From: TigerTim responding to boogi about life vests

That's an excellent safety net. How big is this buoyancy vest (aka life
preserver)? Is it buoyant enough to keep you from sinking to the bottom
from the weight of the water on the fur? How bulky is it?

The PFD I use is intended for canoeing and is quite compact, padding out the chest of the suit quite nicely. It just compensates for the weight of the suit and has a slight reserve of boyancy so I can swim quite normally, only catpaddle or breaststroke as the head prevents the use of overarm. His paws act as quite effective paddles but dont expect him to set any records as one lap in suit is about equiv to four laps out of suit. One rule I always apply when others are about is he is not to be touched or hung onto when he is swimming in deep water.

(Maintainer's note: PFD - Personal Flotation Device. A required item when one is boating on a lake or ocean, or in a swimming pool when one cannot swim or just plain float around.)

From: Jugular Jaguar
Subject: Fursuit Swimming!!

Okay for some this is total idiocity. But for a select few this is a lot of fun. I am talking about swimming in suit or at least getting your feet wet.

Background: I have seen some suits that were used for water skiing (Disney) and other acts revolving around water. I also heard about KidSimba after I did this. It was after a con. I was bringing my suit home to be put into a bath tub for cleaning. We had passed a couple of springs and I came to the realization that this should be okay.

The rationalization: This is fresh water so this shouldn't be a problem or a danger to my costume.

So we found a spring! Now I didn't just jump in as I have been in water before with a heavy coat and it pulled me down. What would a full body suit do to me?

Experimentation: We started off with just wading into the water and getting an idea of how to move in water with the suit. The feet are latex with fur over them so I was getting extra exercise from carrying that weight with each step. I then laid into the water and got an idea how heavy the suit was going to be. Not bad. Now the suit is getting hot but when you get wet from spring water it is great!!

Okay I am now wet almost entirely now with the exception of the head. Now one of my concerns is possibly breaking my neck (seriously) if I jump into the water. So considering this costume is a should mounted suit I still opt to go in feet first. I just hold my hand on my head to keep it popping off or snaping my neck (Just in case) another caution I do is to jump near the ladder in the shallow end of the spring. One other precaution is to note where the life saving items were and giving instructions to the photographers put down the camera if it looks like I am having any problems.

Now Jugular's head is a poured foam so it is mostly sealed meaning water slowly gets absorbed into it. Many suits are a lighter foam (bedding foam) and these would suck up water so fast you would weigh too much in the water and might have to get out of suit to get out of the water. BTW Jugular is a thin fur cat.

I jumped in three times and did some swimming experiments.

I float very well!

I can not dive underwater for the life of me!

My feet hold bubbles rather well!

I took precautions so I didn't have any problems. The kids that were there had a blast seeing me do this!

After the event: Okay no problems there. My feet have sand in them in the fur. No biggie. It took a week for the head to dry out.

That is about it as far as problems.

So if I inspired you to try this. Cool! Make sure you bring people to fish you out or save your tail in case you weren't careful. Have those who are with you know where the water safety equipment is. You might be too busy drowning to tell them. Go about this slowly and work to jumping in. Don't dive in as you could break your neck without having proper precautions as each suit is different. Bring a plastic tub to put your suit into as it will retain a bunch of water. make sure you “shake” the excess water off as it is fun to watch!

That is about it from me. Remember I did this in a Spring (fresh Water) and that is much different then a pool with Chlorine or salt water. (ewwwww)

Here are some pictures of my antics: http://superjay.timduru.org/Jugular/

Jugular Jaguar - Going for the throat to get a laugh!!

From: Christopher John Thomas
Subject: Re: FL: Athletic Performance in Costume

On Fri, 23 Jun 2000, boogi wrote:

However, what other things should you observe, other than a PFD, a
watchful friend, that kind of thing, to keep the suit from falling
apart after a number of uses?

DISCLAIMER: The following answer is based on theory only. I haven't gone swimming in a fursuit.

The most important rule is almost certainly to not swim in chlorinated water - ever. Chlorine will attack many types of plastic with prolonged exposure, and while some materials are safe, I wouldn't bet on a fursuit being chlorine-proof indefinitely.

Salt water should be ok, as long as you wash the suit off in fresh water as soon as possible afterwards. You'll get some mechanical wear from salt encrustation if you let it dry even a bit and then move around in it.

Fresh water won't directly harm most suit materials. However, just moving around in fresh water puts a lot of mechanical stress on the fur (water is far denser than air). The seams will also have to take the weight of dragging all of that water around with the fur, and thread in seams and glue bonding fur to foam or plastic have to deal with expansion and contraction of some of the materials as they absorb water and then dry out.

Another thing to worry about is when you come out of water. While you're in the water, you're still neutrally buoyant, but when you come out, you'll be hauling around several extra kilos of water in your fur. Foam masks are especially bad for this - they'll soak up water and deform, even on your head.

Make sure that your costume can take these stresses, and make sure that everything has a means of drying out while being worn.

Lastly, if you're on a beach, you'll have to worry about sand grinding away at the fur (you'll always get sand all over you, both in and out of water).

Summary of preventative measures:

- Avoid chlorine. Rinse after salt.

- Your suit will be under far more physical stress than it would be out of water. Expand seam allowances and go over each seam many times, and make sure that all other attachments are as strong as you can possibly make them.

- Make sure that your suit will survive on land when waterlogged, and that all parts can drain when you get out of the water.

- Use the most durable fur you can find - sacrifice texture for strength. The usual Monterey Mills stuff will frizz up after just a couple of extended water sessions due to sand and just normal agitation.

- DON'T FORGET SAFETY. I've omitted it from this list as it's been discussed elsewhere, but it could easily fill this much space again. Make sure your head and upper torso are buoyant enough for you to breathe without having to exert yourself. Always use a couple of spotters.

I hope that this is of use }:>.