Homemade Swim Tether?

There are a couple of brands out there, but if you want to make one it's pretty easy. Surgical tubing and a nylon belt. You may need to double up on the tubing if it's too thin so you can get the right resistance, but it's cheap and easy.

I made one for just a few bucks and it works very well for when you're stuck in a small pool.  I took two old bike tubes, a length of nylon rope (maybe 8-10') and a web belt w/ a plastic buckle.  Here's the assembly:

Pool ladder/stair/handrail/whatever>>>bike tube>>>rope>>>bike tube>>>me.

I keep the whole thing assembled together and just loop the one tube around the handrail and then clip into the web belt.  You really want some elasticity at both the attachment end and the swimmer end, just using one tube at only one of two ends doesn't work as well.

You can buy tethers, but this is every bit as good (I used commercial tethers in high school/college) and the only thing you need to buy is the rope and belt....assuming you've had a couple of flats on the bike!

My home pool is maybe 30' long, and on mornings when I can't get to the lap pool or beach, I use this.  Great for breaststroke and freestyle....haven't really tried backstroke, but it'd work I'm sure.

x2 on surgical tubing (resistance bands).  If you need to extend, get some climbing clips to join them. 

Good idea with the bike tubes.

I used my fuel belt. tied it to my shed with kite string. It worked out much better than I thought it would.

I'd guess a race number belt would work fine too but the inner tubes sound like they might be a better way to go.

Surgical tubing works well, but the bike tubes are just as good.  I figured since I had a few non-patchable tubes lying around, it was a good way to keep them out of the landfill.  Saved me a trip to the medical supply shop, too.

I dunk the apparatus in a bucket of fresh water after using it, just like I do with my goggles and jammers.  May not be necessary, but the thing has lasted forever. 

I spent too much money on my carabiners, so I don't think I'm going to use them.  Those are one of the few things that you only want to use as the manufacturer intended, because when you take a lead fall you really want the things to work.

The tether isn't so great w/ sidestroke, but that should be a non-issue to folks around here.

Edited by danimal123 2009-12-11 8:29 AM

I made one using nylon rope and a strap from my weight equipment.  It worked but to be honest, I struggled with it because as I swam it would actually pull be backwards a little and made it tough to breath properly.  Still, it was good conditioning.  I got greater improvements once I finally found a local pool to join.

Good luck!

Ropes and straps won't work well at all unless there's some sort of elastic component like inner tubes, surgical tubing, etc....

Just using a static rope + strap would make for a terrible workout.   Adding elasticity works very well.

I rocked out the Bungee Cords to an old leather belt.  Worked great.
x2 on needing elasticity.

We have the AquaVee to use in small pools when we travel...

here is the link: http://aquaveeonline.com/

I really recommend this to Everybody....and...it's not expensive...!!!

Edited by velorider62 2009-12-11 9:15 AM

$70 to $100 for that???

Admittedly, it's not expensive compared to what we spend on bikes, but the homemade system costs under $5.

I'm curious as to why you say that.  The elasticity is what caused me the most problems. Switching to something which was more firm actually helped.

I travel a lot and came across this website in another board.  You can locate public pools in most international cities. 

http://www.swimmersguide.com/

I wish I could remember where I saw the link to give credit where credit is due.

Danny