Rob Desantis
I'm a guy and I started doing synchro a few years ago. I started in Y instructional and now a club has asked me to swim novice and swim figures and show duets. It was not new to me as I often came to my sisters practices and watched. I liked all the somersaults and figures so I took lessons. My mom did synchro in university and encouraged me. She bought me a special swim suit for me to wear for a while. It was from Europe and was a one piece that kind of looked like a girls suit. It had short legs like a jammer on it and wide straps on it. It was a guys suit designed to swim in colder water and I would wear it when I practiced so that during practice the guys could not tell which swimmer was guy. I wore a cap like the girls. I don't wear a headpiece or gel ok! When we did a show duet I was nearly dead after 2 mins where I swam a part as a pirate and the my girl partner was the maiden that refused to give up her gold. After I did it some of the men and boys in the audience came up and said it was ok. The girls mostly liked it except for a few girls who still give me the business about doing their sport.
When we do the club show I shave down just like when I was in speed swimming. At first some of the girls were opposed when I tried it. They felt it should be reserved for them. Others thought I was just trying to make synchro look funny. It was very hard to learn basic figures and moves. I'm more muscled than a girl and I tend to drop at the legs. Also when I do eggbeaters I don't come up as high in the water. I also still have to do a lot of work on leg moves and inverted verticals.
Good for you, Rob! Don't put up with any flack!
Do you have any videos of your duet or shows? You should post them in the videos section. I bet it would be encouraging for other guys that want to try sycnhro.
I laughed at your comment about hair gel. I've swam on teams with 3 different guys before. One of them actually asked me to help him gel his hair back because it was just a little too long to leave loose. I thought it looked good kinda slicked back actually! Really short hair is the easiest for you though, I bet. When it came time for hair and makeup, we were always jealous of how much less time it took a guy to get ready!
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