poolside-notes

Artistic swimming underwater audio is a different problem than “play a playlist while I freestyle.” Synchro / artistic sets need the whole squad on the same routine track and live coach counts without stopping the music. A deck boombox (or a phone propped on the gutter) only solves the dry half of that job.

What actually breaks with speakers on deck

Once heads go under for figures, hybrids, or a full routine run, water eats the music. Athletes surface on different bars. The coach starts shouting counts across the glass. Someone pauses Spotify so the cue can land — and the next run never matches the one before.

Personal “waterproof Bluetooth” buds do not fix the team problem either. Bluetooth is a short dry-air link. Underwater, that link drops. Even if one swimmer hears a private track, twelve headsets with twelve file versions is chaos for a duet or team.

The workflow that stuck in our pool tests

We stopped trying to make the boombox louder and looked for music + coach cues underwater on one shared feed:

1. Phone (or tablet) holds the official routine file.
2. A dry poolside T6 mixes that phone audio with a coach mic.
3. W23 bone-conduction receivers on the athletes pick up the combined channel by FM — not underwater Bluetooth.

That distinction matters. Phone Bluetooth only reaches the dry transmitter. The hop to the squad is FM receive. Clubs comparing “Bluetooth underwater” myths to a dedicated artistic kit should keep those two links separate.

Soft checklist before you trust any kit

• Keep the transmitter dry, upright, antenna fully extended, not buried behind a metal rack.
• Match channels before the whistle.
• Test at the depths you actually use — shallow-end demos can lie.
• Bone conduction stays open-ear; waterproof earplugs often clean up the feed under a noisy pool.
• One-way coach → athlete is enough for most artistic blocks; you do not need athletes talking back mid-figure.

We used the Tayogo T6 + W23 Artistic Swimming Audio System as the reference kit for these notes — peer pool testing, not a paid review. Product page: https://tayogo.com/products/tayogo-t6-w23-artistic-swimming-audio-system-music-coach-voice-mixer

If your club is still on boombox + shouting, start with a solo or duet kit and validate reception in your pool before scaling receivers. Your deck layout will matter more than the sticker on the box.