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Advice for open swim but laps

I swim in a lake that has a beach club where there's a roped in area that's maybe 25-30 yards wide (a total guess). When using the 935 in open swim mode, it doesn't catch the turns so when looking at the map afterwards, it shows me swimming well beyond the ropes so it seems it takes quite a bit for it to catch up after I make my turn (a very slow lazy turn). It might be a good 25% off the distance by the end of the swim.

With an older running watch I used to stick it under my swim cap and it would be pretty accurate because it's most always above water. However when trying this with the 935, it's expecting arm movement so it's thinking I'm not swimming. (I haven't tried that in awhile).

Does anyone have advice on the best way to capture a swim like this? I can't simply use the pool setting because A. I don't know the length and B. I'm not pushing off anything to indicate a turn.

0 Lemos_pt over 7 years ago

I don't think the arm movement is a requirement, as on my last openwater sim, I had my 935 attached to the following buoy, and it did the GPS tracking just fine

0 JSRUNNER_ over 7 years ago

I think the key is probably just to make sure your watch arm comes out of the water at the point you are turning - my 920 xt normally records resonably ok in this type of scenario

0 timgrose over 7 years ago

Which activity profile were you using with the 935 under your swim cap?

0 tomn68 over 7 years ago

timgrose - I'm not sure what you mean by activity profile. I choose Open Water Swim, hit start and go. I'll have to try it again.

JSrunner - I think the problem isn't really about making a turn at a buoy in a race because for the most part you're swimming straight until a few turns and it might take you off course 10-20.. yards but that doesn't add up much if there's 4 turns. However if you're swimming 50 yard laps and turn 50 times... that adds up.

0 Andy275 over 7 years ago

When I do 180 turns in ow, I usually stop and tread water for ~10-15 sec to allow it to take an accurate measurement. Setting the watch to record every 1 sec instead of smart recording definitely improved its accuracy although I don't know how much it would affect this issue. The cap method is the best way to be as accurate as possible (reviews indicate that +/- 10% accuracy is considered "good" sadly), but you would lose other swim metrics.