Swim system video

So we have had the swim system in place and working for a couple of weeks now.

I LOVE IT!

YES - the movie above is of our pool. I took this clip this afternoon - it is difficult to see clearly - but when the remote is activated you can literally see this wave of water come out of the rotors and move down the pool. When running at speed you can see three distinct currents - the main flow down the center of the pool that one swims against, then the return streams on both sides as the water is pulled back to the rotors.

I am managing to swim just about every day that I am home - while that has not yet been as much as I like, I am still hoping that it is going to help.

So far it has not been me that enjoyed the system the most - it has been the folks who have visited us! With the FASTLANE pushing water at its maximum rate, the pool effectively becomes a water park. Our friends Greg and Jaemi and their five kids spent a really fun evening with us - and between riding the current towards the shallow end - then floating back along the sides as the water is pulled back into the jet - the kids had a blast.

At its maximum the swim unit is designed to push out a current that is the equivalent of swimming the 100 yard freestyle in about 58 seconds. Yes I can "beat the current" and swim from one end of the pool to the other against the flow - but that is NOT to say that I can maintain that pace!

I am turning the "flow" down sustancially from its max - and then swimming about 18 inches away from the rotors... the slower current reduces a lot of the turbulence in the pool (remember that at max it is pushing 5000 gallons a minute - effectively turning the COMPLETE water contents of the pool over once every 5 minutes!) and allows me to try and swim for a few minutes at a time before I allow myself to coast back to the shallow part of the pool.

My fitness level is SO LOW that I expect my "continuous" swimming is only 50-100 m at a time - but starting where I am I think ANYTHING is positive in terms of benefit.

And yes - I have purchased the swimp3 player - looking to get it loaded this week on the road and try it out next weekend!

SCREEN MOVING FORWARD

What a relief...!

Last night the county commissioners granted us the variance to move forward with a screen over our pool and deck.

TODAY the screen company will come by and complete the final engineering work, and the structure itself should be completed by the middle of next week.

I am not sure who is more relieved, me or the pool builder.... but I am just happy that we can get the final steps moving now. That ability to sit outside without the bugs in the evening is one of the principal reasons we started the project 6 months ago

U-Tube blog posts ARE Lame......

IF one worked for - say the number three (and falling) producer of cell handsets in the world one would probably not get to carry an IPhone around the office - but it is nice to see Colbert's take on his new device.

Posting a You_tube video in lieu of a proper post is lame on my part - I need to admit that up front.

Lots of progress

I am behind on posts - hope to get caught up by the end of the week.

Salt Water chlorination system was installed at the end of last week and is now working.

Counter Current Swim system was installed on Friday and should be commissioned today.

Generator (to keep it all going if there is a hurricane) was installed and should be tested by tomorrow.

Landscape Lighting Plan was formalized last week - first component will be installed this week - final "aroud pool" phase will go in as soon as the screen is built.

Sound system quote scheduled for tomorrow.....

Finally - we are a go for the council meeting on July 23rd to get the variance to finally BUILD the screen around the pool.

More details and lots of photos as soon as I can.

Thanks!

I think these will be REQUIRED

First - I am not at all convinced that wife.calm would be in favor of a purchase such as this - but I see NO choice. This is a necessary TOOL for assisting in my health plan. Plus the name itself is too clever.... SWIMP3. Brilliant!

I have tried a couple of different underwater music systems over the years.... ear buds, some of the early underwater "radios" etc and none have ever worked terribly well. Either the sound sucks - or the sound of the water itself overwhelms the sound of the music. This on the other hand is based on using bone induction.

What - sounds painful!?!

No - instead the sound wave is carried through your cheekbone into the water inside your inner ear... thus supposedly making the sound quality vastly improved over other attempts. The unit is small and just slips under the band of your goggles...

10 hour battery (more than enough for me - hell 20 minutes is going to be a stretch) and 256Mb of RAM....

Now wife.calm will I am sure make a variety of objections to these.... all reasonable - all rational - so I had best make a couple of points right now. First this is not NEW technology - bone induction for sound has been used for years.... and more importantly this is version 2 of the product... that means a purchase of these is NOT an early adopter acquistion.

Gotta get me some of these!