Greetings fellow Masters swimmers,
I hope the New Year is going well for all of you. We have an exciting year ahead of us with some great events lined up for 2019. This year the OMS Association Championship will be held at the newly renovated Tualatin Hills Parks and Recreation Center May 17-19, 2019. Oregon Masters will be hosting our annual membership meeting along with our annual recognition and awards social on Saturday night. The OMS Board of Directors cordially invites all of you to attend this annual event where we recognize our volunteers and swimmers and share some of the achievements from the past year. Don’t forget to submit your nominations for the several awards which recognize those who contribute to this amazing organization. We plan on putting together a slide show highlighting all the pool and open water events, workout groups, and individuals who make Oregon Masters Swimming so much fun. Please submit your photos to: matt@flytrapcare.com.
The One Hour ePostal swim continues through the month of February which gives all of you plenty of time to enter this annual event. This is a good way to measure your swimming performance from year to year and set new goals. This is just one of five events U.S. Masters Swimming provides to its membership. If you swim three of the five postal events this year, Stephen Darnell will reimburse you for your 2020 U.S. Masters Swimming membership. What a deal! Let’s all rally our teams and enter as many swimmers as possible to secure a National Championship for the One Hour swim.
OMS has several pool events scheduled for 2019 including the Chehalem meet on January 27, which will be hosted in a brand new aquatic facility located in Newberg. Next up, come check out the brand-new state of the art starting blocks at the Oregon City Spring Ahead meet March 9-10. The 2019 Spring National Championship will be held April 25-28 in Mesa, Arizona and the 2019 Summer National Championship will be held in the newly renovated facility in Mission Viejo, California. The FINA World Championship will be held August 9-18, in Gwangju, South Korea. The Gil Young/OMS Long Course Association/NW Zone Championship will be held at Mt Hood Aquatic Center August 23-25.
The Open Water dates have been set with the Portland Bridge Swim hosting the 2019 U. S. Masters Swimming Ultra-Marathon National Championship on Sunday, July 7. The OMS Association Championship will be held at Applegate Lake, July 13-14. The 2019 NW Zone Open Water Championship will be held on Saturday, July 27, at the Cascade Lakes Swim Series & Festival. There are several Open Water swims available this summer and the entry information can be found on the OMS website. If you haven’t tried Oregon Open Water Swimming yet, you are missing out on some beautiful lake and river swims.
Oregon Masters Swimming has a wealth of experience with many coaches, pool and open water swimmers, and we would love to spread that knowledge to the adult swimming community. Our first step is to assess your needs and solicit those who would be willing to help with clinics. We have created a survey which will help us better understand the needs of our membership. Please take a moment and respond to this quick survey. Your input is really appreciated. The survey can be accessed thru this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/T7S53GR
Swimmingly,
Tim Waud/OMS Chair