Open water swimming

Another task added to the long ongoing list of items to complete prior to competing in my first ironman is to get used to the open water swimming in the ocean . With summer on its way (not sure when) it was time to get a wetsuit purchased and start getting in some hours in the open water. The crew at www.xosize.com.au fitted me up with a suit from www.rocketsciencesports.com and instantly felt comfortable on and had no restriction in the shoulders which for my poor swim stroke is a must. So all was in place to attend monday night open water swimming session with www.triathlonandmultisportcoaching.com.au  coach Xavier Coppock
http://xaviercoppock.blogspot.com.au/ .  Weekend weather in Melbourne had been fantastic mid to high 20 degree days woke up monday morning and still warm but a howling wind at 5 am getting ready for work so i knew that the evening session would be interesting. By the time the session rolled round the wind had swung around from the south so the swells had started to roll in some awesome sets of waves.

Suited up and we headed towards the water crew of a dozen or so committed or stupid people jumped into the water and got set for the nights session. Coach had instructed to swim out to a buoy couple hundred metres off shore and head back into shore to practice some deep water starts. This is where the fun begins. Started to head out off shore and the waves were smashing us all over place 50 m forward then 50 m back this continued several times all we could do was laugh and keep pushing on. Finally i had to abort this mission and headed back towards the calmer waters in the shallows. With a few other first timers also there we all shared our battle stories. As the session went further into the evening so did the amount of surfboards getting peeled off cars roofs and even surf boat from local surf lifesaving club was out.By the time the session finished we were dodging surfboards so was time to call it a night.
Great learning curve every open water swim will be a breeze after this session.

First race of triathlon season will be on in just under 2 weeks time Race 1 of the Gatorade series in Melbourne over a sprint distance format so will be nice to have a full race hit out to see what i need to work on in the next few months heading into Ironmn Melbourne in march 2013.
http://www.supersprint.com.au/events/gatorade-triathlon-series-201213/race-1---st-kilda.aspx

Will keep you posted with upoming events and results as the season progresses.

Damo