This is advice for people who have limited experience in open water swimming, but who are planning to do a first or second open water race and want some pointers from an experienced swimmer. I swam on the team in high school for three years, for five hours a day my senior year, and have swum multiple times a week for the thirty years since then. Swimming has always been the easiest part of triathlon for me, but I know that’s not true for most other people. And open water swimming even for an experienced pool swimmer like me, is a completely different beast.
Swimming with a wetsuit is a good idea for multiple reasons. It can help you with buoyancy, which can be especially important if you don’t have a lot of experience in swimming. It can also help you feel more protected from whatever is in open water. I don’t know if you’re a little squeamish like me, but I don’t like to spend a lot of time thinking about fish in the water or any other creatures, or about what makes the water THAT COLOR. I try to practice not thinking about that, focusing on number of strokes taken instead, but a wetsuit gives me at least a pretense of being separate from the grossness.
I did my first triathlon with just a swimsuit, however. Wetsuits are expensive and if you’re not sure if this is the sport for you, you may want to either borrow or rent a wetsuit or just trust yourself in the water with a…
