Open Water Swimming for Triathletes

I am very fortunate. I learned to swim around 2 years of age, began swimming competitively at age 4 and started spending time in the surf around age 6. This means that I am a good (not great, just good) pool swimmer and a very good ocean swimmer. My older sisters are both excellent swimmers and are more than competent in the open water. Similarly, my younger brother is absolutely fearless on a board regardless of the size of the swell.

What is my point? Well, my workout this morning was a continuous swim-run just down the road at El Moro in Crystal Cove State Park. When the water is warm, as it is right now, I love to swim out past the breakline, head down the beach a couple hundred meters, swim back in to shore, run a mile and then do it all over again, ad nauseum. With next weekend’s Pacific Coast Triathlon occurring in the park, there were a LOT of triathletes getting into the water.

After my hour and a half of swim-run-swim-run-etc was finished, I sat and watched the triathletes head into and out of the water. I noted that the top 10% were fantastic swimmers—probably faster than myself. The next 50% were capable—neither fast nor slow, but competent enough to handle the open water. The remaining 40% (or so) probably should not have been in the ocean….at least not a few hundred yards out from shore, away from the eyes of the lifeguards.

Every year there are a few drownings in triathlons across the country. Some of the time there is an underlying health condition (i.e. heart attack) that leads to the drowning. But much of the time it is competitors not familiar with lake or river or ocean swims who fall victim.

Watching that slowest 40% today, I observed them get into the water (very slowly), stop and rest constantly, and leave the beach as soon as their swim was over. There was no time spent "playing" in the water—no riding swells, diving under the crashing surf, etc. Despite paying $10 to park at that beach, they left the beach as quickly as possible to run or ride.

My assumption is that the 40% have not had the luxury of time in the ocean that myself and the other 60% have. I would guess that some of that 40% are actually fair pool swimmers. And some of the 40% are probably incapable of swimming more than a few hundred meters at a time.

My recommendation is: if you plan on putting yourself in an inherently risky situation (and I have seen enough big “animals” in coastal waters to know how risky it is out there!), then you must become familiar with that environment. No, that does not mean that you have to become the next Laird Hamilton or Craig Hummer in order to compete in a triathlon. But preparing for a triathlon—especially one with a surf swim—by pool swimming exclusively is a lot like using a stairmaster to prepare to climb Mount McKinley.

US Open Water Swimming is a good place to start, as is US Masters Swimming. Whatever you do, don’t go solo. I may paddleboard alone all of the time, but I never open water swim without another swimmer nearby. And with 8-10 foot swells forecast for the end of this week, I wish all competitors good luck out there—be safe, be smart and have a great race.