A beginner’s guide to open-water swimming

As access to public swimming pools has been impossible for the best part of 2020, you might be one of the steadily-growing band of swimmers who’ve felt the pull of taking to the open water.

As one of the few options available to help you keep a decent level of race-fitness, open water swimming clubs and organisers of practice sessions on public lakes - including our colleagues at MyOpenWaterSwim.co.uk - have seen a steady growth in the number of new or inexperienced lake swimmers wanting to give it a go.

And of course, when approached and prepared for in the right ways, open water swimming can unlock a wealth of benefits for your general well-being: it can boost your metabolism and blood circulation, and in turn these help you fight off all kinds of minor illnesses, help you get more and better sleep, and benefit your mental health to boot.

Start off right - stick to the guidance

British Triathlon, Swim England and the Royal Life Saving Society were quick off the mark not long after lockdown in publishing a definitive guidelines document, intended to ensure the safety of all open-water swimmers at times when some of the facilities they were used to using - such as dedicated changing rooms - were locked out of use.

You’ll find the document here. While it was intended mainly for anyone who may already have some open-water swimming experience, to help them stay within the extra guidelines introduced as part of the extra COVID-19 safety measures, it contains a wealth of useful tips for anyone swimming in open water, whatever their level of experience.

It includes primer information on such subjects as where to find locations suited to open-water swimming, what equipment you need to get started, how to acclimatise yourself to the open water, safety tips once you’re in there, and very useful information to help you recover properly once you’re out of the water.

Before you start - an essential equipment list

A wetsuit: Yes it sounds obvious, but there’s an extensive range of wetsuits available designed purposely for open-water swimming.

Truth is, the thought of all the palaver involved in getting into and out of a wetsuit is one of the biggest barriers which deters people from taking to the water at all - the thought of being trussed up somehow takes away a lot of the pleasure which usually comes from moving freely through the water.

But established wetsuit manufacturers such as Zone3 produce a range of suits to meet the needs of swimmers of all stages of learning to swim in open water. A neoprene suit - the neoprene used specifically for its excellent insulation qualities as well as being very light in weight - is the best choice for any swimmer who wants to explore the differences between how their body behaves in open water and in a regular swimming pool.

You could hardly pick a better beginner’s suit than the Advance wetsuit. In the past five years, it’s won many awards for its value and its performance when pitted against a range of suits in the same price bracket. Check out its full list of features in our extensive product description which you’ll find at the link above.

Goggles: A good pair of goggles is a must-have for the open water. While, in a pool, you know pretty well what you’re going to find under the surface, clear vision all around you is more important in a lake or reservoir.

So you need to equip yourself with a pair fitted with anti-fogging lenses. This usually comes by way of a chemical treatment, and helps the lenses stay clear, even when you subject them to a sudden change in temperature. And yes, that happens just as much in open water as in your local indoor pool!

Because you’re in the open air, it’s also recommended to pick a pair of goggles which offer good protection from UVA/UVB rays. At the side of the lake, you can usually feel how strong the sun is - but once you’re in the water, its strength isn’t so easy to gauge, and the longer you spend in the water, the more you risk irritation caused by the sun on the sensitive skin around your eyes and on your eyelids.

Clear, coloured or tinted lenses is another choice you’ll face, and while some of your final choice will be down to personal taste, tinted lenses are preferred by many open-water swimmers, simply because it can help them deal with swimming in any direction, and be less concerned with the position of the sun. Again, we at MyTriathlon are long-standing stockists of the Zone3 goggles collection, and we feel that they offer a great balance of quality, ruggedness and affordability.

Silicone or neoprene swimming cap: When you’re swimming indoors in a pool, a swimming cap is often only a consideration if you need to gain an extra aerodynamic edge for competition.

But in any large body of open water, a cap takes on an altogether more important function - it makes you easy to spot, so help can reach you more quickly if you get into difficulties.

Many open-water swimming locations say a swim cap is a compulsory piece of gear for this reason.

If you find you can cope well with the varying temperatures in open water, then a light silicone cap will suffice.

But you might want to think about a neoprene swim cap, because these are made of similar material to many wetsuits, and share their insulating properties, and only come with a minor weight penalty. You shouldn’t feel that over longer distances, however, and the extra warmth will help you stay focused on getting your swim technique right.

Safety equipment

Safety buoy/Pull buoy: One of the biggest differences many swimmers find between the open water and a pool is the lack of any lanes or markers by which they can instantly get their bearings.

So finding sight lines to guide you is a key skill you’ll need to learn. But for extra safety for inexperienced swimmers, many race organisers insist on the use of a pull buoy.

For a very modest outlay, you get a great deal of extra safety, as the lightweight buoy is a useful sighting tool for marshals and other safety officials. In fact, some open water locations and race organising bodies insist on all swimmers using a safety buoy. So it’s a good idea to get used to towing one as early as possible in your open water swimming experience.

Lots of these buoys come in a specially-designed carry case, so they’re easy to stash among the rest of your gear, and take up a minimum amount of space.

Other equipment:

Swimming bag: Many official races involving open water swimming insist that participants carry a safety buoy, but you’ll also need a suitable bag in which to keep it. That’s why some open water swimming and triathlon kit manufacturers have developed items along the lines of the SwimRun/Wild Swim Bag by Swim Secure. You can use it as a standard bag, with waist and chest straps, but these are detachable and you can inflate the bag to help with your buoyancy, and to keep the contents dry.

Towels and Robe: Of course, you won’t be hauling these items onto the water, but you’ll be reaching for them as soon as you can once you’re back on dry land! Doubling up on the towels in your kit bag is also a good idea for colder days, because your single towel might not be enough to get you dry effectively.

In these times blighted by COVID, another accessory that’s really come into its own is the good quality swimming robe. We at MyTriathlon use and recommend those in the Dryrobe Advance range, because they’re great for mopping up the water and getting you warm quickly at the end of those long training sessions.

And when you don’t have access to the usual changing facilities at your chosen open water swimming site, a Dryrobe is comfortable and light enough for you to wear for the drive home - provided you haven’t got too far to travel.

Socks/Gloves: You can take all the steps possible to keep yourself warm in the water - but that will be for nothing unless you also have a few extra layers to help you warm up once you’re back on the shore.

And it’s in your body’s extremities where you’ll most keenly feel the cold, especially while you move between the water and dry land. So some extra neoprene warmth never goes amiss in these circumstances. You’ll find this technology incorporated into a range of swim gloves, swim socks and toe protectors. Many such products have clever features such as extra grippers on the soles, to reduce the risk of slipping while you’re around the difficult edges of a lake.

Tow float: Many race organisations insist on anyone entering the water carrying one of these, because it acts as a multi-purpose piece of equipment. Firstly, it helps keep you buoyant as you'd expect, but possibly more importantly out on the open water, these floats are brightly coloured. This ensures that you are always visible to race marshals.

Many of these types of floats attach to your arm or leg and are made as lightweight as possible so as not to impede your progress through the water. If you're seriously considering competitive open water swimming, you should buy one early, and incorporate its use into your training programme.

Useful open water techniques

Getting - and keeping - your bearings: We’ve already mentioned that you’ll find being on an open stretch of water quite different from a pool, for the simple reason that there will be far fewer physical markers which you can use to keep your bearings.

So whether you’re practising in a pool or on a lake, you should learn to ‘rangefind’ - that is, to look ahead at all times where possible, but regularly adjust how far in front of yourself you look. This will be a bit like the technique you might use to judge hazards when you’re driving - except that in the water, you need to try to focus not just on what’s on the surface ahead of you, but what might be under the surface too.

Rangefinding is quite easy to practice in an indoor pool. Try fixing your attention on a spot on the wall at the end of the lane you’re in, and aim to swim as straight towards that point as possible.

Many seasoned open-water swimmers suggest that, to begin with you should try this by aiming to keep at a set distance from the shore. Once you’ve mastered this, you can venture further out onto the lake or stretch of water you’re using.

Treading water - and staying afloat: One factor it’s easy to overlook when you first go out on the open water is that there will be nowhere for you to kick away from. Open water swimming locations also usually don’t have any depth markers. So you should expect to have to do quite a lot of treading water - a skill you can easily practice in an indoor pool.

An open water race also often involves swimming an ‘out and back’ course. While, in a pool, you’ll have a wall to kick off from, on a lake you’re more likely to be asked to swim around a buoy and back to your starting point. So first, you need to be able to lift your body into your optimal horizontal swimming position as quickly as possible, and it’s also useful to practice swimming around a marker or buoy. If you’re swimming with a friend, why not ask them to stand still in the water, and try swimming around them, while getting as close to them as possible.

Finally, this is an important skill to practice because, should you get into difficulties in the water, or feel the need to take a short break from swimming to get your breath back, you can tread water for a short time while you take a short breather - which brings us to the most important technique of all to practice:

Breathing: While in a pool, you probably get into a cycle of breathing every other stroke. This means that you’ll always be breathing on the same side. Experienced open water swimmers, however, recommend taking breaths on alternate sides, because it will mean that on at least every other breath, you’ll be breathing away from the direction of the waves on the water, meaning that you’ll swallow less water. Also, if you breathe in through your mouth, you’ll be able to take in bigger gulps of air. You can then breathe these out while your head is under the water, but straight.

Ultimately, though, you need to find the technique that best suits you and the speed and intensity of your swimming.

Oh, and finally, swimming: Front crawl is the stroke best suited to open water, mainly because it’s the fastest stroke which can usually be swum with the minimum body movement. You can also usually achieve and maintain the higher stroke rate needed to keep up your pace if the water gets a little rough.

Get well accustomed to swimming the crawl, because you’ll need to be able to keep it up for a substantial length of time. But don’t neglect to practice your breaststroke too, because you can use this for short periods in open water to help you recover your energy levels in between bursts of the crawl.

As restrictions look set to stay in place around pool swimming for some time in the future, open water swimming looks set to appeal to more people. Provided you pick a safe and well regulated stretch of water it’s a safe and highly enjoyable way of keeping yourself in shape.

British Triathlon, Swim England and the Royal Life Saving Society UK keep a register of approved and regulated open water swimming sites, which you can find at https://www.sh2out.org/.

This site also has plenty more tips for novice and experienced open water swimmers. And of course, the best start you can get is having all the right kit. So visit Mytriathlon.co.uk, where you’ll find a great choice of all the equipment and accessories you’ll need - along with advice on choosing the right gear and using it properly - all at highly competitive prices.