1. USA Swimming and Ohio State can’t figure out what they want to call this meet. 2 years ago, it was the Ohio State Grand Prix. This time around it was the Columbus Grand Prix. According to the meet director, the meet will occur again next year. I wonder what it will be called then…

2. Easter weekend is a horrible weekend to have a swim meet. Attendance left much to be desired! I wonder how much money Ohio State lost hosting this meet…

3. This meet seemed like the ugly stepchild of Grand Prix meets. Now, I haven’t been to any other this year, but I can’t imagine any of the others being as ghetto as this one. Never, in my 5 1/2 years of attending/covering grand prix meets have I been to one that didn’t have awards ceremonies…until this past weekend. Blew my mind!

4. I also haven’t been to a meet where SwimStars.org made up approximately 1/3 of attending media.

5. Swimmers in the championship final get a say in the music that is played during the athlete parade to the block. I figured it did when I heard all the heavy hip-hop accompanying Felicia Lee’s events.

6. Speaking of Felicia Lee, she is the leading candidate for immunity here on Swim Aids. We don’t grand that privilege very often, but she is deserving because we love her! BTW, if you see her live, check out her shoe collection. She will soon be rivaling The Lochtenator for flyest kicks on deck.

7. We still love Coach Bob.

8. We became Markus Rogan fans during the Athens Games and this was our first time seeing him in person. We’re still fans

9. There were a lot of awesome swimming-related vanity license plates on hand for this meet.

10. We really, really, really miss Kaitlin Sandeno.

11. McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion is still the best indoor facility I’ve been to.

12. If we had the $$$, one of us would go to the Charlotte UltraSwim meet. We hear that everyone and their mama will compete there (because of all the prize money), so it will be the complete opposite of the Columbus Grand Prix.

13. Countdown is on for Irvine 2010. Be there!

Now that the major International meet of the year is over, we’re going through a bit of withdrawal already. Yes, the US Open is going on now, but the writing’s on the wall. We’re pretty much not going to have any swimming to follow until October-ish when NCAA season kicks into gear. That’s when we’ll be back to stanning for the Michigan Wolverines, I guess. Different year, same ol’, same ol’.

So, we’re already looking ahead to next summer’s Conoco Phillips Summer Nationals in Irvine, CA. Can anyone say “party”?! Well, we can!

The Swim Aids conquered the 2005 and 2006 Summer Nationals that were held in Irvine and had a blast doing so! Well, except for some unnecessary drama and having to drive on Cali roads (I thought I was going to die). We can’t wait to do it all over again and here’s why:

1. It’s an outdoor meet! Most of us reside in states where meets are contested indoors. So the chance to enjoy swimming outside — and the frolicking that goes along with it — is just wonderful. We don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s that we don’t inhale as much chlorine, but we just enjoy outdoor competitions. We’re more spirited and fun, if you can believe that. Actually, most of us lost our voices cheering during the Irvine ’06 Nationals.

2. In-N-Out Burger. ‘Nuff said.

3. Hot tub parties! The Swim Aids, for some reason, are obsessed with hotel hot tubs and jacuzzi’s. If our hotel has one, you will find us in it every night. That’s not even an exaggeration.

4. Most of the Swim Aids, if not all, will actually be able to make this meet. Our quality time together has been severely limited in the last 1.5 years. We aim to change that as soon as possible!

5. Tailgate possibilities. We’d like to think we were some of the first people to tailgate at a swim meet. Don’t be surprised if we bring that back next summer. Gotta make sure we get clearance/permits/etc. It’d be fun! Our last (and first) tailgate was a success! We had a pretty nice guest list which included Sir Phelps briefly, Katie Hoff, Kaitlin Sandeno, and Davis Tarwater. Debbie Phelps also stopped by and brought us cookies and balloons; which we later fought over. If we end up pulling off an Irvine tailgate, you won’t want to miss it. Trust us!

6. Post meet after parties. There will be some, and if we don’t have one ourselves, we will be cruising for others. Last time out, we partied with the Florida Gators and the Lochtenator. We owed him some Heineken (and still do), so we were able to get him some after the meet. It was a good time until hotel security shut it down! *shakes fist*

So, clearly we’re already psyched about next year! Show of hands: Who’s in?

Well, I know I’ve got a lot of ‘splainin to do because I’ve been to 2 meets in the past month, and I’ve hardly even mentioned it here.

So, you’re probably wondering where your “Tales From The Deck” posts and other gossip tidbits are, right? Well, this time around, I have failed you and I’m well aware of it. I do intend to post my thoughts on both Santa Clara and World Champ Trials. Just not now!

I’ve been so busy with trying to provide some degree of live coverage on Swim Stars Live, visit with old friends I only see once a year, and trying to get some sleep that there really just wasn’t enough time each day for gossip sessions! This was intensified in Indy because I was working by myself on the event coverage. It’s tough to be photographer, writer, and live Tweeter at the same time!

So, I’m working on a few posts for the blog. Highlights/lowlights, photo favorites, best races, and other thoughts are on the way.

So keep your panties on!

Back when we first started getting into the sport (post-Athens bitches; we’ve been around a minute, huh?) we were all over the place. We were attending national meets nearly every other month and it was awesome! We were the fan fixtures in the stands learning more about the sport and meeting awesome swim parents at the same time. They simply could not believe we traveled to all of these meets without having a background in swimming ourselves!

Flash back to Summer Nationals in 2006. We spent our final night in Irvine, partying with the Florida Gator swimmers; the Lochtenator included. When some of them found out that we weren’t swimmers ourselves, they thought it was the coolest thing ever! It’s too bad hotel security shut that party down. It was jumpin’!

And I still get that when I meet other media members while covering meets. I know the inevitable “what drew you to the sport?” question is coming and when I give my answer, the look on their faces is priceless!

It often goes like this:

“You mean, you don’t swim?”

“Nope.”

“Like, ever?”

“Only if a boat I’m on is sinking…”

“Wow!”

All the hoopla surrounding this weekend’s Charlotte Ultraswim grand prix stop got me thinking about how exciting it used to be going to frequent meets. A lot of our faves are competing at Ultraswim: The Hoff, The Lochtenator, Fleeeee, T-Dub!!, the Vanderkaays, Peirsol, Cullen… The perfect group of swimmers to be strolling deckside with. Imagine the “Tales From The Deck” I could share! Had this meet taken place back in our “glory years”, where it seemed money grew on trees, we would soooo be there this weekend! My mom spent the first part of her life living just outside of Charlotte, and my family still owns that house. I wouldn’t even need a hotel for this swim trip!

As we went though the past quadrennium, I got more and more comfortable with the sport and transitioned from just a fan to also a media member. It’s been a great ride! I still remember watching the Athens games and trying to learn all the strokes and terminology down. And now, I report on the goings-on of the sport. I’m still a fan, and I consider a number of the swimmers I cover to be friends, but the growth I’ve experienced in the past 5 years has been enormous! How’s that for a turnaround?

So naturally we’re a little nostalgic these days because we can’t just hop on a plane and go to a meet anymore. Damn economy! We’ve missed some great ones too! It looks like Santa Clara and World Trials will be it for some of us this year. Depressing? Yes.

So, this post serves as a notice that there may be a number of throwback posts headed your way. Our material has been a little dry lately since we aren’t attending meets like yesteryear anymore. So, we’ll take a stroll down memory lane, and hope you’ll join us!

We’re really bummed we can’t stay for the whole meet, we still had some serious chatting to do!  So if you were getting up the nerve to approach us yesterday – sorry!  Should have been faster!  Oh, and remember – don’t be a finals ho, yo!

After spending some serious dough at Mall of America and getting through the hell known as Minnesota road construction (seriously, who puts detours IN DETUORS?!?!), we arrived to the meet, just 10 minutes late.  But we still got to see our favorites swim!  We even got in a brief chat with The Lochtenator!  We just reminded him to say the word and we’ll get some Heineken to his house ASAP!

We were supposed to get a snowstorm today, but it never came!  Hopefully it won’t mess up our plans for tomorrow!

Oh, and word to the wise: no grown man in his sane mind would risk jail time to be with a 13-year old.  So doing the “bend and snap” bit is probably not encouraged.  Don’t embarrass yourself anymore.  Kay?  Thanks!

So anyways, this is by far the smallest Swim Aid turnout for a meet – JUST ME!  However, my friend Amanda is with me to keep me company.  We couldn’t make prelims or finals today due to a test in my last class today, but two days of swimming should suffice!  After all, who knows when my next meet will be!

I guess the big news here is that tomorrow is supposed to bring a touch of a blizzard.  That’s nothing for me, but I hope some swimmers brought their coats! I’ll be inside all of the time anyways – hotel, Mall of America, pool.  Awesome, no?

Well, I guess that’s all for this update.  Short and sweet.

We had an exceptionally long drought in the aftermath of last summer’s nationals. That wasn’t the plan, but that’s how things panned out.

So where are we going to get our fix? Your guess is as good as mine!

I’ll probably go spend some quality time with the Ohio State pool that I love so much. Michigan is coming to me this season for a 2-day tri-meet with Penn St. I’m definitely hitting that up. As for more National meets, I’ve been eyeballing the Minnesota Grand Prix and Short Course Nationals. If I can get up to Minny, I can reunite with Carrie and go to the Mall of America. Win-win, right?

But with trips like that, I’ll need to budget like a mad woman, as I have already penciled in that trip to Rome for Worlds. If I have to give up a few domestic meets in order to make it to Rome, then so be it. After all, it’s ROME!! Holla atcha girl!

If I stick around Ohio this fall, then I will absolutely make the trip to Long Beach for the grand prix in January. Kiwi will have relocated to SoCal, not to mention I have family out that way. I’ve been wanting to get to that meet for a couple of years now, so I think it’s about time.

According to the Quad Plan, Austin (TX) is getting a grand prix in March, pre-NCAAs. If all else fails, you may see a group at that meet because 6th St. is beckoning all of us.

Now, if for some reason, we figure out that Rome is an impossibility, we will definitely attend the CP Summer Nationals. IUPUI is hosting in Indy again, and we already have a hotel room. (If you’re thinking about going, we suggest you book yours now, too. You can always cancel later!) We wanted to stay at University Place last year, but couldn’t get a room and the people doing reservations were incompetent. So we ended up staying at the Omni and driving to and from sessions. We’ll be hoofin’ it that 1 block distance this time around.

So, Indy is our backup plan. I’m pretty sure that if we go to Rome, we won’t be able to swing Indy just weeks before that trip. This is the time when I miss Spring Nationals. Having selection meets just a couple of weeks before a major international competition makes it virtually impossible for us to attend both. Were Spring Champs still around, we could go to both. *shakes fist*

So that’s where we’re at with our trip planning. Nothing I’ve mentioned is set in stone, so don’t be surprised if you see a Swim Aid at a meet near you!

And the random “woooo” action you hear in background of the video was not us. It was our fave coach, Paul Yetter, who was sitting with us during that session. Yea, I just called him out. So what?!

Everyone is buzzing about the weather, but I live in the midwest. Our tornado sirens go off every Wednesday, year round, as a test.

Here’s to a week without any further interruptions from Mother Nature!

P.S. Our internet situation is kinda whack right now, so we’ll work on that during the day. (This post is coming from the Sidekick of yours truly)