Open water swimming, as the name suggests, is swimming out of the confines of a swimming pool. This means swimming in rivers, lakes and, here in Singapore, the sea.

Firstly, it is open water and so you are swimming in a natural environment. For natural, read uncontrolled. You are subject to the wind, waves, current and occasionally the inhabitants of that environment.
This means that your nice, smooth controlled stroke may have to be modified to take account of the conditions.
One advantage of swimming in the sea is that the salt water provides more buoyancy than the chlorinated water of a swimming pool. You will sit higher in the water and swimming becomes easier.

When you swim in a swimming pool, you will be swimming in a lane or at least following the lines along the bottom and the chances are that you will be alone in the immediate space around you.

This can cause be distracting for those that like their space, but for those that enjoy swimming in close proximity to others then there is the opportunity to draft of others. By drafting, I mean using the swimmer in front of you to ‘move the water aside’ so that you don’t have to work so hard.

In a swimming pool you have the opportunity to stop or at least kick off the wall every 25 or 50 metres. You have no such luxury in open water – when you start swimming then you can’t stop till you get to where you are going.

A final note of caution though, always take company when you swim open water; either as a companion swimmer or as an observer from the shore. Have fun and be safe!