Poolside Posers

Yes Johnny,

I reckon it is joke.

In the words of former "Shadow Minister for Sun Tan" and Member for Kooyong, the RH Andrew Peacock (as often repeated by the immortal HG Nelson) describing government policy in the 1987 election campaign:

"It's a joke! A cruel hoax, a hastily cobbled together sham, and a loose bunch of promises!"
But this is nothing new for that bunch of poolside posers known as FINA. They've been changin the rules to suit themselves since Puss was kitten. And do ya reckon they're gonna stop now? Of course not.

Remember, it wasn't that long ago when you had to touch the wall with ya hand before making a freestyle tumble turn. How many new olympic and world records did that create, hey? And what about all the other various little tricks they've gradually meted out like lollies to a bunch of kids, such as the dolphin kick you're allowed off the wall in breast stroke.

I reckon they've got em all in a box and they just pull one out every now and then when the balance sheet is lookin a little lean.

Gimme strength! You deadset wouldn't feed em if ya saw em starvin on the side of the road.

So what has all this been driven by? I'll tell ya, telly rights. To put it bluntly, more OR's and WR's means more viewer interest, and more advertising potential, and thus more money for TV rights. You don't need to be a Rhodes Scholar to work that one out.

I say let em go as hard as they like, knock em selves out. We in the ocean swimmin caper will never go down that path coz we're not such a bunch o posers. We're hard "to the power of sick" and we don't give a stuff about our audience.

Unfortunately that's blatantly obvious if you've ever seen me paradin round the beach in a pair o budgee smugglers.

Regs,

Davo.

Mid Winter Madness!

I'll tell ya what Bambi,

You know your an oceanswimming trajic when you plan family holidays to coincide with events. Not too bad when you consider such delightful locations as Southwest Rocks, Mollymook or Fiji, just to name a few.

But I'll be buggered if we're ever gonna get back to the snow again now. Unless of course they come up with a mid winter event in them thar mountains.
How about the "Guthega Gift" run over about 1500 centimetres on the pristine reaches of the Island Bend Pondage, with wetsuits of any thickness allowed? That'd sort the punters out from the posers.

Actually you know you have gone just plain mad when you start dreamin up events in improbable places just to justify a holiday there.

Anyway, back to the winter asylum,

David Love.