Agreed

I grew up lifeguarding at an old ore bed with snakes, turtles etc Never had any swimmers bothered by them

Many races I have done in upstate NY were in ponds

Where do you live? The guy in this video used to train in a pond. Unfortunately, so did gators.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBwKtP32oHM

I can see the appeal for this. We have a "typical" pool in our back yard, an indoor 25m community pool about 2 easy miles away and lot's of ponds around (one that is used for the local tris). I do my workouts at the community pool, but would love to use the pond (not allowed except during events). There are snakes and turtles and such in and around the water, but these types of animals are app to be more concerned about what you will do to it than what it will do to you. (But I'm pretty sure alligators are not like that when they are interested in feeding.)

For cleanliness if I was going to build my own pond and had the funds to make it how I wanted, I would line the pond with limestone. Limestone is a natural water cleaner. Even if you don't "filter" through the limestone, it will keep the water clean. If you look at Lake Amistad, which is almost 100% (if not 100%) limestone "lined" it is extremely clean. Lakes Travis and Possum Kingdom are two others that come to mind as being very clean because of the limestone.

You wouldn't need boulders or anything like that. You'd simply get the largest area size, but thin, "tiles" or rocks and line it. Even if you only used limestone in part of the pond (like just the bottom), it would remain cleaner.

But I think you'd need at least 3 acres for swimming or you'll need to add a recirculation/aeration system and "natural" filtration or salt filtration.

If you had a continuously flowing creek or river that you can join into, it'd be even better. Part of the flow from the creek is funneled to the pond and then back to the creek.

Sounds like a great project if you can afford it. Here's an example of a pond I found that you might consider

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le-MwLETtOU.

It's not for swimming, but you can get the basic idea of what you'll have to do.

I'm sure there are many of us on ST who love to see photos of the completed pond. (Maybe you can make a video of the build and completion.)

Good luck!

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Not a coach. Not a FOP Tri/swimmer/biker/runner. Barely a MOP AGer.
But I'm learning and making progress.

My buddy has one that we do a 400y loop in. It works fine and gives some open water practice. It's 15' or so deep and the water quality is good. It does get some treatment which helps and it does have fish, turtles and a few snakes we've seen.

Fantastic

Approx how many acres is the pond if you know

Build a wide, one to two lane 25m pool in your backyard, if you are looking to train efficiently to improve. If you want to brag on slowtwitch about your backyard open water venue and not get better in swimming, build a pond to swim in.

Tim

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Edited - Ive got no idea. id say its around 125 yards square so around 3 acres

I have to echo what others are saying about buying into a community with a pool, ideally a year round pool. I know many in the SC/GA/NC area are summer pools only.

I've owned a pool in my backyard. It was great, used it almost every day in the Phoenix summer the first year, every other day the 2nd year, every 4th to 5th day the rest of the years. Summer pool use in the backyard in PHX = April through Nov. Sparingly the rest of the time. Total PIA though.

I snowbirded in Raleigh one summer. The nearest pool was 35-45 minutes away to park, Jordan lake was about 20 minutes from the time I left until I entered the water.

There was a beach area somewhere between 450-600m long with a swimming area. I went on the other side of that. I did one out n back warming up then did anywhere from 4-10 repeats in 1 direction. treaded water :20-40 then went again. There was a pole about halfway so sometimes I did 4-20x halfway :10-:20 rest. That was it, my only 2 workouts in the water. Occasionally I'd meet some friends for some OWS elsewhere to work on my OWS skillset

My swimming was good, was still out of the water inside the top 10 in my AG at USATAGNC, top 6 in my AG at the IM I did under an hour and never outside of the top 5 overall otherwise. Might have lacked some of that initial pop I usually had starting but on the other hand I could do the initial off the line drag race for about 4-5 min. If I got gapped at the start I always caught up except to the former college swimmers. Won a couple of races, placed top 3 in a few more, beat a few card carrying pros and ended the season with $500 total prize money.

it can be done. Did get freaked out a few times when I'd hit a stick or something. There were snappers in the water and other stuff, they never bothered me and I didn't try to bother them.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

I can only offer some race experiences I've done in man-made 'ski lakes' that are no more than 20ft deep but long and narrow. Not a great place to swim, the water quality is poor: hot and murky.

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I pond swim all summer. I grew up year round swimming. Allergic to chlorine. One reason I live in Boulder is the number of year-round outdoor pools, but still ows all summer. I’ve seen people maintain ponds successfully by having an incoming/exiting stream/water source, alkaline stones to maintain a pH that wards off overgrowth, bottom feeding fish for same purpose, no weeds along edge/shore to ward off unwanted animals.

I 2nd the post showing Adam “ocean” Walker’s man made pond. that’s the dream.

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wovebike.com | Wove on instagram

Where I live it's popular for people to have these small, cute man-made ponds. But I wouldn't want to swim in one. Firstly, too small and you would be turning around way too much going back and forth. Some summers do get warm even close to Canada where I live and those little ponds would be too warm and buggy to swim in. Yuck. Think high 80sF for water temps or warmer when we do get the heat waves. And wild geese love these ponds too :-)


We live 2 miles from a lovely mountain pond where it takes about 425 yards to swim across the part that is very clean and swimmable. A pond that is more like a small lake can be feasible. The only problem lately with smaller lakes and reservoirs is the e coli issues. Luckily that is not an issue where I live now. But if I was living in my previous home, I wouldn't have much outside options at the moment due to e coli and other issues (raw sewage in Lake Champlain).

My favorite OWS option is 26 mins of a drive. A big reservoir that doesn't allow motor boats. Hardly any development on it and it's very clean and pristine. Very special. A rare gem.

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.