Unless you swim naked, you’ll probably need to buy a few items.   Over the years, I’ve found there are a few ‘must have’ items and a few items that are complete wastes of money.   Keep in-mind that that I consider myself a fast recreational swimmer, but I’m not a racer.   Products that give me a high ‘bang-for-the-bucket’ are usually my favorites.

Swim Suits

Being a guy, I can only speak about my experience with men’s suits.   Obviously, if you want to swim fast, wearing a pair of surfer shorts is about the equivalent of riding your bike with a parachute tied to the seat.   You’ll get great exercise wearing them, but you won’t likely be fast.   I personally prefer the ‘jammer’ style short which happens to look about the same as my bicycling shorts that I wear in the summer.   I’m afraid I just can’t see myself wearing the Speedo-briefs.

Suit style aside, I’ve found that the ‘p’-word (polyester), actually is the better route to go.   I started out swimming with the more expensive Speedo suits that were mostly Lycra blends.   They looked nice and made me feel fast, but they didn’t last long before the chlorine started to wear them thin.   I tried the much cheaper Speedo jammers that are a polyester blend and I really like them.   One pair easily lasts a whole season of swimming without totally losing shape or getting thin spots.  The other benefit is that you can usually buy several pairs for the cost of one of the higher end Lycra suits.

Flip-Flops

Whatever you want to call them, make sure you wear some kind of foot protection when you’re not in the pool.   In addition to keeping you from slipping and falling, they also protect your feet from nasty funguses.   Have you ever had Athlete’s foot?  You really don’t want it, and there’s a real good chance you’ll get it if you don’t protect your feet on a public floor.

Goggles

It would be pretty hard to recommend a single pair of goggles that fits everyone, so I won’t.   When swimming indoors, I personally prefer a pair of clear lenses that don’t limit my peripheral vision… which usually means I like goggles that make me look like a dork.

I also prefer goggles with an adjustable nose bridge.   I’ve never had any luck with the goggles that have the fixed nose bridge, they never fit right.

Most goggles come with some kind of anti-fog coating that never seems to last very long.   To extend the life of the coating, I highly recommend not getting the inside of the goggles wet with pool water when possible.   The chlorine seems to quickly remove the coating.   When my newer goggles fog-up, I usually take them off for a few minutes to let the fog go away, then I put them back on.   I’ve also used the Tyr anti-fog solution, but it doesn’t seem to do anything.   If someone has a better way to keep goggles from fogging-up, I’m all ears!

When you find a pair of goggles you really like, I’d suggest buying like 50 pairs of them.    It seems like as soon as you find a pair you like, the company stops making them and then you have to start all over again.

Swim Caps

If you’re not wearing a swim cap, well, I feel sorry for your hair.   It took me weeks before I was used to wearing a cap, but now I feel naked without one.  

I recommend a silicone cap over the latex kind.   The silicone caps last longer and don’t seem to pull on your hair as much.  I haven’t tried a Lycra cap yet, but knowing that Lycra suits don’t last long, I wouldn’t expect a Lycra cap would either.