El Andalous - Rash Vest

Time for a Swim

In addition to my new Garmin Swim 2 watch, I’ve bought a rash vest (a long-sleeved light top to wear over my swimming costume).

Since I’ve been back in Egypt, I regularly swim into invisible stinging algae. It’s distracting (I always stop swimming), and it’s irritating to have the hives and itchiness afterwards. I’m also always worrying that maybe it was actually a dangerous fish of some kind that stung me (I always stick my head in the water to have a look around immediately after it happens, but it’s always clear) and that I’ll die. So, the aim of buying the rash vest was to protect myself against the stinging algae. It will also help me not to burn during the summer when I swim as the vests are designed to offer SP50 protection; I don’t burn these days, but in summer my skin can get very dark even though I’m staying in the shade (and, of course, I’m in the sun when I swim).

The rash vest wasn’t something I wanted to buy online, as I felt I needed to try it on. So, on one of my post-KFC visits to Senzo Mall, I searched around for one. The new sports shop didn’t seem to have it, but I did eventually find one in Billabong. Trying to get the guy at the counter to understand what I was looking for, however, was a bit of a challenge.

He was eager to help, but was showing me all the wrong things – swimming suits, swimming shorts, t-shirts, bikini tops. I said in the end I would look myself. I’d have rather spent a bit more time just browsing, but he followed me round (probably curious to see what it was I wanted). I thought I’d spotted them when I first came in, but they seemed to be in the men’s section, so I wasn’t too sure and had also wondered if they had prettier ones in the women’s section.

So, I went back to rifle through the ones I’d noticed before the guy had come up to try to help me (I’ve never seen a rash vest myself, so wasn’t 100% sure that the ones I’d seen were indeed rash vests). However, as I did so, the sales assistant immediately started to hand them out to me one by one, so it was hard to have a proper look at my leisure. In the corner of my eye, I spotted that one he was holding out said “rash vest” (but I never saw that label again) and so I asked him for a small size, since they looked like men’s wear. The guy serving seemed happy finally to have a clear instruction.

I tried it on and decided I may as well buy it, although it was (I thought) very expensive at around 40 GBP. For some reason, he was eager to have cash and said he couldn’t take cards, so I declined and said I’d buy it next time I was in. Then, all of a sudden, the point of sale machine that takes cards was perfectly functional. I’m not sure what was going on there!

A bit like my swimming buoy, my rash vest has created some attention when I went out for my swim. Sometimes, I think I should get paid for wearing things like that family did in the film The Joneses. The rash vest has actually had some additional benefits; when there’s a wind (which is quite often), it doesn’t feel quite so cold as I walk out into the sea; it gives me extra incentive to pluck up the courage to get into the water. I’m not sure if it keeps me a bit warmer when I swim. I did think that having a wet shirt clinging to me as I came out of the sea might be rather chilling, but even that seems to be better than my naked arms against the wind and it’s a lot easier to remove than a wetsuit.

I don’t know yet if it slows my swimming down as I have yet to do one with a swimming watch. I feel as if the swims are more of an effort, but it could be purely psychological. And if the rash vest does slow me down, well, it’s probably giving me a better workout (I find that wearing it makes it more noticeable to me when I’m not stretching my arms out fully enough as I swim). All in all, it was a good purchase