Open Water Swimming Manual

Lynne Cox has set open water swimming records across the world, and now she has focused her decades-long experience and expertise into this definitive guide to swimming. Cox methodically addresses what is needed to succeed at and enjoy open water swimming, including choosing the right bathing suit and sunscreen; surviving in dangerous weather conditions, currents, and waves; confronting various marine organisms; treating ailments, such as being stung or bitten, and much more. Cox calls upon Navy SEAL training materials and instructors’ knowledge of open water swimming and safety procedures to guide her research. In addition, first-hand anecdotes from SEAL specialists and stories of Cox’s own experiences serve as both warnings and proper practices to adopt. Open Water Swimming Manual provides a wealth of knowledge for all swimmers, from seasoned triathletes and expert swimmers to beginners exploring open water swimming for the first time. It is, as well, the first manual of its kind to make use of oceanography, marine biology, and to weave in stories about the successes and failures of other athletes, giving us a deeper, broader understanding of this exhilarating and fast growing sport.

Praise for Lynne Cox's ***Open Water Swimming Manual

"A paean to outdoor immersion. . . . [Cox] has channeled her vast expertise on the dangers, joys and logistics of open water swimming into a new book aimed at the exploding ranks of triathletes and other swimmers who are escaping the safe confines of pools. . . . The publication could hardly be better timed. A steep rise in the popularity of triathlons has been swelling the ranks of open water events. . . . [Cox] tempers vision and enthusiasm with methodical, unstinting effort."
—Andrea Kannapell, The New York Times

"Lynne Cox’s books are the works of a singular mind. That was true for the best sellers Swimming to Antarctica and Grayson, and it is true for her new book, Open Water Swimming Manual, a 300-page paperback instructional that is the most unlikely page-turner you could put on your summer reading list. She’s written a sort of fantasy in which you, the reader, are the protagonist. You can’t swim half a mile? Cox will put you on a program to swim 10! . . . Cox’s Open Water Swimming Manual could do for long-distance swimming what Jim Fixx’s The Complete Book of Running did for the American jogging movement in 1977."
—Sports Illustrated

"Lynne Cox is an artist of the open water. No one knows more about swimming's beauty and skill than this great champion, or could describe it with such clarity and grace. Every sport—every art—should have a book like this and a guide like Lynne Cox."
—Christopher McDougall, author of Born to Run

Autorentext

Lynne Cox

Leseprobe
Excerpted from Chapter 1

Beginnings

Allure of the Open Water

Oceans, lakes, rivers, ponds, and streams are some of the most beautiful places on earth to swim. Nothing compares with breaking free from the confines of a swimming pool and swimming in salty or sweet waters, as far as your arms will carry you. You are immediately lifted by the water, bounced by the waves, and massaged by the movement of your body through the water.

You feel sunshine warming your back, see shafts of sunlight illuminate the water below, hear the song of the wind and the waves, and as you swim, you hear the rhythms of your hands and feet as they catch and move water. You hear the music of your body and your breath as the wind, current, swell, and tide change, and the sounds of your body changing with it. You are immersed in this water song, and each day it is different.

Each day is a great adventure. You never know what you will experience until you get in and swim.

For forty years I have swum in the open water. At age fourteen I swam across the Catalina Channel and, at age fifteen, broke the men’s and women’s world records for the English Channel. Since then, I’ve completed sixty challenging open water swims—some were world-record swims, others were firsts, and all offered unique, exciting, and interesting challenges.

The sport of open water swimming is exploding like jogging did in the 1970s in the United States and Britain. There are more than nine hundred competitive open water swims across the United States throughout the year. There is a booming business in swim travel, in which swimmers travel to beautiful and exotic places like Greece, Turkey, and the Caribbean and participate in open water camps and swim along shore, between islands, and across straits.

The reason for this phenomenal growth in the sport may be because triathlon and open water swimming have gained Olympic status, since 2000 and 2008, respectively. According to the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (SGMA), an estimated 2.3 million people completed a triathlon in 2010, an increase of 55 percent from the year before, and the New York Triathlon sold out in eleven minutes despite an entry fee just shy of nine hundred dollars (see Sources for more information; page 299).

Thomas Johnson, former president and current open water swim director of the Triathlon Club of San Diego (see Sources for website address; page 299), has watched this amazing growth and was involved with organizing the 2012 ITU World Triathlon San Diego, which served as the second qualifier for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Triathlon team. He predicted that the sport would expand even more after the Olympic qualifying event and Olympic Games.

John Martin, the communications and media relations manager at USA Triathlon, said there were 122,388 USA Triathlon members in 2000 and by 2012 there were 636,335 members. Martin said:

There are many reasons such as: society’s interest in fitness and living a healthy lifestyle, the growth of the number of total races across the country, making events easier to get to, the growth in the number of the more accessible shorter sprint distance races, which made the sport more accessible to those with fewer hours to train each week, growth in the 30–49 age groups who are looking for varied outlets for fitness, an increase in the number of USA Triathlon clubs, which fosters a community concept for men and especially women who enjoy the group training and support atmosphere, an increase in resources (websites, books, magazines) that provide assistance/education in getting started, growth in multisport shops and triathlon specific training and racing gear, marketing and communications efforts of USA Triathlon, the growth in the number of USA Triathlon certified coaches who are able to provide training plans and individual attention for athletes who need guidance and motivation, and USA Triathlon–sanctioned 4,300 multisport events in 2011.

This enormous expansion of triathlon has had a huge impact on the growth of open water because swimming is one of the races included in the triathlon. There has been a dramatic increase in media visibility and interest in both triathlon and open water swimming. Young swimmers are also participating in the sport, especially those who have been involved in junior lifeguard programs. Some university and college swimming coaches are incorporating open water swims during long-distance winter training sessions, to give the athletes a break from swimming thousands of mind-numbing meters in the pool. The swimmers are enjoying the challenge of swimming in the wild blue waters. Young and older swimmers who have spent years of their lives swimming back and forth in pools are reading books and magazines about open water swimming and triathlons and are inspired to swim in untamed water. They want to train, set open water swimming goals, and discover ways to make the extreme environment of the open water accessible for themselves.

Last year…