low tide boyz

Welcome to episode 155 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This is our third annual “Fireside Chat” where we take a look back at 2022 and look forward to 2023. This year has been epic on so many levels and we are filled with gratitude for the love and support of our families, friends, Patreon members, brand sponsors, and fans of the show. Our brand of super niche content will continue unabated in 2023. Thanks again for your support all year!

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star review. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, and on YouTube. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback and/or suggestions. Finally, you can support our efforts on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

-  Chip and Chris

Welcome to episode 150 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We have something special for everyone to commemorate our 150th episode of the podcast. In this episode, we hand the reins over to the one and only Lars Finanger to host the show. His guests are the esteemed Swimrun micro-influencers, Chip and Chris. Enjoy!

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star review. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, and on YouTube. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback and/or suggestions. Finally, you can support our efforts on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

-  Chip and Chris

Welcome to our third Low Tide Boyz swimrun gear review show! This review is co-hosted by our friends at Swimrun Labs and we’re super stoked to have them back for another episode.

This show is all about swimrun shoes! Instead of doing a specific review of a product this week, we thought it would be helpful to take a big picture look at Swimrun shoes and all the considerations that should go into selecting the right pair for everyone. 

Let’s get right to it!

Global Considerations in Selecting a Swimrun Shoe (or a pair of shoes to use for Swimrun training or events.)

1. Drainage
2. Tread
3. Cushioning/Stack Height
4. Buoyancy 
5. Good Fit
6. Particle Size Impermeability/Water Permeability

In general, you shouldn’t do anything different for swimrun than you wouldn’t do for trail running. If you’ve never run in Hokas or minimal shoes, then you shouldn’t go all in because there is a risk of injury. From a medical perspective (courtesy of Annie and Brooke from Swimrun Labs) is to make sure that you take a graded progression to make sure that you don’t go down an injury rabbit hole. Another consideration is that studies have shown that runners that train in various models of shoes have seen a reduced occurrence of injury by 39%.

With all that, let’s talk about specific considerations for Swimrun.

Swim Considerations

Overall, shoe performance in the water should be a net neutral. Swimming with shoes is an unnatural experience and they create a lot of drag. Some of this is mitigated by using a large swimrun pull buoy but at the end of the day you are swimming with shoes and the best that you can hope for is that they are a non-factor. 

The features of the shoes should be considered based on the general considerations above. For example, Asher Clark of Vivobarefoot mentioned in Episode 23 of our podcast that they used bright orange on the soles of their swimrun shoes so that partners could easily spot their partner swimming in front of them.

Rule of thumb: you shouldn’t feel annoyed while swimming.

Run Considerations

Obviously, shoes are pretty important on the run. 

A great place to start is looking at what shoes you already have and preferably a trail shoe since most if not all Swimrun events are on trails. Not all shoes are created equal so you should make sure to try a couple of shoes because a sloshy shoe will get annoying quickly and not all shoes will feel this way. Does the shoe drain well? Do they retain a lot of water and feel waterlogged?

It is important to test the shoes on various terrains (after swimming in them) to make sure they will work. You can also get technical and soak the shoes in a bucket and then weigh the shoes, wait 2 minutes and then weigh them again to see if they shed a lot of water.

Getting into the water is also loaded with considerations. Speaking of loaded…do your shoes load up with rocks and sand? This can get annoying quickly but it doesn’t happen with every shoe. This is where particle size permeability can come into play and help you have a better race experience. Basically, you want particle impermeability and water permeability.

Another consideration is having an integrated insole in the shoe that you settle on. Removable insoles are basically sponges for water that can lead to sloshiness on the run. Depending on the course, a shoe with a rock plate or a tough sole to prevent sharp rocks from causing discomfort.

Roundtable Discussion, A.K.A. “Shoedown”

This is probably the best part of the show but it’s too much good intel to write it all down. So just listen to the show for all the golden nuggets of wisdom shared.

Overall Impressions

If you haven’t figured it out already, shoes are an individual decision and there are a lot of options to chose from. It’s best to start with what you currently have and experiment in training to make sure that they meet all or most of the general considerations mentioned at the outset. If you have a couple of shoes that work well all the better for injury prevention and for having options depending on the terrain of your next swimrun event. 

Feel free to hit us up if you have any questions about this special episode and/or reach out the Annie and Brooke from the Swimrun Labs on their website or on their Swimrun Labs Facebook Group.

Handy List of Shoes Mentioned on the Show

Altra Superior

Altra Vanish XC

Hoka One One Evo Jawz

Hoka One One Speedgoat

Hoka One One Speedgoat Evo

Inov-8 X-Talon 212

Inov-8 X-Talon 220

Merrell All Out Crush

Salomon Amphib

Salomon S-Lab Amphib

Vivobarefoot ECS Tempest

VJ Shoes IROCK 3

That’s it for this week’s special edition show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined. 

Welcome to episode twenty-four of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

We’ve got something completely new this week! For this week’s show we’re doing a deep dive into Ötillö’s Engadin World Series race. We thought that since this was the first major race to happen after shelter in place orders have lifted that it would be cool to test out a new format for race previews.

We definitely couldn’t have done this without the help of Lauritz and Mats Skott from Ötillö, Nicolas Remirez of Envol Coaching, Helen Wikmar of Ark Sports and Daniel Hansson. If almost all of these names sound familiar is because with the exception of Daniel, Mats, Nicolas and Helen are previous guests on the podcast. 

The idea for this format kept coming up in feedback from friends and listeners. Way back when we started the show we thought that it would be could do race previews and all the feedback kept convincing us that this would be fun content to produce and share. We spent three weeks getting everything together and we hope that you enjoy and are inspired to add Engadin to your Swimrun bucket list. (We definitely have it on ours!) So let’s dive in.

FIRST, WHERE IS ENGADIN?

Located in southeastern Switzerland and situated in a high alpine valley at an elevation of around 1800 meters or 5900 feet Engadin is a long high Alpine valley region in the eastern Swiss Alps located in the canton of Graubünden in most southeastern Switzerland with about 25,000 inhabitants. Engadin means “Valley of the Inn People” and the En (pronounced Inn) is the river that flows through the valley and ends in the Black Sea but not before passing through some amazing looking lakes. This region is known for skiing, hiking, trail running, water sports and since 2014—Swimrun.

Travel to Engadin is pretty straight forward. The closest major city is St. Moritz and it’s about 200km or 124 miles from Zurich and 175km or 109 miles from Milan. Flying, driving and railway are all ways to get to the race location. And uhm, what a location! Situated in a high alpine valley at an elevation of around 1700- 1800 meters or 5500-5900 feet the Swiss Alps look like a painting. Check out this race hype video by Ötillö to get a sense of the region and race course. 

Ötillö describes this destination a fairy tale. It is the race that launched the international swimrun movement in 2014 as the first Ötillö race ever outside of Sweden. “A unique race in a unique place, hosted in the fantastic Engadin Valley in Switzerland.”

We sat down with Mats Skott who chose the location and designed the course for his take on all things Engadin.

Why Engadin?

Up until the Engadin race in 2014 Ötillö (which means island to island) was only taking place in the Stockholm Archipelago and they wanted to show that swimrun could be done anywhere where there is water to swim in and trails/roads to run on. He said that the beauty of the region and the challenge of mountains serve to highlight both that Swimrun is a versatile sport and that it can be truly international. It is now one of his favorite races to produce year after year.

Key features of the course?

Mats took into account the natural beauty of the region and used the valley and mountains surrounding the valley for great swimming and a lot of climbing on the run legs. Athletes traverse three lakes as they start in Maloja and make their way towards the finish in Silvaplana.

Important info for swim runners considering racing Engadin?

It’s important for folks to know that the race is in the mountains and as such, athletes need to prepared for sudden changes in weather and account for cold water temps. Having the right equipment and being properly trained is key to have a great experience. Athletes also need to recon with the elevation of the race and the technical/steep climbs and descents on the run legs. Training technical downhill running is key aspect to train for this event.

Ötillö Race FACTS (World Series Distance)

Total race distance: 45.4 km (28.2 miles)


Trail-running: 39.6 km (24.6 miles)


Run sections: 9


Swimming: 5,800 m (6,343 y)


Swim sections: 8 (12.8% Swimming)


Longest swim: 1,400 m (1530 y)


Longest run: 8.5 km (5.3 Miles)


Total elevation: 1,499 m (4918 feet)

The World Series race starts near the town of Maloja and ends in the town of Silvaplana. (The hub for all pre-race activities including packet pickup, course briefings, etc.)

Sprint and experience distance events take place in Silvaplana the day before the World Series distance event.

Average race times: 

Based on 2019 results, the winning team finished in 5:27:29 (Team Simployer.) Daniel Hansson and Helen Wilkmar who we interview later in the show each finished second in 2019 with their teams ARK Swimrun for Daniel and ARKsouls for Helen. The last team finished in 9:21:31 in 2019. 5 teams missed cutoff times at aid stations. 13 teams did not finish.

Fun fact: 29 countries were represented at the 2019 event.

Weather on Race Day

In the middle/end of July, it is usually summer in the Engadin Valley with daytime temperatures of around 20 degrees Celsius (68 Fahrenheit). The elevation of the course is around 1700-1800 meters (5,500-5875 ft) and this means that there could even be snowfall. Water temperatures will be between 10-14 degrees Celsius (50-57 degrees Fahrenheit) depending on where you are along the course. 

Ötillö recommends making sure that teams dress accordingly and consider wearing something under your wetsuit if you tend to get cold on the long swims. Use a Neoprene cap if you are not used to cold water.

Ötillö’s describes the course as “challenging and beautiful. The varied course, the altitude and the very strong group of participants will challenge everyone to put in their best performances.”

“The start is in Maloja, at the top of the valley and finish is by the lake in Silvaplana. The course passes Sils and Silvaplana along the way. The running sections are on dirt roads, single tracks, rocks and with some challenging steep sections to climb. The uphills are rewarded by amazing views. This is tough.”

We chatted with Daniel Hansson who has raced the event four times for his tips on the course. He tries to arrive early to Engadin to start acclimating to the elevation and taking it easy when he arrives with some light hikes and easy swims. He also keeps a closer eye on his effort on race day to make sure that he’s keeping his heart rate from exploding to be able to race well. He encourages everyone to take the time to enjoy the beauty of the region.

World Series Course Leg Breakdown 

Leg 1: Maloja to Lej Cavloc 3.2k run (1.9 miles) (110m or 360ft of climbing)

Leg 2: Lej Cavloc 300m swim (328 yards)

Leg 3: Leg Cavloc to Sils Lake Malija 7.6k run (4.7 miles) (330m or 1082 ft of climbing in this section narrow single track technical section)

Leg 4: Maloja 500m swim (546 yards)

Leg 5: Camping to Isola 6.5k run (4 miles) (210m or 689ft of climbing) (uphill all the time)

Leg 6: Isola to Chaste Point 900m swim (984 yards)

Leg 7: Chaste Point-Chaste Second Swim 600m run (.4 miles)

Leg 8: Chaste 2nd Swim 600m swim (656 yards)

Leg 9: Chaste to Lej Silvaplana 6.3k run (3.9 miles) (150m or 492ft of climbing)

Leg 10: Lej Silvaplana 600m swim (656 yards)

Leg 11: Lej Silvaplana loop 3.2k run (2 miles) (210m or 689ft of climbing)

Leg 12: Lej Silvaplana 2 800m swim (875 yards)

Leg 13: Lej Silvaplana to Silvaplana 1.9k run (1.2 miles)

Leg 14: Lej Champfer 1400m swim (1530 yards)

Leg 15: Lej Champfer Loop 8.5k run (5.3 miles) (375m or 1230ft of climbing) (Lots of switchbacks in this leg on the climb up and a gravel fire road on the way down)

Leg 16: Lej Champfer 2 700m swim (765 yards)

Leg 17: Shore to finish line Silvaplana 2k run (1.3 miles)

We were lucky to be able to get Nicolas of Envol Coaching to give us a course breakdown and mini-race report. There are a lot of nuggets of wisdom here for anyone considering racing this event.

Engadin Race Reports

We asked Helen and Daniel to give us their respective race reports from 2019 to help everyone get a sense of what the course would be like on race day. More great nuggets of wisdom for everyone to stock away. 

Training for the Engadin World Series Distance

We asked Nicolas for his advice on training for Engadin. He gave us a lot of tips about training for the elevation and the weather conditions. He recommends athletes try to train at least a few sessions in altitude to get a sense of what the race effort could look like. He recommends long hill repeat training sessions and swim straight after running downhills, if possible. 

A key weekly session that he asks all of his coaching athletes that are racing Engadin to do every week leading up to the race is pretty intense: a three-hour workout with 30 minutes of steep hill repeats (last downhill really fast) followed by a 20 minute swim at race pace, then 25 minutes of hill repeats followed by a 15 minute swim at race pace, then 20 minutes of hill repeats followed by a 10 minute swim at race pace, then 30 minutes of hill repeats followed by a 15 minute swim at race pace and finally 15 minutes of hill repeats.

The other key weekly session is to find the steepest hill in your area and do hill repeats for one hour non-stop.

Summary

So with that, we hope that everyone found some value in this race preview. Again, we could not have produced this show without all the help that we got from Lauritz and Mats Skott from Ötillö, Nicolas Remirez of Envol Coaching, Helen Wikmar of Ark Sports and Daniel Hansson. We were truly humbled that so many people were willing to give us some of their time to help make this show great and we hope that you find value in listening to it and, ultimately, that you are inspired to add this race to your bucket list.

We’d love to hear your feedback so let us know what you think!

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined. 

Welcome to episode eight of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

This week’s show is all about Ötillö Catalina that happened this past weekend (Feb. 29-Mar. 1).

We have something special this week and have two parts to this episode. The first part will be the Low Tide Boyz report and the second part will be the race report from a Swedish Team, Team ARKsouls Addnature, that finished in second place female division. 

So here we go! We had an amazing and busy weekend scheduled at Catalina. We were almost journalists. We recorded 4 great interviews that we will be releasing in the coming weeks. We met some great people, made new friends, connected faces to names and just had an amazing time. It’s hard to overstate how surreal it was to get so much positive feedback for the podcast and memes. It all started on the ferry ride to Catalina from Long Beach and really didn’t stop until we left. We tried to mention all the people that we connected with while we were there but we’re sure that we missed a bunch of folks. Overall, it was an amazing weekend and we can’t wait to back next year.

Episode 8: The Löw Tide Böyz Ötillö Catalina Race Report

We thought it would be helpful for folks that are thinking about doing the race next year to give a play by play of the World Series distance (31k or running and 7.7k of swimming) race. The course was very difficult and pretty much everything that you’d want in a swimrun race and nothing that you could find in a triathlon.

Leg 1:  Two Harbors to Isthmus Harbor Beach (2.3 miles or 3.7 kilometers)

This leg was a pretty hilly run right off of the bat.

Leg 2:  Isthmus Harbor Beach to Big Fisherman Cove (1640 yards or 1500 meters) 

Nothing too tough about this. It definitely felt nice to get in the water after cooking on the run with the wetsuits on.  

Leg 3:  Big Fisherman Cove to Ballast Point Beach (2.9m or 4.8k)

This run was pretty straight forward. A little bit of a climb from the boat ramp but then it got very runnable.

Leg 4:  Ballast Point Beach to Catalina Harbor Boat Ramp (440y or 400m)

This was the shortest swim of the day.

Leg 5:  Boat Ramp to Parsons Landing (5.3m or 9.5k) 

This was the hardest/longest run of the day. We dropped the suits as soon as we got out of the water knowing that we had a big climb ahead…which we pretty much just hiked/death marched up. (Shout out to the Swimrun Monks and Team Baywatch for the head’s up on this section) It was very steep for the first 2 miles. There was an aid station at the top of the climb (an aid station coming out of the water would have been nice.) Once we got to the top of the climb, we were pretty exposed and it got a bit chilly with the wind but it was nice to be able to run and then had a screaming downhill to get to the next swim at Parson’s Landing.

Leg 6:  Parsons Landing Bay (765y or 700m) 

This was the hardest swim of the day. It was very exposed and there were 4-5’ waves going in and out. This was a leg were the true spirit of swimrun really shined. We quickly made a plan of attack, agreed on who would do what and went on to execute. The whole process probably took 30 seconds but it exemplified a lot of what we love about the sport, namely, seeing an obstacle, communicating on how to tackle it and then going out and doing it. Did we mention that this swim was hard?

Leg 7:  Parsons to Emerald Bay (1.1m or 1.9k)

This run was pretty chill and just what we needed after the washing machine-style swim that we just finished. This was about the half way point of the race with some very long swims coming up.

Leg 8:  Emerald Bay to Howland’s Landing (1400y or 1300m)

This swim was pretty straight forward but the water temperature was dropping a bit. 

Leg 9:  Howland’s to Big Geiger Cove (1.3m or 2.2k)

This run was pretty uneventful. Just climbing out of the beach to a trail and then keep heading south towards the finish area. We ran this one easy since the biggest swim of the day was up next.

Leg 10:  Big Geiger Cove to Lion’s Head Cove (1750y or 1600m)

This swim wasn’t very technical but it was long. It was also our fastest swim of the day.

Leg 11:  Lion’s to Fourth of July Cove (2.2m or 3.6k)

We ran this swim pretty quickly, mostly to warm up but also because we were feeling pretty good. We passed several teams on this run. We saw our friend Christofer Sundberg from Ark Sports on the run so that also gave us a lift.

Leg 12:  Fourth of July Cove to Isthmus Harbor Beach (875Y or 800m)

This swim was fine but it was a little hard to sight. Luckily there was a watercraft that pointed us in the right direction. 

Leg 13:  Isthmus Harbor Beach to Big Fishermen Cove (3m or 4.9k)

This was the last run of the day and we definitely knew that we had the race in the bag. We also saw our first wild animal of the day: a squirrel! (Read: we saw zero bison!)

Leg 14:  Big Fishermen to Isthmus Harbor Beach (1530y or 1400m)

We were both pretty toasted by this last swim and we just grinded it out to the beach. Chipper really carried the load to get us to the beach.

Leg 15:  Beach to finish line (.2 miles)

Crossing the finish line was a sweet as any race we’ve completed together.

Overall, it was a great experience and we will be back! We worked well together and supported each other well and achieved the goal. Hats off to Ötillö for putting on an amazing event. One of our friends Marcus Barton made a video of the race that you can see here to get a great sense of the vibes of the day. You can check out the official event photos on Flickr. 

The Low Tide Boyz will be back next year!

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Low Tide Boyz, please be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast player. We are on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow along on Instagram and Twitter. You can also support us on Patreon, if you are so inclined. If you want to drop us a line, email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com

Welcome to episode six of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

We are releasing another episode this week to give our listeners yet another Ötillö Catalina course preview and some more deep diving into swimrun-specific race gear. On this week’s show we chat with the Huntington Beach-based swimrun team Kawika and Blake, A.K.A. Team Baywatch, to discuss the world series course and all things gear with two veterans of the sport. 

Before getting into the interview, we want to give a special shoutout to our first Patron on Patreon, Andy Hewitt of California Swimrun. He’s basically the Godfather of swimrun in the U.S. and it means the world to us to have both his blessing and support for two average dads that are trying to help grow the sport. We look forward to interviewing him soon for the show.

Now right to this week’s special episode! We are stoked to have Team Baywatch on the show this week. Not only are they super experienced and have raced a ton together, they are also total gear heads and share all their wealth of knowledge with our listeners. As if that wasn’t enough, they have been working with Andy Hewitt and the Ötillö folks to test out the Catalina course and have previewed the course several times already and they’ll share there knowledge with us.

Kawika found swimrun in 2016 and was hooked after his first race in San Diego. His first partner at that race was not hooked. Kawika then asked his friend Blake to partner up and the rest was history. Their first race together was the California Swimrun in 2017 and then signed up for Odyssey Swimrun’s Casco Bay long course event the same year. Since then they have competed at a ton of Swimrun races in the States and internationally and raced the Ötillö World Championships in 2019.

They chat about the Ötillö Catalina course on the show and provide a much of gems of wisdom for folks racing the World Series distance. They also chatted a lot about swimrun-specific gear. Everything from what type of swimcap to don to what shoes have worked best for them and everything in between.

Besides dropping serious gear knowledge, Kawika and Blake gave us a series of “pro-tips” that were so good that we needed to list them for everyone:

1. Wear goggles that you can easily grab and clear during the swim while wearing swim paddles.
2. Make sure you test out whatever swimrun wetsuit you plan on racing in to make sure that it doesn’t cause hot spots or chaffing.
3. Use 4 inch wide KT or Rocktape on your neck to help prevent chaffing from the wetsuit.
4. Timing chips can cause some chaffing so wearing tall compression socks can help with that.

We really appreciate Kawika and Blake for sharing their experiences with for our listeners and we look forward to having them back on the show in the future.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Low Tide Boyz, please be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast player. We are on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow along on Instagram and Twitter. You can also support us on Patreon, if you are so inclined. If you want to drop us a line, email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com.