HURAY for new gadgets!!!

I love gadgets. I really, really love gadgets. My latest is both for the big trip (4 days away!) to Costa Rica and to use in my triathlon coaching. Paul got me a new compact digital camera for Christmas. O-k, I admit I might have told him to get it for me, then returned the one he got and ordered a different one online, but that's beside the point. I ended up with the Canon PowerShot SD1200IS. Just look at the pretty blue!

I won't go into a detailed review of the camera, I haven't really used it enough for that. What I will, instead tell you about is the nifty little side item I found for it: the DiCAPAC - an underwater case for the camera! Put that together with the video function on the camera and VOILA - underwater stroke video! Paul and I tried it out yesterday during our swim. As you will see from the video I am still getting the hang of handling and videoing, but that is something I can improve with a few more tried. I am sure I can find people that will be guinea pigs for my new project!


Here is the big thing I realized looking at my video. (I had to edit mine down because darn it my hips looked flabby when I swam by the camera. No, not in a 'my muscles are flapping in the water sort of way, in a "EWWWWWW!" sort of way. So I'm not putting it up for the world to see!) Right now I am fairly de-conditioned in the pool. I am swimming 5-7 sec. off my normal t-pace per 300. With that de-conditioning I am getting a lot of up and down movement with my stroke. So, now watch the video again (paying close attention to the bounce, not my hips) and see how my body moves up and down, which is completely counter productive. Now that I have seen it I know to work on it, and that my friends is the beauty of having your stroke video taped!

As for Paul's video at the end, I just thought it was a cool angle, it's hard to see much about his stroke from there, but I did get some other good footage of him.