"Challenging Open Water" by Coach Marco @moromarco

A few years ago, I read a very interesting and curious book about swimming and in particular about the figure of the swimmer seen as a solitary hero.

The title is Haunts of the Black Masseur written by Charles Sprawson. The author leads us on a journey through the centuries to discover this ancient sport and the meaning that different cultures have attributed to water. Swimming here is not seen as a mere lapping in a swimming pool with a black line underneath, but it is intended as a loving contact of the body with the water, the sea, a river, a lake... it is the call of the deep, cold waters, it is the adrenaline of diving into the waves of a stormy sea.
When I was a kid, I loved the sea at the end of the season, towards the beginning of September, when the first storms arrived. I would throw myself into the waves and get carried to the shore.

Swimming in open water can give you the same sensations, a mix of fear and adrenaline.

My first experience happened a summer many years ago, I went to visit my family who was on vacation in Puglia, in Castro Marina, right at the end of the heel of Italy. One day, by chance, I read an advertisement about an amateur Open Water Swimming Competition scheduled right there: the crossing of the Zinzulusa Caves. I don't know why I had brought the goggles with me, but it came automatically to register. I still remember the starting from the inside of the cave and the beauty of those 2,500 meters of clear sea, the seabed was of ​​an intense blue color, I felt like suspended and quite afraid... There were few participants, I could see a white jellyfish passing by every now and then, the foam of a distant swimmer, steep cliffs more than 10 meters high on my right side… “who knows what is hidden underneath” I thought, a sudden knot in the stomach. It was so amazing that I almost forgot that I was racing. But what I didn’t even think about was putting an anti-chafe cream on my body: for two days I walked with my arms and legs wide apart and every time I took a shower it was such a pain. 

My first official race was the Master Open Water Championship crossing Gaeta’s Gulf in 2004 or 2005, not too sure. Gaeta is a very beautiful place 100 kilometers south of Rome. The course was simple: start from one end of the gulf and get to the other end, no mark nor signal. As only reference point they told me to aim at a tall white building that seemed very far and small. The distance was indefinite but for sure more than three kilometers. The start was from the water, all together, men and women.

At a certain point, at what I thought was halfway, I didn't see anyone around me, and I was very surprised smelling petrol. I stopped and raised my head: I was approached by the boat of the organization and one of the judges asked me “where are you going???”. I looked around and I realized that I was alone, in the middle of the sea, still very far from the white building and I was swimming left towards the open sea. That happened because I was swimming with my head in the water without looking anywhere as if I was swimming in the pool.

This was one of the first lessons I learned: always look ahead of you, as much as you can. It is fundamental to find a rhythm and to get used to this, for example lift your head every four to six strokes.

Fortunately, in my short but intense career in water polo I learned many tricks that I found useful later. First, In water polo, when swimming with lifted head, the stroke must be shorter, faster and the elbows higher to better control the ball in front of you; swimming in OW you should increase your frequency because the current and the choppy conditions can easily make you lose your bearings and a higher arm recovery because if it’s too low your hand could enter the water too early or be hit by a wave, causing you to lose balance. At the same time arch your back while lifting your head and kick extra hard for a moment while you are sighting. Second, the Trudgen technique, a frog kick every free style stroke: I often use it when I have to orient myself but at the same time I don't want to stop. Last but not least, swimming with others; in the mass start, at the buoys turning point or at any overcrowded spot, I must confess I am one of those pulling you by the leg or swimming on top of you.

 

Even from the adverse sea conditions you can learn many things. The swimming fractions during the first Challenge 70.3 Dubai and The Escape From Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay are two great examples. On the morning of Challenge Dubai, the wind blew at 50 km/h in the small bay which corresponds now the 6.9 km signal of the beach running track. Because of the choppy sea, the swimming course was changed in two 800 meters laps: I still cannot believe how they allowed us to swim in those conditions!

 

In San Francisco it was also a windy and cold morning, there was no difference between the temperature of the air and of the water: no more than 12 degrees. That leap with my eyes closed from the Belle Boat into the icy water of San Francisco Bay was only the beginning. Immediately, the strong current coming from the left and the waves from the right began to wobble me like if I was a sack of potatoes.

In these difficult conditions, I learned to read the sea as surfers do. They count the sequence of waves waiting for the right one. As swimmers, if we can interpret the rhythm of the waves, their direction or height, we will be able to understand when it is time to breathe and in which direction without being overwhelmed by the wave, to feel our body rise and fall on the swells and to sight accordingly... But only once we have jumped into the water and the first waves have slapped us, we will really understand all of this.

As Sprawson says: "The main quality needed by swimmers is to ‘feel the water’. They should use their arms and legs like fish and fins, and be able to feel the pressure of the water on their hands to keep it in the palm during the stroke, without letting it slip between their fingers."