I went swimming for the first time in ages yesterday, and wore a swim binder I made for myself.  It consists of a cut up one piece suit, two sizes small for me, and a baggy T-shirt

When I was in the pool, I found myself quickly out of breath, and I needed my roommate to hold me above water. I ended up getting out of the pool after 40 minutes, but I refused to take the binder off until I could walk back to my place, which made wearing the binder up to about an hour 30 total

Today I struggled to walk to class, and found myself gasping for breath.

Does anyone have any alternatives to my binding method for swimming that won't cause me this much trouble?

Maybe you could but an FtM swim suit.

You could set aside an older binder or one you don't mind getting stretched out and use it just for swimming.

the best solution would probably be to just purchase a binder swim suit. Tritop and LesLoveboat both have ones

Underworks also has a swim binder that I have and absolutely love. It's available here (http://ftm.underworks.com/). It's $45 but it works well, holds up to repeated use (I love to swim) and is easy to get on an off. I only bought the top and use a cheap pair of wal-mart trunks.

Before I bought that I took two old sports bras that I was going to throw away and layered them, with the bottom one being worn normally and the top worn backward. It was tight and chaffed, but under a black T-shirt let me pass well enough to use the men's locker room.

just a tri top

Quote from: Lee on April 23, 2012, 02:36:35 PM
You could set aside an older binder or one you don't mind getting stretched out and use it just for swimming.

This, especially if you don't want to pay for another binder.

I ran into some extra money a couple weeks ago and wanted to buy a binder specifically for swimming so I bought a binder from Love Boat that zips up the front (I wanted it to be easy to take off when it was wet). Turned out to be a pretty good purchase because it binds well in the water. The only problem is that you can kinda see it underneath a t-shirt or rash guard, but swimming pre-op while trying to be stealth isn't exactly an easy thing to do.

Thank you!  I think I am going to try getting another binder for swimming now.