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2013-11-11 9:35 PM

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Subject: open water swim floats
I'm looking at getting a swim float to make myself visible during open water swims. I've found ifloat and Safeswimmer floats. There's a large difference in price and I'm not sure why. They seem like the same thing. Does anyone have any experience with either of them?
Also, I see there's a medium and large with the Safeswimmer floats. Any recommendations on which size is best?


2013-11-12 6:46 AM
in reply to: b2run

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Subject: RE: open water swim floats
We have been using the ISHOF Safeswimmer for three seasons and they work great to increase visibility and keep valuables with you that you don't want to leave on the beach or at lakeside. We use the large one, but the only thing I ever put in it is my car keys and garmin (you can get a rock-solid gps track of your OWS that way). While swimming it sits in and gets sucked along by your draft and you don't even know it is there. The first few times I swam with it I actually stopped a few times because I thought I had lost it - it is surprising how unaware of it you are while towing it behind you.

The iSwim is a good bit more expensive. While I haven't seen one in real life, from the images and video online the differences from the ISHOF device are

a) it is yellow instead of orange (you decide which is more visible?)

b) the iSwim looks even larger than the largest ISHOF bag (how much will you want to put in it?)

c) the iSwim bag looks to be much more rugged and solidly constructed, but again our ISHOF bags have lasted 3 seasons of weekly OWS without any damage.

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