Daniel Heil

MT, Montana | http://www.montana.edu/hhd/directory/1524172/daniel-heil,phd,facsm

I'm a university professor of exercise physiology and I've been an age-group athlete since I was 17 and often describe my abilities as "occasionally above average" while my ambitions are "Olympic caliber". A foundation of my personality includes the daily joy of working out and always having personal performance goals that I'm trying to achieve. Having remarried recently, my new family and like to plan our vacations around the potential for open water swimming (mostly lakes), or open water swim races (mostly me, but my wife was going to start racing in 2020). Given the lack of 2020 summer races, in fact, we spent 14 weekends camping around Montana with most of that time around several cold Montana lakes where we did daily swim workouts in our wetsuits. At Montana State University I serve as the faculty advisor for the MSU Triathlon Club and I've been doing triathlons myself since 1983 that have ranged from sprint to Ironman distances on both pavement and dirt. My favorite triathlons are the Olympic distance that are unusually challenging (i.e., rough or cold water swims, hilly bike rides, and off-road runs) while my favorite open water swim races are anything between 1 and 3 miles and especially point-to-point races that are difficult to navigate (i.e., few buoys, big waves, well away from the shoreline). During the long winters of Montana I also enjoy cross country skiing and ski racing, but I still like to maintain my swimming fitness during the winter as well. Finally, I've been a Blueseventy fan since my first Helix wetsuit in 2006. I currently have 3 Blueseventy wetsuits - 1 full for racing (just bought in 2020!), 1 full for recreational swimming, 1 sleaveless for racing and recreational swimming, plus a Blueseventy thermal swim cap. I've tried several other wetsuit brands (Xterra, Desoto, 2XU, TYR) and always keep coming back to Blueseventy because of the second-skin feel and the flexibility around the shoulders.