I went for my first open water swim over the Labor Day weekend. I've been swimming around 1500 meters a couple of times a week, and figured I'd test the waters when we were in Galveston for the holiday.

I'd say I spent 50% of my time getting beat up by the waves, 25% trying not to drown, and the remaining 25% actually swimming. From what I can estimate on Google Maps, I think I swam about 1000 meters, and I stopped when I thought I might actually drown. Good times.

Is this typical? Any advice?

Did you swim in the gulf? I just started swimming in the pool and have to yet to start open water, but I'd imagine a lake would be a better starting point than the gulf...

Best way for me was to get in the open water as much as I could. No other way around getting more comfortable in the open water.

Oh yeah, I was on the gulf side. Humbling, to say the least.

Are you training for a race, and if so is it an ocean swim?

Only ocean swim I did was Kemah Tri and the biggest mistake I made was trying to bilaterally breath. Took on saltwater and got nauseous. Lesson learned was to never breath on the side of the wave.

That being said I still can't stomach saltwater. Over the 4th in Florida I swam out to about 15 feet deep and dove for sand dollars for 30 minutes or so. Again I was nauseous. I can't imagine ever doing a half or full IM in salt water. Sounds miserable to me, unless there is some secret to avoiding the nausea.

Where do you live? Best advice I could give is find a local tri group that does coached open water swim sessions and go to them as often as possible. I can point you to a few in the Dallas area and I'm sure there are some in Houston/Austin as well. Ocean swimming is definitely a bit more intense than lake swimming but all of the same principals will apply. Open water swimming is a very different animal than pool swimming. I'd say what you're experiencing is very normal.

Never done a race but I love open water saltwater swims. I grew up lake swimming and I'm so much more bouyant in the ocean. It feels like it takes no effort to stay on top of the water. I breathe when the waves pop me up out of the water if going with or against. If swimming parallel then breathe away from the waves as noted above

My 1st open water swim almost killed me...or so i thought...practice it again....

Swimming was my best event in triathlon. However, I always got a panic attack during the actual race. It was very claustrophobic to me to be there with al the other people only being able to see when I breathed.

Good to know I'm not the only one that had such a fun first experience!

I guess my goal would be to do an Ironman in the next 18 months. I've been a runner for years and have done marathons and halfs, but looking for something more. I know the Woodlands isn't ocean, but figured I'd need to do some sprints or shorter distance tris to help prepare me, and those would probably be in the ocean.

Thanks for your advice y'all. If anybody has more, I'm happy to take it.

My first OWS was a disaster. I believe it's the subconscious that is just telling the brain/body "this is bad, this is very bad".

The only way I know to solve that is to just do it more often and get comfortable.

Every one is different. I grew up doing summer swim team and lifeguarding so am super comfortable in the water.

Like I said above my first saltwater swim was a disaster. After that I did Oilman 70.3 with zero OWS practices and did fine other than an annoying wetsuit that was too tight. Then I did the free practice swim the Woodlands puts on about a month before IMTX. That was a huge help just to familiarize myself with the water and get the race panic out of the way in the practice. Then I did IMTX 2014 and felt great. I got the flu two days before Oilman 70.3 in 2015, so when I stepped into the water for IMTX 2016 it was the first triathlon I had done since IMTX 2014 and in those 2 years I had exactly ZERO open water swims. I did great. So in short I've done 5 triathlons and only 6 OWS my entire triathlon career. I train year round but rarely do races other than the big ones.

My point is, don't feel pressured to do a lot of OWS training. It's just a matter of being comfortable.

Also, when I first got into triathlon I felt like practicing OWS was going to be huge because of practicing siting and I found siting to never be a problem. Especially in a calm water like Lake Woodlands I just would pay attention while I bilaterally breathes. If I saw other swimmers on each breathe I knew I was heading the right direction