Swimming!

Just got back from the river, where I took Lagniappe swimming and tried out my new, improved designated swimming leg. Unlike the Beta version, which catastrophically came apart while I was trying to swim against a fairly persuasive current, and it's not an exaggeration to state that I had a few tense moments there before I was able to cut across the current into the shallows, kicking with one leg while trying not to lose any more of the other one. Back to the shop went that one, along with more than a few choice words directed at the thought processes of whoever designed it.

Fast forward a couple of months, and Lagniappe and I are trying out the new version in the same stretch of river. This one worked just great. The heel can lock in either a walking position or a toe-down swimming position, with a lock at the ankle to secure it in either position. Putting my Dacor diving fins on and locking the foot into the "swim" position, I kicked out into the river. It stayed snugly in place while I kicked, dove to the bottom, and treaded water, basically ramping up the level of activity to see if I could reach the failure point and make it come off or break. This time it didn't fail. And it enabled me to swim with a uniform, strong bilateral kick, just like I used to be able to do. It felt damned good, let me tell ya.

In fact, it worked so well that after a bit of playing with it, I swam almost all the way across the Shenandoah River with it. I would have made it all the way across too, except that a certain German Shepherd decided to follow me and I didn't want to subject him to a double river crossing. So I turned back 3/4 of the way across and he and I actually swam back together, just a guy and his dog.

After about forty-five minutes, when it came time to exit the river, a simple turn of a catch, and the foot transitioned to a walking leg again and I just walked back to my vehicle, wet dog in tow. It was a pretty good workout and it felt great to be back in the water in a serious way again. Now I have to ring up Aaron from The Shekel and see if he can't set us up with another dive trip before the end of summer. The last one was great, but with this new leg giving me full power again, the next one'll be fantastic.

$16,000 for the new leg...and worth every penny.