!

Below is a close-up view of the slushy ice mix that Rob swam through! Congratulations to Rob and all those who backed Rob and Harry by voting January as the first date for Open Water Swimming in 2008. Better you guys than me!

Januay 1 2008 Polar Bear Swim: Does It Count?

The voting on when the first Open Water Swim of 2008 would take place -- January, April, May or June 2008 -- closed at one minute after Midnight on January 1st, 2008. And January received the most votes (6) with May (5) and June (4) not far behind. April only received 3 votes out of the 18 total votes cast. Thank you all for participating. The question now is -- Is January really the Winning Month?

Harry says "Yes!" as he "claims" to have done his usual New Year's Day Polar Bear Swim. I have yet to see a photo (hence the cartoon above). Also, and even more important, what really constitutes "the first Open Water Swim of 2008"?

Is it a jump in the water and get all wet? OR, Do you actually have to swim? And if so, how far do you have to swim?

Since we are the Huntington Master's Swim Team -- I think that it is fairly obvious that "to win" you have to swim and at least swim 100 yards or more. Harry said that he did BUT Rich, an eyewitness, disputes that claim. So for the time being, we await additional proof. January could still be the "winning" month as Rob is considering an Open Water Swim -- bum shoulder or not! Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Rob wrote the following email after the blog story above was posted:

"For those interested ( I KNOW Harry is ), I will be doing my annual Dec swim in January this year ( moved due to injury ).

If other people would like to join I will be doing a few hundred yard swim at West Neck beach on Sat morning, 9am. The outdoor temp is 45F so expecting the water and air temp to be close together.

We need to ready ourselves for the coming May OWS season's opening swim now ! :)"

The gauntlet has been thrown -- who will show up... even just to watch and witness?

Water Polo: December 29, 2007

What a crew -- they're still smiling, (at least most of them are!), after nearly 60 minutes of non-stop water polo in the deep end of Norton Pool. Thanks again to "Captain" Bob, (that's him clutching the ball and the edge of the pool), for setting up another annual HUMS Water Polo Event -- a great way to say goodbye to 2007 and hello to 2008.












Click the Video Arrow above for a Live Water-Level view of the action!









Water Polo -- it's not as easy as it looks -- especially if you're trying to defend the goal against Harry. Click the Video Link below to see!

"I need air, I need air, I need air.." said Bill. Or, is it his new book, "How I learned To Stop Playing And Just Hang On The Side!"

He swam thataway!

Bob demonstrates the new semi-legal elbow-hang.

Oh yeah, this is sort of what the game looks like from a fishes view point -- not that there are any fish that we are aware of in Norton Pool.




This is what happens when you use inflatable goals and somebody throws REALLY HARD -- Bob has to do an emergency end-of-game inflation! See you all next year!

Meeting at Meehan's: December 28, 2007

It was a Friday evening of a Holiday/Party Filled week so it wasn't really surprising that the turnout was sparse for our 2nd Annual Pre-Water Polo Gathering at Meehan's Bar in downtown Huntington. Sparse or not, the company was good and the smiles flowed like fine wine. Only time will tell how that "fine wine" feeling will really feel at tomorrow's 6am annual HUMS Water Polo get together.


Mike and Bob together again. Is it true that these two started swimming at the Y in the 1980's? Whew that was a long time ago!

Lynn and James -- is that a Razorback I see on James's shirt?

Chris -- at least the beer was cool at Meehan's!


Bob and Pat -- still smiling after all these years!

Harry and Scott -- it wasn't easy getting these two to stand still for a picture!

Yolanda and Nancy -- thanks for posing, I know it ain't easy!