With the talk about videos, I swam next to a gentleman for a bit who backstroked the whole thing with a GoPro strapped to his chest. He appeared to be a very confident swimmer as he was backstroking as fast or faster than most mid-FOP freestylers. I would love to see that video for a variety of reasons.

Honestly, I didn't think the swim was that bad yesterday. I will admit I got a little freaked out at the amount of water I was swallowing, but I also sort of blamed myself. I was warned ahead of time that this is a race where it is advantageous to be able to breathe comfortably off your left side, but I still went into it only sticking to my default right side pattern, face facing the predominate swell direction.

All in all though, I can understand why people were uncomfortable in yesterday’s conditions. I swim regularly in the ocean in cold water and swell and I found the conditions yesterday challenging but not unreasonable. However, without that prior experience my perception would have likely been quite different.