This discussion has been locked.

You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

Open water swimming

Just received my Vivoactive 4 and am trying figuring out the functions. As this version now has heartreate monitoring for swimming I was hoping if not expecting the profile for outdoor swimming to show up. The indoor and outdoor versions are there for the other sports, so i'm clueless why an outdoor swimming (open water swimming) profile is missing. Heartrate in water is now measured, SWOLF detection is already there, gps is already there. Garmin please add this profile.

Any one has any workaround while Garmin thinks about adding this profile?

I really would like to track my outdoor swims with SWOLF, distanc, time , heartrate and GPS trail (the later may be not as accurante as the arm goes underwater, but that will do)

Top Replies

All Replies

0 jim_m_58 over 4 years ago

Open Water Swimming as a native activity is only available on the higher end devices (the "tri" wathces) like the 735,935,945 as well as Fenix devices.

Some people have used the "other" activity and to get better GPS, put the watch in their swim caps. (GPS has to have extra smarts if you wear the watch on your wrist as it's under water so much)

0 Vuurvogeltje over 4 years ago in reply to jim_m_58

Hi Jim,

thx the “other” option will be an alternative indeed.

Still wish Garmin wil decided to enable open water swimming on the 4 next to the higher end models. On the 3 there was no golf option, now it is. I”m not golf player, so would gladly change it for open water swimming

0 ericmichael69 over 4 years ago in reply to Vuurvogeltje

Me too!

0 2969541 over 4 years ago

I Set my vivoactive 4 on bicycle mode and gives very good speed map and distance.Please note that I fin swimm facing up 300 strokes add then 30 crawl strokes for 1 km .When swimming facing up every 300 strokes I lift the watch hand for a minute so it CAN get the GPS SIGNAL.

The results are quite accurate.

0 DougRunsCycles over 3 years ago in reply to jim_m_58

I've seen DC Rainmaker do this (place watch in swim cap and set for a run) for his review of accuracy for open water swims. Works well.

0 8549822 over 3 years ago

I use SUP mode and it’s pretty accurate but agree - ditch golf and give us open water swimming and surfing Garmin!

0 6430342 over 3 years ago

Has anyone tried using a separate hr monitor ?chest strap. And then tracking the GPS with the watch in swimming hat/tow float? Just curious if this would work?

0 ovekvam over 3 years ago in reply to 6430342

Chest straps do not work under water unless they can buffer up data and send when out of water again. Garmin has such chest straps, but they are not supported by our watches. But try SUP for open water swimming. Then you get heart rate and some GPS data.

0 2678137 over 3 years ago

There are a few apps that you can buy and this job.

Swimming is the one I had bought fow a few euros .

0 9804744 over 3 years ago in reply to ovekvam

Hi, what's SUP?