OK, I admit it. I was very much looking forward to researching this week’s column on the Different Strokes Swim Team (DSST), San Diego’s GLBT organized swimming group.

I was looking forward to diving in with a bunch of shirtless guys in small bathing suits and swimming around in a big refreshing pool of perfectly temperate water after a hard day’s work.

Then reality struck, and I realized that I too would have to be shirtless in the pool.

Damn it.

Not wanting to confuse any of the team members with a Sea World rescue site, I decided to research this week’s column fully clothed from the comfort of my laptop.

I spoke over the phone with DSST chair Doug Rehg, who explained that, even though I might be buoyant, I was more than welcome to workout and socialize with the team.

“We pretty much welcome everyone,” Rehg said. He offered himself as a good example. He had not swum competitively, or even regularly, prior to joining the team. “I knew enough to get across the pool without drowning,” he said. “I have been with the team ever since.”

Though Rehg only dove in four years ago, DSST has been organizing swimmers for workouts and competitions since 1985.

The club was formed in an effort to help San Diego GLBT swimmers prepare for the world’s first Gay Games, held in San Francisco the following year.

The club has a rich competitive history. In addition to sending 34 swimmers to the Games in 1986, it sent 48 to Gay Games III and 58 to Gay Games IV. DSST has also hosted the International Gay and Lesbian Aquatics championships (IGLA) in 1987 and 1988.

The team has also been represented at the Gay Games at Amsterdam and again at Sydney.

Most recently, DSST members returned from the IGLA championships held last month in Paris. Sixteen DSST swimmers competed in several different events along with two water polo players.

However, the competitive aspect is only appealing to some swimmers.

“The bulk of our swimmers don’t go to competitions,” Rehg said. “They come and swim with us for their exercise needs, whether to augment (or in place of) going to the gym.”

It’s easy to understand why.

Swimming is an intense, aerobic workout, with the whole body working in concert to propel you through mostly choppy and resistant water – and the DSST crew practices five days a week!

At each practice, members will swim between 2,000 and 4,000 yards. With some lanes traveling faster than others, swimmers can elect which lanes to dive into, and can therefore dictate the pace and intensity of their own workout.

Practices last a little more than an hour, and it’s not at all unusual for team members to go out and eat as a group afterward.

“It’s a social, informal thing that’s never planned out,” Rehg said.

Being social is as good an explanation of the DSST’s longevity as anything else. The group prides itself on being a thriving community of caring, generous, supportive people.

In addition to informal dinners after a hard workout, club members enjoy periodic pot-lucks, and its kick-board contingent in the annual gay and lesbian Pride parade is always a crowd pleaser.

The club also has a philanthropic connection with its roots.

Among the pioneers who helped found the club was the late Bart Hopple, in whose name the club has raised thousands of dollars each year by hosting an annual “swim-a-thon.” For the past 15 years, DSST members have solicited donations in exchange for their swimming laps around the pool. All the money earned gets donated immediately to AIDS charities here in San Diego.

Because it balances competition with staying social and recreational, DSST is what’s known as a Masters Swim Team.

According to Wikipedia, masters swimming is an organized program of swimming for adults. Members participate in a variety of ways, ranging from lap swimming to international competition. Programs are generally open to all adult swimmers (fitness, triathlete, competitive, non-competitive) who are dedicated to improving their fitness through swimming.

According to Rehg, DSST’s take on masters swimming is providing an organized swim program, to promote fitness and friendship, targeted to the GLBT community and its friends.

Joining DSST is simple and reasonably priced. For $30 a month, and no pool fees, swimming may just be the most-effective, most affordable workout you can get. Plus, you might just meet some friends along the way.

For more information on DSST, visit www.dsst.org. Dive on in. The water’s fine, even if you’re buoyant.