I remember having a swimmer friend about 10 years ago who told me that she used a waterproof bone-conductive headphone when she was swimming laps for fitness. She said you could hear it just fine in the water, that it was water proof, and it didn't plug your ears up so you could still equalize pressure if you were diving or something.
The way bone conductive earphones work is by playing the sound through your upper cheek bone, thus causing the little bones inside your ear to vibrate. Theoretically, this should be a really good solution for rowers and erg-users alike. Why?
Well, I remember when I was rowing for my college team, I would always try to find a way to keep my iPod and headphones on, but I was always monumentally frustrated. Maybe I have strangely shaped arms or something, but because with the rowing/erg form you're constantly extending and retracting your arms with each stroke, the armband would slowly wiggle its way off my arm and start flapping around by my elbow.
Or, if that didn't happen, the headphone cord would get tangled in the slide or would bump against my leg every stroke. And if I tried to shorten it enough so that it didn't hit my leg or snag on the seat, then when I fully extended for a stroke, I would pull the cord out of the iPod. Ug! I never managed to find a good solution.
One guy on my team got a headphone that had a cord like old wall-phones have...really coiled up so that it can stretch out about 2-3 times its length when coiled. He would just set the iPod on the ground and row that way and it worked OK for him, but each stroke would kind of drag the iPhone a little bit, and he still would have problems with the cord getting in the way.
Well, I did some surfing and found these:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/used/1047 ... oCdj7w_wcB
They are water resistant, bone-conductive, and wireless. This means no cord, no issue with sweat collecting in an over-the-ear cup, and your sweat won't mess them up or short them out.
They have a 5hour battery life and are rechargeable. I'm sure that audio purists would argue that they have some reduction in sound quality etc. etc., but we're going for a more pragmatic solution for rowing without just turning to a stereo system and blasting it loud enough to hear over the flywheel (a viable option if you and your spouse enjoy the same kind of music or if you erg when no one else is home).
My question then is this: Has anyone on the forum had experience with bone conductive headphones in general OR with this model in particular? If so, do they work pretty well? Are they loud enough to hear over the flywheel? Would you recommend trying this option? They're somewhat expensive compared to just a chintzy in-ear bud, but I view it as an investment in my own health if it gets me to row with less frustration.
Thank you for your feedback and commentary. Feel free to discuss other options for enjoying some decent workout music while gunning for a 1:20 split time!
