Open Water Swimming Manual: An Expert's Survival Guide for Triathletes and Open Water Swimmers

Whether you are a beginning of advanced swimmer, or even a triathlete seeking to improve your open water swim skills look no further - this is the book you need.The author, Lynne Cox is nothing short of a true master of the sport. Drawing from her vast experiences that include breaking English Channel swim records as a teenager to swimming the Antarctic and nearly every body of water in between it is the most complete resource available to open water swimmers.She begins by covering equipment needs to assist the reader in making appropriate choices in swim suits, goggles, caps, wetsuits, and skin care products. Next, she presents skills and drills that are essential to developing comfort and balance in the water and translate well into developing training programs. Her extensive research also combines the expertise of Navy SEALS, Wilderness medicine doctors, university based researchers, US Masters Swim coaches, and seasoned athletes to provide guidance in the areas of course scouting, tides, water quality, darkness, hydration/fueling needs, navigation, riptide, fog, waves, and marine hazards (like sharks!) For the advanced swimmer, there is even a chapter on the nuts and bolts of preparing for your own Channel Swim.It might be tempting to think that open water swimmers can skip all the technical details outlined in this manual but the rash of triathlon related swim deaths over the past couple of years highlights the need for all swimmers to respect the water and the challenges it presents.Most importantly, woven throughout this book is a real love for swimming that will inspire swimmers of all abilities to jump in and enjoy the water.I look forward to using this book as my go-to-guide for my future triathlon swimming endeavors.

Easy read, very comprehensive, brings in a lot of experts to round out her own experiences.She is also one of the world's best open water swimmers.Excellent resource to have, if you desire to be a solid or accomplished open water swimmer.Best book on the subect I have.

Not that I’m considering any swims over 5 miles, this book demonstrates the planning and detail required for a major channel crossing. We all want to be safe and efficient in our open water swims. Even in a short distance training swim, the information provided is useful and practical - tides, water pollution, dangerous marine life, and skin protection. Lynne is an excellent writer and tells good personal stories to illustrate her points.

I'm doing Alcatraz Sharkest 2019. It's my first open ocean race. But I grew up in West LA and we lived on a large sailboat weekends. I went to Catalina Island Girls Camp (a swimming/sailing camp) three summers as a child. I swam over a mile a day in a pool in Santa Barbara for a decade. I love cold water (65-70 my ideal sea temp) and I am fine without wetsuit 30 to 40 minutes at that temp.I grew up swimming off my father's boat in the Marina Del Rey and now go sailing in MA in summertime, where I do the same.This book is geared to people with ocean phobias or to triathletes who are weak swimmers fearful about that portion of the race. I don't run or bike. I just swim.If you swim a mile comfortable in a pool in 40 or fewer minutes, this book will not be of much use to you unless you want to do long-distance swimming.To the average Joe or Jane, 1.5 miles in the open ocean is a long swim. By the standards of a woman who swam across the English channel, the Bering Strait, and the Cape of Good Hope, that's not a long swim. That's a "short open open swim" (1-3 miles).The book talks a lot about Navy SEALs training. If you want to swim 5-15 miles, this book is useful.I got nothing out of it (I already suspected that you need to do sprints in the water so that when you hit current, you can swim harder, and also that you should be able to do a pool swim 10% or 15% longer than the event) and bought it mainly to assuage my mother's concerns about my upcoming swim. I will return if possible.But I would absolutely read her memoir. This woman is a legend.

Very informative and easy to read! Great tips to those that are already swimming in opne water and for those that are thinking of starting.

This is a great resource for anyone who wants to improve their skills in the water. From the basics of setting goals, to planning for your personal best in a big event or swim. Being a marathon runner who has looked for training advice from the best, I appreciate the author's practical tips about swimming and swimming events - from learning about the environment you will be venturing into to how to maximize your comfort and get into the zone during your event. The tips from SEAL training show that the best excel for a reason, there are no shortcuts to success and achieving a desired goal, it takes planning, pratice and hard work. Cox recommends getting help from a coach, again, to learn from someone who is above your skill level and have them help you move forward. This manual is a wonderful resource for swimmers and triathletes of all levels!

As marathon swimmer and an ex Navy SEAL myself, there is a lot in this book that reminded me how I got to where I am now. This book is the real thing. It takes a Super Pro like Cox to realize she doesn't know everything and to seek out expert advise. You can't do better than Lynne Cox and Navy SEALS writing about Marathon swimming and mission planning. BRAVO! Master Chief Knepper was my BUD/S Instructor, Class 139, HooYaa!

I love Lynn cox writing. I follow her because I'm an open water swimmer. I had this dream of swimming the English Channel since childhood when I saw Lynn in the tv after swimming in Antarctica. This book is a real manual. Very important for swimmers and crew. I would recommended to have that thru the journey that will take swimmers to this wonderful challenging! Have swim!

The book sparked a movement here in E Ross so that swimmers have been in the sea every day since lockdown.Numbers are growing. Today a lady parked her campervan where we swim. It didn't take much persuasion to get her in. Where Portobello lead, the country will follow-

The title of this review says it all.But before I go any further I want to go on record as saying that I have nothing but complete respect and admiration for everything Lynne Cox has achieved in the open water swimming world. She has been there and done that with numerous world records, and pioneering swims. I loved her book, Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long Distance Swimmer, was thrilled to find CBS video footage of her Antarctic swim and inspired by her TED talk on YouTube. So it was with great excitement I ordered her latest book, Open Water Swimming Manual. An Expert’s Survival Guide for Triathletes and Open Water Swimmers.The first thing that struck me as odd was the 5” x 9” proportions of the book. Not a big deal I know but I did wonder why the publishers choose the long narrow format.I think the title of the book is a little misleading, as the book is geared less towards triathletes and more towards long distance open water swimmers, swimming three miles or more. Despite a section about lakes and rivers the book focuses entirely on long distance ocean swimming. Which narrows itself to a very small group of swimmers with unlimited time and resources.The book is split into 23 chapters covering everything from how to choose the right swimsuit and equipment to skin lubrication, marine wildlife and how to choose a support crew. Ms. Cox uses her personal experiences along with advice from other experienced swimmers and coaches and the Navy SEALS. One of the things that annoyed me was the over use of the Navy SEALS as experts. If I wanted to find out how the SEALS trained I would buy a book about the Navy SEALS! Also I don’t think a full chapter needed to be dedicated to “Finding an Open Water Swimming Coach and Group” Surely most people will just do an internet search for what is available to them locally. Having said that there is for sure a lot of useful information in the book but I think the writing and presentation lacked in certain areas. I had hoped the book would have had more instruction on open water swimming technique and feel that this would have improved the book considerably and appealed more to the average swimmer. More diagrams or illustrations to demonstrate the points being made would also have been helpful.The biggest gripe I have with the book though is not necessarily the fault of Ms. Cox. The amount of typographical errors was ridiculous. I don’t remember reading any other book having so many, if any at all. Now I don’t profess to being the greatest with grammar or spelling and I’m sure many of my blog posts are littered with mistakes but I think the publishers, Vintage Books, should have produced a better finished article.So can the average swimmer get something from this book? Yes I guess so and reading some of the reviews lots of people love it.But in the end after reading the book all I could summon up was Meh!

It is a complete guide for any open water swimmer. It also include some personal experiences of the author, wich are not a few. Great book.

....geht auf allgemeine wie sehr spezielle Fragestellungen ein, super recherchiert und - wie man weiß- alles selbst ausprobiert und umgesetzt.

Liest sich wunderbar an kalten Wintertagen, Monate vor der nächsten Freiwassersaison.Auch etwas für Triathleten, die etwas Inspiration für die anstehenden Wettkämpfe brauchen.