Men wearing swimbriefs

Swimmers call those "drag suits." They wear them when training and during warm-ups before meets.

Now that I've made that important contribution to the thread, I'll be leaving.

 

And if you've ever tried to swim more than a few laps in them, you'd know it's like running with a parachute behind you. It's good for drills, but it'll kill you if you do too much with them. If I'm swimming for exercise (an hour workout, maybe a couple thousand yards), I'm finding something streamlined to do it in.
That said, I'm also bringing a pair of board shorts or basketball shorts to put on as soon as I dry off.

 

Don't worry. Since I've grown man boobs, I usually go with a tankini.

 

Speedo sells trunk-style suits with an innter lining that are about 1/3 the size of board shorts; they're a little bit like a looser pair of Daisy Dukes. They work quite well for swimming, not very much drag at all and you don't scare the ladies in the hydrofit class in the other lanes by showing up in a rock sock.

 

So when you gonna post the photos of you in this, micropolitan guy?

 

Ever consider the extra drag is actually increasing your workout? When I was in the Keys, a former Olympic swimmer coached the high school team I covered. He also had a club, with the same swimmers. Out of season, i.e., when they weren't shaving times for the postseason, he would alternate workouts with long T-shirts to increase drag and the workout.

 

As someone who has been in Miami for the past 2 days at the pool, I say NO to anything but board shorts. If you're swimming laps in a pool, fine, but if you're at a pool on vacation, no way.

Although it does seems like all the foreigners prefer the tight speedo-type suits and there isn't anyone who looks good in them.

 

When I swam in high school, we had a few people on the team who would've drowned if they tried that.

 

Oh, yeah. Definitely cultural. Most Europeans wear speedos. Hell, when I was in Paris is was normal for folks to spend their lunch hours on the banks of the Seine, stripped to their undies. Catch some rays. Get dressed, head back to work. That was in the mid-90s. don't know if they still do it.