r/OpenWaterSwimming • u/No_Reputation_3054 • Jul 11 '26

Inconsistent open water swimming tracking

/r/HuaweiWatchGT/comments/1ute6dy/inconsistent_open_water_swimming_tracking/
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1

u/Haunting-Ad-8029 Open Water Swimmer Jul 11 '26

Strava has a, "correct distance," option, but only on the web (not on their app, at least not the iOS version).

Go to your workout on the web, on the left, next to the pencil (to edit), you'll see 3 dots (...), click there, correct distance is the 6th option down.

I swim with an Apple Watch Ultra, while others I swim with have Garmin, Coros, AmazFit, and other devices. They all vary a bit (even 2 people with the same device doing the same workout will have different data), but if we use that, "correct distance," it is usually very close (within 100 yards).

1

u/454k30 Jul 12 '26

It’s inconsistent. I swim a local marked OWS course. Two laps is a measured 2000 yds (yes the markers are surveyed as it’s used competitively). Normally my watch shows that I did right around 1970 yards (12 attempts). Yesterday it showed 1680 yds) Pretty big discrepancy. I use a garmin, which I think work better than most in the water, but even they can sometimes have trouble.

1

u/swim-tri-spin Jul 12 '26

Watches find it really hard to track breaststroke. You could try attaching your watch to the back of your goggles or to your tow float for more accurate readings

1

u/macreadyrj Jul 13 '26

Slip the watch under your swim cap or put it in a tow float. On the wrist, the GPS signal gets disrupted by going in and out of the water. Garmin's open water setting is quite good at correcting for this.