September 15, 2000

From Myrna Hagedorn, Head Coach

Colorado Novas Synchronized Swimming Club, Colorado Springs, CO

The Colorado Novas is a Synchronized Swimming club which competes at Local, Regional and National levels. Having an underwater music speaker in addition to an air speaker is fundamental to practice and performance at the highest levels of our sport. We recently acquired the Tactile Sound Underwater Transducer (TST-3710 AQUA) and my swimmers immediately noticed the improvement over any of the other underwater speakers that we have ever had or heard (and we have heard them all!).

The vaulted ceilings of public pools often cause severe distortion of sound and can make coaching very difficult. With the underwater speaker, the swimmers can hear music extremely clear and I can use a microphone to add counting to the music in difficult sections. I can also coach their movements and technique while they are underwater. We also do extensive distance swimming to increase endurance and aerobic capacity; this is very much more enjoyable for the swimmers with music playing underwater. Because our club has to go to a number of different pools to obtain adequate practice time, our system has to be rugged and portable. We use an Ocean Engineering portable sound system with built-in air speaker and have added the TST-3710

via a standard phono plug input. It all fits in a 20 gallon rubber tub that I cart to every practice. I'd recommend this speaker to anyone who wants the capability and fun of sound underwater.

Sincerely,

Myrna Hagedorn

Photo 1: Set-up for a lift and throw of a swimmer from underwater, timed to fit with a high point in the music.

Photo 2: Practicing a circle pattern in an upside-down vertical position. Leg movements have to be timed with the music.