Our Bodies, Our Bathing Suits
Where I confess the number of bathing suits acquired in my pursuit of cold water swimming
On the days that I swim six times with my swim pod buddies Elaine and Crissa, the most important question we always ask is: WHAT SHALL WE WEAR?
Yes, we are grown women who like to wear matching bathing suits to swim in the cold water of San Francisco Bay. More than like, I find these matching suits essential to morale and the joy of pushing the envelope of reason and the body.
Elaine and Crissa are swimming sisters and have been wearing matching suits for years. I joined them in this madness the last few years and have found it to be sound. Wearing cheery swimsuits is so encouraging when doing hard things like six-dip days and swimming for an hour in 51-degree water.
So I thought a little essay about my collection of bathing suits would be fun and simple. Then I started counting.
Can a swimmer have TOO MANY bathing suits? I ask you because I’m not sure I am the best judge anymore. Similar to my clothes closet, there are a few ratty ones that are sentimental favorites that maybe should be retired. A few that I don’t love, but somehow don’t get rid of. There are also a few unworn new ones, bought last December when Deakin & Blue, my favorite swimsuit company, closed.
I laid them all out, the ones from my swim club locker and the ones in drawers, on hooks, and in bags in my house. I found they fell into these categories:
Seasonal: winter suits with polar bears, spring suit with rabbits, and summer suit with sunflowers.
Long-swim: suits that are particularly comfortable and don’t chafe during open water swims longer than an hour.
Sun protection: suits with SPF in the fabric or more coverage. I had a stage zero melanoma removed from my lower right calf in 2024 and I’m trying to be better at protecting my skin.
Thermal: thicker suits for real or magic feather effect against the cold, or longer swims in colder water.
Dips: suits that are cute but fall off the shoulders on a vigorous swim or are stretched out. These are great for a breast stroke or side stroke swim or a dip, i.e. a swim where there’s a lot of talking and not much swimming.
Lounging: cute and flattering suits I wear for casual poolside hanging out.
Pools: I started swimming with a masters swim group at my local YMCA in 2025. I’m learning a lot about my stroke, and especially my weak kick that I can’t focus on much in open water. I like comfy, chlorine-resistant classic suits by TYR and Speedo.
Fun: team spirit suits, goofy patterns, animals. Many of these fall in my matching suit category with my swim pod.
As I counted, I reflected on the tricky history of women and bathing suits. Women were discouraged and outlawed from swimming and showing any parts of their bodies in swimsuits in most of the world until the last century (and even now, well, that’s another post). Then there’s our own body image issues. I’ve never met a woman, thin or ample, buffed or buttery, or girl over ten years of age who didn’t think there was something “wrong” with her body. Puritan hangovers about nudity plus the relentless cultural onslaught of what constitutes the “perfect” body means woman vs. swimsuit is a perennial internal argument, despite the recent body positive movement. Deakin & Blue was founded in 2016 in response to the fact that 500,000 British women had stopped swimming because they hated the way they looked in a bathing suit.
However, I would argue that a bathing suit also has the power to free us from that construct. It is the ultimate fuck you to the body image machinery that has kept so many of us from swimming proudly.
When I look back at pictures of myself in swimsuits in my 20s, 30s, & 40s, I can still remember the cruel thoughts I lashed myself with about my cellulite, or tummy roll, or stretch marks. And yet I looked great! What a waste of time that all these decades I could never enjoy my beauty of the moment. Even now, I have to remind myself that my post-menopause pounds and sagging skin cover strong muscles that let me do extraordinary things.
A blessing of the open water community is the way body and age bias fades as you meet so many remarkable athletes of all generations and sizes. I’m grateful that my two daughters grew up in the sauna of my open water swim club with me and got to see real women’s bodies in every stage of life, all strong and beautiful.
Another body blessing is age. Now that I’m 61, I weirdly find myself more confident in a bathing suit, especially around swimmers, than in street clothes. Aging has brought me more freedom to give less of a fuck about what other people think, of my body, of my words, of me. Part of that is the joy and freedom I find in open water, where no matter how short or long I swim, I always feel like I have done something exceptional.
Every seasoned swimmer has a story and so do their swimsuits. Read Leanne Shapton’s wonderful memoir Swimming Studies about her life before, during, and after competitive swimming. She includes 22 photo stories of her bathing suits, mostly vintage suits, but my guess is she has many more in her collection.
So here’s my current bathing suit count confession:
Swimsuits in my locker: 9
Swimsuits at home: 30
Total: 39
Too many? The abundance makes me a bit ashamed, but I do swim a lot. How many do you have?
I'm down to just six — OK, seven if I count an old, discontinued Speedo two-piece that I hang onto for sentimental reasons. The absolute worst swimsuit I've ever owned was also the prettiest: It was made from a fabric blend that included metallic threads — so shiny! — and after I wore it for almost two hours during the very salty Waikiki Roughwater Swim my skin was so abraded I could hardly bear to wear *any* clothing for weeks afterward. I gave that suit away with no regrets.
Love this Pia!!!