Friday Fun: The Ten Different Types of Open Water Swimmers

By Patricia Dixon
The Ten Different Types of Open Water Swimmers
1. Flamingos – The athletes just trying to get ready for their swim, whether wearing a wetsuit or not, they are the ones you see standing out in the water, hands clasped in front of them, bending over while having one leg lifted and standing on the other
2. Turtles – Those of us who do not have a mission, we have one speed – slow and steady. Our only mission is to swim as far as we can within the allotted time.
3. Seal pups – Beginner Open Water swimmers, they like to hang out near the shore line, go back and forth up and down the shoreline. You will also see the seal pups get out of the water a lot and jump on shore and then jump back in.
4. Jelly Fish – These types of swimmers will swim to the buoys and then float around them, sometimes just hang out by them for long period of time until you go to swim past the buoy and they jump out right at you. Like trying to sting you, then they will continue on to the next buoy.
5. The Seals – these types of swimmers are normally wearing a wetsuit, they may or may not see you, but they will swim right up on top of you as if you were a rock or iceberg.
6. The Sharks – Yep, they are out there. They are aggressive swimmers, they don’t care who is out there, if you are in their way, they will ram right into you.
7. Otters – This group of swimmers, they are cute to watch, they love to just have fun, they hang out with their friends, and they are very supportive of each other and will wait for each other to hit their meeting spot. They will laugh and giggle together and enjoy the morning swim.
8. Minnows – Otherwise known as the toe ticklers. These swimmers will swim up to you, and then tickle your toes non-stop until you move out of their path.
9. School of Fish – These swimmers will swim in a group, much like a school of fish. The one problem with this group, they all rely on the front swimmer to lead them, so if the front swimmer takes a wrong turn, they all follow.
10. Dolphin (Want to be) – Yep, I said want to be… These groups of swimmers are built of amazing athletes (Pros and Elites.) They are fast and they are strong. Watching them swim is just amazing; it’s like watching a pod of Dolphins. The one thing they are missing that Dolphins do well is being agile. The group of swimmers does not know how to change directions quickly to miss obstacles in their path, but instead, they just freight train whoever/whatever is in their path. You really don’t know what hit you until the Pod has completely swam over you and you are able to catch your breath and get your vision back.