With Steelhead changing the swim based on the direction of the current, have the swim times been faster? I grew up on the shores of Lake Michigan so I know the lake can vary greatly even if you are swimming with the current but I was curious if the times reflect swimming with the current vs a standard lake swim.
Yes and yes.
It’s tough to accurately predict what will happen on that swim course since it is subject to shifts in current, temp and wind. The past two years have been very pleasant though and they have stayed with the “jump off the pier” start.
Hi Tom,
I don’t think we’re jumping off the pier this year. I heard this at Firecracker last weekend. It was a very cool start to the race last year, but from what I understand, there was some concern of people jumping and landing on each other. I could be wrong…as for the temps…anything has to be warmer than Firecracker. 
~Kelly
I was three minutes faster on the swim last year than I had been the year before, but that was mostly because they shortened the course by moving the swim exit so the swim was a lot closer to being 1.2 miles than it had been the year before.
It would be too bad to get rid of the pier start because diving off the pier was a lot of fun (you can get almost as good a grip on the pier for your start as we could on the bars that my high school swim coach attached the front of our starting blocks), but I can see the real potential for lawsuits there.
Hmmm. THat is interesting. I haven’t heard that. I personally had no issue with jumping off the pier and thought it was a good start. Kind of novel. I wager a decent alternative is to just have us paddle out to the same area adjacent the pier and then start in water. That would be fine too. All in all, a beautiful swim based on the two times I’ve done the event.
The jump from the pier was a lot of fun last year. Slow swimmers, like myself, can start toward the end of the pier where the crowd is sparse and let everyone go for a few seconds, so safety should not be an issue unless you are being stupid. That pier is very long.
Dave
Since someone (out of more than 1500 triathletes) being stupid is fairly foreseeable and since the potential for injury is great if someone is stupid, there is certainly a risk of lawsuits involved here.
I felt the same about the swim start - actually, I thought it was really cool! I mentioned how much I liked the start to someone at Firecracker and that’s when I was told is was going to change. Again, maybe I’m wrong. I grew up in Stevensville/St. Joe, so I’m pretty biased on what an awesome swim/venue it is. Hope to see you there in a few weeks.
The pier start rocks! Especially if you dive. That is one way to avoid getting jumped on also. 
The days of jumping from the pier may be numbered, if the Michigan legislature has its way:
http://www.southbendtribune.com/...703/News01/707030376
and
http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(qxf3h2453v3qvx55ef4lrmb3))/mileg.aspx?page=getobject&objectname=2007-SB-0629&queryid=18757509
.
Looking at the swim course map, it appears the pier start is no longer part of the course.
The pier start is history! If you did one of our first four races, you can brag about being part of “the old swim start on the peir”.
( I can hear it now - “I did the race back in 2005 when the waves were 4 ft high the water temp was 58 and we jumped off the end of the pier - the Steelhead Salmon kept nipping at your toes - that was a real swim course!”)
There are a number of reasons why we will not have the peir start this year.
There has always been the possibility of the swim going north to south, so we have always had a beach start in the plans even though the pier has been used each of the first four years.
Safety - #1 concern - 2,500 athletes jumping off the pier increases the chances of someome getting jumped on.
Fisherman - We had a number of complaints from the “Steelhead” and “Perch” fisherman that had to move their lines and could not fish for 2 hours on race morning. We also had a number of fisherman comment that is was great to see all those good looking fit women in bathing suits on the pier!
Unrelated to our race, but a factor - there have been a number of people jumping off the pier and drowning this spring and the city is a bit scared of anything that might go wrong with a large number of people jumping off the pier.
So - it’s a beach start - either south at Tiscornia or north at Rocky Gap. Hope to get the water up to the high 60’s for the race. See you at the start. Z
That’s a real bummer.
Does this mean that the swim exit will be closer to transition and not have as long a run?
Yes- the run from the swim finish will be straight down the beach from the finishline. Z
Thats a real shame as the pier swim start was to me a race signature, so much so that I would have preferred the pier jump which ever way the current was flowing.
Growing up in St. Joe, we had a “right of passage” that was jumping off the top platform of the lighthouse into the Lake! You could only do it after dark and the tough part was the climb up to the platform. Not sure if the kids still do it today, but it was big in the 1970’s. Z
Sounds like a fun jump, how high was it?
Back during my uni days in Plymouth, England we used to jump off a old diving board into the bay. Not sure on the height but you had to be careful at low tides and a friend of mine had problems sitting down for a week after landing badly
Diving Board Video Link Click Here
VERY sad to see pier start gone, LOVED it last 2 years.
Also VERY sad to see we have to walk 1.2miles to the swim start. That’s, well, big time gay. WTF is it a cost issue? You’re gonna have garbage cans to hold 5,000 flip-flops? Seriously, that’s not such a desirable change, so curious why.
And for original poster, the swim times have been pretty variable period. Last 2 yrs north swim. Since no pier, I guess I don’t give a poo now, maybe a south swim would be better… that way I don’t have to burn my retina’s staring into the rising sun while I breath 
Cost for the busses was not the problem - with over 2,400 athletes - we could not find enough busses to cover the parking and the swim start - it will not be a 1.2 mile walk, but only about 3/4 mile walk. Beach sand is nice and soft, hard packed near the shore, so you will not need flip flops. Z