Suunto 9 - Open Water Swimming mode issue

Simon and Sandy

Hello, I just purchased the Suunto 9 and took it out for an ocean swim… I set it on open water swimming mode and it recorded the correct time that I swam (about 12 mins), but the distance is wrong… I swam about 400m but it recorded 60m only. Can you please advise what may have happened and how this can be fixed? I assume that it should activate the GPS once set on the open water swim mode? Thanks

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@Simon-and-Sandy did you wait for a GPS fix outside the water? The S9 is very good at open water swimming. Other thing … did you swim freestyle ?

Egika

The watch needs to see the sky at least once in a while. When submerged the signal is blocked by the water.
That means you have to lift your arm out of the water or put the watch under your swimming cap etc.

Simon and Sandy

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos and @Egika I’m quite sure I left it on for a few minutes but did a bit of breakstroke at the start as it was low tide and was going to smash into seaweed or rocks otherwise … next time I’ll leave it on for a bit longer before starting. I noticed that the running and cycling functions “buzz” when it starts up - does that mean the GPS is on? On my Ambit3 I could see when there’s a fix but on S9 it’s not as obvious? (Or is there?) The open water swim function is really important to me so I’m hoping it works well.

Egika

You can see if GPS reception is there when the little arrow turns solid green before pressing start.
As you noticed this goes along with the short vibration you noticed already in other sports.
It makes sense to wait a little longer after this, to give the GPS chip time to acquire more satellites than just the absolute minimum.

Simon and Sandy

@Egika thank you will do - will report back with any issues if I continue to experience problems

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

Perhaps what can help, if you have issues while swimming switch to the navigation screen. There you should be able to see the track and the arrow of your location.

Actually, I use navigation with swimming a lot and that should work great.