by Dan Underbrink
Amidst all the resetting of clocks last weekend, TWIM members got busy at two swim meets, in two states!
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The Oregon City, OR Spring Ahead meet was attended by Jonathon Banks and Dave Scott, while the TACM March Madness meet, in Anacortes, WA featured swims by Mary Underbrink, Kerry Ness, Steve Fogg, and Dan Underbrink.
The change from Pacific Standard Time to Pacific Daylight Time has me wondering; how has this affected everyone’s workout? Are you finding it more difficult to get out the door in the morning? Is your body telling you it feels like an hour earlier? In my case, the Anacortes meet started later than most meets, so I was able to sleep in a bit. That seems to have made my time transition easier.
On Monday, a fellow swimmer at the Mill Creek Y asked, “Wait a minute, didn’t we vote to end Daylight Saving Time?” I thought I remembered something like that, so I did a little research, and here is what I found out.
In 2019, Washington State did have a vote, but it was not to end Daylight Saving Time. Rather, Washington voted to adopt Daylight Saving Time, permanently. So why are we still changing our clocks?
The problem is that Federal Law (the Uniform Time Act of 1966) allows states to opt out of DST (like they do in Arizona and Hawaii) but there is no provision for a state to be able to adopt DST, permanently. This puts the Washington vote in a legal limbo, where the majority’s choice is being denied by Federal Law.
Several attempts have been made in the Washington State Legislature, to “fix” this situation by proposing to go off of DST permanently (instead of being on DST permanently) but these have never passed the state legislature, due to concerns like early sunrise (as early as 4:00 AM in June) and lack of coordination with neighboring states.
Efforts at the federal level, such as Senator Murray’s Sunshine Protection Act of 2025 (which would have allowed permanent DST) have also failed to get through the legislature.
To further complicate matters, British Columbia has decided that the recent clock change will be their last. Yes, they are now on permanent DST in B.C., so for the foreseeable future we will have a time disparity with B.C. for a large part of the year.
At least Washington State is all one time zone. Indiana is divided into two time zones, with six counties in the Gary, IN area and six counties around Evansville, IN area on Central time, while the majority of the state is on Eastern time.
For many decades, there were counties in both time zones of Indiana, who either opted in, or out of DST, resulting in four different time treatments across the state! Very messy for things like flight arrivals, and television schedules! They still have the two time zones, but they eliminated the “opt out” option in 2006.
Anyway, back to the meets!
In Oregon City, Dave Scott swam a full schedule of events, including the 50 Free, the 100 IM, and all of the Breaststroke events. Way to represent TWIM, Dave! Meanwhile, Jonathon Banks swam all distance events, with first place finishes in all. Those were the 800 Free, the 200 IM, and the 200 Free. Excellent showing, Jonathon!
In Anacortes, Mary Underbrink had great swims in the 50 and 100 meter freestyle races, and Steve Fogg swam the 50 and 100 meter backstroke races. Steve also edged out Dan Underbrink in the 200 IM, by 0.04 seconds! Besides the 200 IM, Dan also swam in the 100 and 200 breaststroke and the 100 and 200 backstroke events. Kerry Ness rounded out the squad, with fine performances in the 50 meter breaststroke, 50 meter backstroke, and 100 meter breaststroke events.
Excellent performances by all TWIM competitors at the small, but fun, Anacortes meet.
One thing is for sure; whatever state or time zone you find yourself in, there are likely to be TWIM members, rallying around our Blue and White banner, and mounting the starting blocks, to give it their “all” in the pool!
We are looking forward to the PNA SCY Championship and Zone meet on April 11-12, at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, WA, and the Hood River, OR Oregon Masters SCM Championship meet on April 18-19 as our next competition opportunities!
Go TWIM!
