gear review: listening to music underwater!

product: Waterproof iPod Nano 3rd Gen Case iN3 H20 Audio and also H2O Audio Surge Waterproof Headphones

official marketing stuff: www.h2oaudio.co.uk

how much it costs: around £80 (with the waterproof earphones, which you need to buy with it)

would i recommend it: yes for the ladies, maybe for the men



overview: first test was yesterday, which was a complete disaster. second test was today, and was so successful i'm going to partially recommend the product!

what happened:

so the first test left me so disappointed i actually abandoned by swim altogether. the ipod submerged fine, didn't get wet - brilliant. the earphones however were pretty soft over all the splashing. they also fell out my ears every three strokes. i hated the arm band - it was so big and bulky and ugly. overall bad experience.

this mornings test saw me change a few things around, and -what do you know - success! i brought along my swimming cap and used this to keep the earphones in place, and reduce the noise from the splashing - which did the trick. i mean, the earphones still aren't terribly loud, if i stop 'listening' then i struggle to hear - but i am only using one ear piece as i'm half deaf; so maybe with two ears you'd be a little better off!

also this morning i abandoned the arm band, and slipped the ipod case into my swimming costume. it did look as though i had a slightly strange growth, but at least i was able to swim freely, without the big armband. the only disadvantage to this is that this obviously wouldn't be so suitable for the men (unless you were wearing your trisuit!)

the bottom line: i haven't swum any distances for ages, and this morning i tucked my waterproof ipod into my costume, and set off for a very easy 1k swim. twenty minutes later, i'd barely noticed the time had passed - and couldn't believe my stopwatch!

the best thing about this, as opposed to other MP3 players on the market, is that you can download your podcasts and go. when i'm running i can't listen to anything but the exact right kind of music - but swimming, it's all about the podcast. hamish and andy (australian radio show) were so funny at times i had to find a way to laugh underwater.

so when was the last time you laughed underwater?