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First open water swim
in Triathlon
Last Saturday I did my first open water swim (500 metres to start) and loved it!! Have been again since & going again this week. Haven't been on the forum for a whlie but am back now.
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Glad you enjoyed it
I love open water swimming ... Just dont get much chance to d any
The only time I get OW swimming is at the start of a OW Tri race.
So once in 11.5 months!.
Still - it keeps the wettie in a good nick.
It's just SO MUCH more real than the pool.
I love the way that distances just happen, none of this lane counting stuff. Glad you enjoyed it, keep going.
I adore open water swimming. I'm very fortunate to have a local lake that's available most days of the week and is free to swim in. I'm hoping to keep it going as long as I can into the colder weather - I'm not looking forwards to pool swimming over the winter!
I didn't think I would ever manage to learn to swim, let alone go OW swimming
Now I hate the pool, and love getting in the lake
Now is the time to start looking at wetties, and trying them on. They have to be quite tight to avoid getting a cold draught of water flushing through. You usually need a helper to zip them up.
Now is the time to look and buy, because there are a lot of people who try it once, then sell. If you know your sizes you can check ebay (I got mine half price there). Also you can get one from the hire companies, after one season's hire they move the stock. Major discounts.
There's an interesting and counter intuitive relationship between price and performance in wetsuits. At beginner level we are much, much better off with beginner wetsuits. They are cheaper, thicker, warmer, more buoyant, and therefore faster. Expensive ones are usually thinner, but they are fine for fast swimmers with good body positions. A beginner in a top end wetsuit would be slower, colder, and poorer.
Very few of us are skinny.... Have you actually tried any wetsuits on ? I suggest you go and try a few, just like clothing stores wetsuit maker A's large might not be the same size as maker B's large.
my 2 suits are from different manufacturers and are labelled as different sizes and both fit perfectly
On a positive note last sat I did 100metres in 44 mins 51 secs & 1300 metres last nite in an hour (all open water & breaststroke)
make sure you are trying on swimming wetsuits, they are very different beasts to a windsurfing or surfing wetsuit