I just am.
I remember swimming in lakes as a boy scout as a kid. When I leaned how to swim to start tris the factor of it being a lake wasn't an issue. I also spent a lot of time in mosh pits as a teenager so the body contact people were always talking about wasn't a big deal. Actually I remember being a couple of minutes into my first swim and thinking "that's what everyone was crying about?"

I only swim in open water for races.

The bigger deal was my first race and having the studs shoot past me on the bike so close. I got over that with time.

Good answer- it kind of speaks to familiarity being a key factor. Thank you!

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

I spent summers as a kid at the cottage but swimming in the lake with your friends is different than head down off you go for an hour or so.

Last fall I would have been hard pressed to swim 25m in a pool without having difficulty. This was more due to FS ability or the lack thereof than concern over drowning. I feel for me that learning the proper technique gave me a good head start when switching over to open water in the summer.

It became more of a mental game than anything else as I had swam the open water distance in the pool. It initially took about 15 mins of convincing myself that I could do it before I would settle. The turning point came at the cottage when I wanted to swim 4k so I knew that I could before IMLP.

I think it was around the middle of June and my wife was paddling her kayak and towing another, we set out for the far end of the lake and there were white caps as a storm had just passed. I had also forgot my swim goggles. For the first 10-15 I must have came out of my stroke a dozen times and finally my wife said " the kayak is here if you want to get in, otherwise just swim".

That just seemed to be the difference as I swam the rest without issue and finished in about 1:27.

The more I swam in open water after that the shorter the mental game took. I am now quite comfortable swimming.

Also, doing a shorter distance than you scheduled "A" race helps get used to swimming in a group although comfort in the water was a bigger hurdle than the group swim.

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If you do something a lot... you're bound to get good at it.

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36 kona qualifiers 2006-'23 - 3 Kona Podiums - 4 OA IM AG wins - 5 IM AG wins - 18 70.3 AG wins
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for me, I'm just at home in the water. grew up a swimmer, age 8 thru college, and I never give it a second thought. I was also a pool rat as a kid. I was one of those annoying kids that was at the pool all day, every day all summer long. I'm never in a situation in the water that freaks me out. I guess I know I can slow down, stop, tread water, lay on my back...whatever. I grew up in the midwest w/o an ocean and it has not hurt me in open water races. Now, I know people that have similar backgrounds as me - that freak about the idea of swimming in a lake or the ocean - and it seems that they are all scared of "what's down there", what they can't see!

I ran a water survival program for the Navy that trained aviators and aircrew in water survival techniques. We had many people come through our training who were not comfortable in the water. There were really 2 primary issues: 1. lack of comfort with putting their face in the water and 2. Lack of confidence in their ability to stay afloat. We found that we could not really have any success at moving to more complex survival skills until we had addressed those two issues adequately. We progressed from simple face in the water to underwater problem solving (doing stuff underwater on a breath hold), and from short periods of treading water to extended drownproofing. Once they felt like they could stay afloat for an extended period of time and could perform underwater, they were good to go. THen we could teach them the basic strokes and put them in a helicopter dunker trainer, blindfolded, strapped in and upside down and have then find their way out!


I think the key is a good foundation of basic water comfort skills, especially treading and drownproofing, before moving on to swim skills. Once you realize that you can stay afloat virtually for days, your fear of open water is greatly reduced.


Mike

Well, I am a complete beginner to the sport of Triathlon. Of course I swam as a kid took all the red cross classes but that was 30 years ago.

I have done 4 triathlons this year (my first year) and the first 3 were in pools. Had my first OWS last sunday and prior to that I went and practiced OWS for about 15 mins...

My normal pool workouts are 2000M + so I figured that I could struggle through 750M.

28 minutes and some change later I came out of the water completely exhausted, I was so slow getting out of the water I made it into 4 separte pictures.... I held onto 2 boats (would have held onto more but that was all I could find), thought seriously about quitting, back stroke, back float, etc.

After that tri I seriously thought that maybe Tri's weren't for me.

This Friday I went to a lake with a friend and my wife and swam about 1K no problem. Having that one experience just made me so much more confident out there. I realized that if I got into trouble I could take my time by just floating on my back to get my breath back, adjust goggles, whatever.

Going back again on Monday to practice, working on moving around people. In my first tri everytime I came up on someone I would pull up and tread water instead of swimming around them which is one of the reasons I was so exhausted in my first try.

So to make a long story short, for me it is just going out there and doing it to show myself that the open water isn't that much different than the pool.

Familiarity seems to be the common answer. I’ve been swimming in open water since I can remember. My family has always been into boating, so water (boating, swimming, skiing, surfing) has been a part of my life since I was too little to even remember. It was common to get bored on a long lake or ocean cruise and just jump in with little or no land in sight. I suppose I got comfortable by never knowing any other way to be in open water.

person who grew up along the ocean: Nature and nurture perhaps...

I'd have to say both. My Dad (Navy pilot) could extort chores from us when we were five so that he would take us to the pool at the Monteray Naval Center way back when. Swimming was in our blood from a very early age. I grew up within minutes of an ocean, be it the Atlantic, Pacific, or the South China Sea.

In my eighth and ninth grades, we lived at Cubi Point Naval Air Station, located at the mouth of Manila Bay, on the island of Luzon in the Republic of the Philippines. I spent almost every day snorkeling collecting live sea shells, two to six (on weekends) hours a day. The water was six to eight feet deep on a shelf that extended for about three quarters of a mile. At the end of the shelf was a drop off that went down over 40 feet. The farthest down I ever went was about 25 feet. Friends went to the bottom, but they were a lot bigger than me.

The large moray eels, sitting in the mouth of their holes use to freak me, but for some strange, stupid reason, I had no problem trailing sea snakes. That was kind of dumb. There were all kinds of lion tiger fish about. But, they were pretty regal and would just float above thier territory, no real threat. Running into a poisonous cone shell was always a concern and occupational hazard.

One of the things that really got me over deep open water, though, was the summer I spent working at the recreation pier. We did cleaning and maintenance work on the small motorboats and sail boats (Lido 14's) that people could check out. Bailing boats out in the morning, gassing up the tanks, rigging the sailboats. At lunch, we'd take a Lido 14 out and sail around in the bay, which was a deep water port. Right next to us was the deep water dock for the big nuclear aircraft carriers. One of the battleships came in once (the New Jersey?). I should mention this was 1968, at the height of the Viet Nam war.

Anyway, out in the bay, it would get really hot (it's the Philippines, stupid), so we would intentionally tip the boat over with aggressive tactics. Lidos have six foot centerboards that you can use to help right them again. Then you rapid bail with old chlorox bottles that had the bottoms cut off. Lots of fun. But, one time I realized as I was swimming in the water and looking down into the green depths that went on forever, that there could be something really, really big underneath me and I would never know it, or at least until it was too late to do anything about it. I got over it, and I never worried about open water again.

Although, now in my more senior days, I have issues with swimming alone in the ocean at the Jersey shore over concerns about sharks. I'm thinking the fears are not quite rational.

So, I am confident in my abilities. I use to enjoy challenging big surf (six to eight foot waves) when I lived on the Balboa peninsula in SoCal. I've been in the washing machine a few times. It's great training for IM swim starts. I had swim classes from kindergarden through second grade, a little bit of swim team in 3rd and 5th grade. I was a critter person from the age of five, and sea critters are no different. I'm more likely to investigate something rather than fear it.

So, what me worry?

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Behold the turtle! He makes progess only when he sticks his neck out. (James Bryant Conant)
GET OFF THE F*%KING WALL!!!!!!! (Doug Stern)
Brevity is the soul of wit. (William Shakespeare)

I grew up on the South side of Chicago with access to Rainbow Beach and later Calumet Beach. My dad taught me to swim and would give me a quarter if I could swim the distance from one ligeguard boat to the next. Double that if the waves were high. After being able to go that distance, I no longer had a fear of drowning--it just didn't seem a possibility anymore. Even getting caught in a rip tide once and got literally yanked out about 150 yards from shore, I knew it was just a matter of time and persistence to reach the shore again. Unfortunately, my dad had poor technique and the first time I had a coach look at my stroke, he laughed and said, "Well, I've read about the truncheon stroke but I've never seen it done."

I think comfort in the water has to do with the fear of drowning in open water because there is no wall handy to grab. Add to this the mass of swimmers bodies all thrashing at once and the fear of getting kicked or hit or pushed under and again, you think about drowning. Once you reach the point where in your mind drowning is not an issue, you'll find the comfort has sneaked up on you.

This is a fine story. You're fortunate to have someone so supportive and kind.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

I think it's a matter of familiarity, and confidence in skill.

My earliest memory is baby swim lessons. Childhood memories are my swimming and waterskiing at my godparents' camp on a lake, going to the beach with my family, going to summer camp and swimming there. I worked at that same camp when I was older, teaching swim lessons and often I'd swim across the lake and back after camp was over (with another swim team friend). Not to mention all the years of swim team that made me quite confident in swimming ability. Last summer, I did a lot of open water swimming alone because it was a long drive to the pool, AND I'd have to pay for a Y membership. Far more convenient to do workouts like 6 x 2 min hard/1 min easy in the lake.

edit to add - the fact that I'll swim alone in the lake scares my parents and ex boyfriend to death. They are terrified that "something will happen and you will drown and we won't know where you are." If I swim alone it's in a lake that motorboats are not allowed in, so getting run over by a boat won't happen.

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
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Definitely familiarity is the key. When I did my first triathlon in 1986 before most of us knew what we were doing (no Internet) a few of us newbies (aka runners) decided to go for a practice swim in Lake Michigan. I was shocked at how semi-terrified I felt swimming in the waves and not being able to see the bottom. I'm glad I had that experience before the race. I'm now more comfortable but always wary of hyperventilating, which happened to me as recently as four years ago when my goggles fogged up at the beginning and all of sudden because of that slight unease I hyperventilated and had a terrible swim.

We are lucky to have Ohio Street Beach to train at in Chicago. You can swim along the shore in about 5 feet water for up to a half mile each way (I never go more than a 1000 meters - don't want to overtrain). Those practice swims have made me a lot more comfortable in the water.

When I was growing up our family had a boat and all our vacations were on a lake. I learned to waterski at 6 years old and spent countless hours swimming in lakes. In my teens I got so good at waterskiing that I considered entering tournaments, but it wasn't practical where I lived. We also had a swimming pool in our yard. It was one of those above ground pools, but it was partly buried in the ground and became a permanent fixture. Between the pool and the lake/boating vacations I was in the water quite a bit every summer. Having spent so much time in the water in my youth, it didn't bother me at all when I started doing triathlons at age 45. I don't do enough swim training to be fast, but I have been able to swim freestyle the entire distance in every race I've done in open water. I don't care much for the body contact in some of the races, but it pales in comparison to hitting the water face first when crashing while barefoot skiing at 45-50 mph.

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Don

Tri-ing to have fun. Anything else is just a bonus!

I think you are getting the message of familiarity.

My suggestion to a lot of new adult swimmers, is while working on stroke mechanics etc is great and required, do something else besides lengths. I recommend finding a synchro club and doing a beginners class. Great instruction on body position, control in the water, breath control etc. It is tough to do well, and you learn an awful lot about how to handle being disoriented in the water.

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Jim
"In dog beers, I've only had one"
http://www.shakercolonial.com/
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For me personally it was a matter of: 1. past history, 2. acclimation, and 3. fitness.

1. Growing up near the Puget Sound gave me experience with open water through water sports such as water skiing, wakeboarding, tubing, etc...

2. Acclimating to the open water environment through repeated swims in both freshwater (Lake Washington) and saltwater (Puget Sound). The latter was in specific preparation for Alcatraz, and come the morning of, while standing on the boat staring at the San Francisco skyline, I was completely comfortable knowing I'd already made a comparable if not more difficult swim on my own in training.

3. Confidence in fitness level-- knowing that I'm not at risk of needing assistance, only of having a poor time.

Another aspect to open water comfort-- for me, at least-- is a mental outlook of 'alright, this is something that affects other people, so if I don't let it affect me it's an inherent advantage.' Strategically it also confers an advantage over the bike or run specialists that may be correspondingly weaker in swimming.

i beleive it s very simple also like mark already said, do it a lot and it will become familiar and comfortable.

I never grow up near water but in the last few years, i m almost living on a swimming pool and you just have no choice of getting better at it. I would say swimming is like walking, not any harder... i do it every day all the time.

So, swimming open water alone is as scary as walking in the middle of a field alone......... very natural and no thinking needed!

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Jonathan Caron / Professional Coach / ironman champions / age group world champions
Jonnyo Coaching
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Get a friend - swim with someone. Frequency is the key issue. 3x a week. In a month you'll feel like a fish.

2 things for me:

1) just simply swimming more (in the pool)
2) and the more obvious, the experience gained from simply doing more triathlons (i think it helps to have done races of all distances too so you can experiment a bit with pacing etc)

I think i have swum in open water outside of a race no more than 5 times, obviously just doing more of that in itself would help too.

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www.true-motion.com Triathlete Casual Wear since 2007
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I was not comfortable at all during my first tri season several years ago.
I was in Boy Scouts as a kid and remembered the lesson about floating on your back. Between that and the RD at my first tri saying you could stand up just to the side of the swim, that is how I got through.

Now I truly enjoy being in the middle of a lake and knowing that I swam out there and I can swim back.

Like the navy instructor post previously, I think comfort comes with knowing that you can float instead of sinking to the bottom.

I always bring my squooshy with me...




Keep on swimming!..Keep on swimming!....

Later!

Brian

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Swim. Bike. Run. Repeat as necessary.
Welcome to the Church of Briantriology!

From someone who was absolutely terrified as a kid to learn to swim, for me, it was about taking baby steps in learning to swim and then NOT putting myself in situations that I wasn't ready for. I eventually got myself to where I could pass drown proofing in the military (hands and feet tied for 20 min or so in the deep end).

I learned the "baby steps lesson" the hard way, I tried to do the USTS San Francisco in '85 when I was 15 with almost no swim background, mostly just a small amount of pool lap swimming, and very little confidence. I was far too weak of a swimmer to take on an open water mass swim start. I ended up dropping out 200 yards into it because I was scared and thought I was going to die.

After that experience, I was determined to overcome so I did the following: 1. only swam in the pool until I was sure I could swim the entire distance without stopping. 2. then, I began swimming very short open water swims with friends until I could build up the distance and was more confident 3. spent some time in the waves bodysurfing and basically getting rolled around, this gave the confidence to know that I could hold my breath for 30 seconds under water when bad things happen. I found 30 seconds was usually more than enough to solve most problems. 4. practiced with friends in the open water to simulate mass swim starts. 5. continued practicing not just longer yardage, but underwater swimming for confidence. 6. started mass swims in the back or on the side until I got more confident.

Eventually, I just joined the HS swim team in my junior year as I figured they would force me into learning to swim better. By my senior year, even though I was still far behind good swimmers, I was able to do a 21 minute open water mile. I ended up lifeguarding and teaching kids swimming in college.

When I help friends who are new swimmers in the sport, we focus on two things: 1. obviously swim stroke, so they can complete the distance 2. but more importantly, we work on skills that will help them overcome problems encountered in mass swims starts and open water swimming with groups of people.

I've personally found that the more comfortable people are UNDER water, the more confident and safe they are in the water. I always encourage practicing underwater swimming. Once my someone is comfortable, we practice what to do when someone dunks you, or you take a breath of water instead of air, or how to just swim out of a scary situation. Also, floating on the back away from the pack for rests if needed or to mentally overcome a scary moment. Once they can do this in the pool, its off to the open water for the same drills, then they start racing. We've had a lot of luck with this over the years and had a lot of really fun experiences with first time triathlons because of the high level of confidence going in.

I truly believe ANYONE can be a confident open water swimmer. I encourage people learn at their own pace and take baby steps while learning to limit the number of bad experiences. If I can do it, anyone can.

Another person who grew up familiar with interesting water conditions- little lakes, big lakes (Lake Michigan where we use to think it was fun to play in near rip current positions because of the interesting ways the water carried you along shore) Atlantic Ocean when we went on spring vacation...

But I also think part two of it is learning how to just shut it down mentally and not think about what you're doing. There have been times where they've had us racing in otherwise closed beaches, or with cross currents so bad that the guy who swam SEC managed a 8:30 500M. The key is to never let yourself think about how rough or possibly scary it is beyond 'well this is kind of interesting here' and after you've done that, go back to figuring out what adjustments you need to make in order to improve forward progress.

Being brought up around water seems to be what did it for me. I was born in late January, and my father used to let me paddle along in the pool in early June- just a few feet. No joke- babies apparently remember how to swim and are cool w/ being in the water- they just recently spent 9 months there, after all (maybe Dad is yanking my chain, but I do remember getting my ass beat for diving off the high dive at 4 y/o- feet 1st was old hat at that point). We went to the beach every year, and it was a 10-hour ocean session every day. I did the basic kid swim lessons, etc. We used to play in the river as teenagers- heavy rains/floods and it was party time! I never get worried about the water.

Interestingly, I'm a rotten competetive swimmer, and I've been doing tri's for a good # of years. Comfort and ability to competetively swim are 2 very different things.

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If I don't, who will? -Me
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