When swimming in open water NEVER SWIM ALONE.

Check the water quality is safe. An approved centre will carry out regular water checks.

Do not swim before getting advice from your GP if you have any infections; wait until any cuts or grazes have healed. The risk of acquiring leptospirosis, better known as Weil's disease can be greatly reduced by not swimming or wading in water that might be contaminated with animal urine. Swim away from lake or riverbanks.

Putting on Your Wetsuit

To help with the removal of the wetsuit and help prevent chafing do not use Vaseline or petroleum based products, these can damage the wetsuit. Products like Bodyglide or Body Butter are better; Sudocrem will help with any chafing.

Keeping your socks on will help the suit slip over your feet.

Do not over stretch the suit when pulling it up your legs and body; pull your wetsuit up from your ankles and wrists a little at a time using the flat of your hand taking care not to tear it with fingernails.

Leave a 3 - 4 fingers width gap from the wetsuit sleeve and leg at the wrists and ankles.

Bend your knees, waist and move the shoulders, bend your elbows to snuggle into the suit and to warm up the body before swimming.

Zip it up and go.

Goggles and Swim Hats

Always wear a bright coloured swim cap so you can be seen.

A neoprene hat is a good investment for colder water to keep warm, wear the coloured hat over it.

Use goggles that allow good visibility and peripheral vision. Try before you buy to ensure they fit and have a good seal; consider buying buy two pairs with tinted and clear lenses. Remove any moisturisers or creams before swimming as these prevent a good seal.

Put goggles on after having had face in water to cool it down to prevent fogging, anti fog liquid can also help prevent fogging.

Getting In The Water

Panic or anxiety is common, even in experienced swimmers. The good news is you can reverse these symptoms by changing your breathing.

By altering your breathing rate and pattern, you can stimulate your body's parasympathetic response. This is the bodies equally powerful and opposite system to the fight or flight response; sometimes called the relaxation or calming response.

Parasympathetic Breathing - How to Take a Calming Breath

Take a long, slow breath in through your nose; like a loud sniff. First, fill your lower lungs, then your upper lungs.

Hold your breath to a long count of 3-5 seconds.

Exhale slowly through pursed lips, while you relax the muscles in your face, jaw, shoulders, and stomach.

Repeat this slow in and out breathing pattern four times in a minute.

This releases a hormone that will calm you down and will oxygenate your body.

Disassociate yourself from everything else whilst you do this. Do the breathing for at least 5 minutes; ensure you make time to do this before the race start.

When you get to water do it again.

Take a long, slow breath in through your nose; like a loud sniff. First, fill your lower lungs, then your upper lungs.

Hold your breath to a long count of 3-5 seconds then put your face into the water.

Exhale slowly through pursed lips, and watch & listen to the bubbles the bubbles while you relax the muscles in your face, jaw, shoulders, and stomach.

Try lying flat in the water and do it.

In The Water

If your wetsuit needs adjusting you can do this by shooting water up the sleeve or through the collar.

Practice floating on your front and back to get confident in the wetsuit and to get ready for deep-water starts.

Practice swimming with smooth strokes and small flutter kick (you will use a stronger leg kick at end of your race to get blood back in your legs)

Breathing relaxed, to either side every three strokes is a good rhythm. Bi lateral breathing will enable you to choose which side to breathe to if the water is choppy or the sun is in your eyes.

Sighting

Sight on fixed objects like trees, mountains, hills, and buildings that are in line with the buoys if possible as they will be easier to see. Look up every few strokes to sight and see where going.

Turns

When swimming around buoys swim one stroke past the buoy, with the buoy at mid point of your body, take one backstroke at 90°, and then corkscrew back onto your front to make a quick efficient turn.

Drafting

Draft off the hips or feet of other swimmers to conserve your own energy (up to 20% can be saved) Do keep sighting as they may be off course!

Keeping Your Cool

On longer swims if you are getting to warm take hold at the front of your wetsuit at the collar and get water inside to help cool you down. Do this when sighting to save time.

Transition One

You have been horizontal for a while so to as you come to end of the swim kick your legs vigorously to get blood flowing back into them ready for the run to T1.

Getting Out of Your Wetsuit

As you come out of the water, take hold at the front of your wetsuit at the collar and get water inside to help it ‘pop’ off your body quicker.

When on land take hold of Velcro fastener with left hand and the pull zipper cord with your right hand taking the Velcro down off to left shoulder.

Your left hand then moves across to right shoulder and in one swift movement pulls the wetsuit sleeve down and off the right arm as the right arm is pulled sharply back. When clear the right hand repeats the action with the left sleeve and you pull the suit down to the waist.

Continue to run to transition with the wetsuit around your waist unless you are able to remove it outside transition. (Not always permitted)

In transition, you roll the wetsuit material down over itself in one movement to your ankles, go back to top and roll down, go back to top and roll down, until it is bunched around your ankles.

Standing on as much of the wetsuit as possible with one leg, you raise the other leg straight up, kick, and flick the leg free of the wetsuit in one swift movement. Stand again on the wetsuit doing the same with the other leg.

Remember to wash your wetsuit well in clean water after your training session or competition and check for tears or damage.

When swimming in open water, there are a few ways to get air.... 

You can lift your head higher in the water as you site.

You can lift your head higher when you breathe -- like an out-of-balance breath,

Or you can rotate your body and head more so you're looking directly up.

The idea is to make sure your mouth is above water when you start to inhale, while not creating too much extra work when you do this.

How to Do It:
1.  Start by getting a feel for where you want to be during the breath.  To do this, practice balanced kicking on your side, face up.  Notice that in order to remain balanced in this position, your head and body spin farther than usual.  The good news is that it's easy to kick in this position.
2.  Now swim freestyle, pausing for only 3 breaths in your balanced kicking position.  Pausing for a few breaths here confirms that you're still balanced, moving forward, and getting air.
3.  Take out the pause, but continue to over-rotate just a bit, so that your eyes and mouth are pointing skyward.

How to Do It Really Well (the Fine Points):
Make sure you practice this to both sides, and one trick is to look behind you just a bit during the breath. 

When you rotate this far to air, try to keep your rhythm consistent.  To do this, try leading to air with your head, almost having it push your shoulder out of the way.