Meet John:

1.    Name:  John Tustin

2.    Zodiac sign: Libra

3.   Hometown:  Lubbock, Texas

4.    Your favorite stroke:  backstroke

5.    Lane you swim in and why your lane is better than the other lanes on the team:

Lane 3.  We won the holiday cookie bake-off.  

6.   Tell us a little bit about your aquatics/sports background?

I swam competitively on the Y team in junior high but quit high school swimming after three days.   I couldn’t handle getting up for workouts at 5, going to school, and then practicing with the band until 7.  I was a lot better at band and academics than swimming, so something had to give.  I resumed swimming for exercise in college and have been swimming a couple times a week for the past seven years or so.  I stink at all other sports and only run if chased or trying to catch a bus. 

7.    When and why did you join DCAC (any interesting stories associated)?

I joined DCAC when I moved back to DC in September 2009.  I wanted coached workouts and camaraderie. 

8.    What is your favorite kind of swim set/workout and why?

I like IM workouts for the variety.  I also like workouts when we swim more than 4,000 yards because I feel like a bad ass.

9.    Do you have any swimming/sports goals for the coming year? 

I’d like to swim three times a week.  And if I can get my goggles to stay on my face after I dive off the block, maybe I’ll swim in a meet.

10.    What do you love most about swimming?

Getting a good work out. 

11.    What do you dislike most about swimming?

Getting in.  And kick sets.

12.    What is one of your favorite things to do out of the pool?

Play with my dog.

13.    What is something that most other people on the team don't know? 

About me?  Or just don’t know in general?  I think you should clarify the question.  About me: I make great breakfast.  In general: whether we are alone in the universe. 

14.    So, allegedly you are from Texas.  Is everything bigger there like they say?

Yes.

15.   So, how does DC compare to Texas?

DC wins.  That is why I moved back after 6+ years.  If I could find some decent Tex-Mex and barbecue and be closer to my family, it would win hands down.

16.    You do environmental stuff for work, right?  Did you grow up loving earthy cartoons like Captain Planet and the Smurfs?

Yes.  I practice environmental law for Uncle Sam.  I liked the Smurfs growing up, even though they were communists.  Captain Planet was a little too cheesy for me.  I also never got the lame “heart” power.  

17.    Elena Kagan, Merrick Garland, or Diane Wood and why?

Diane Wood.  Hook ‘em.

18.    Have you ever peed in the pool?

Again, I think you should clarify the question.  If by “the” pool you mean one of the pools used by DCAC, no of course not - that is disgusting.  If you mean “the pool” in a generic sense, then yes of course.  Everyone has at some point in their life. 

19.    If you could choose one person on the team to be MetroWeekly Cover Boy of the Year, who would it be and why?

Art Perez.  It would give his moonlighting a boost.

20.    Please describe DCAC in three words or less:

wet friendly fun