The Community Answers, “What was the Hardest Part of Your First Open Water Swim?”

Each week, we ask the open water swimming community a question. Recently, we asked open water swimmers what the hardest part of their first open water swim was. We were blown away by the quantity and quality of the responses we received on Facebook and Instagram.

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Here are your responses to “what was the hardest part of your first open water swim?”

Facebook 

• “Getting in and out. It was super choppy and waves were huge.” - Bianca Bernardo 

• “Getting through the anxiety. Face in the dark murky water.” - Jon Farley

• “Putting my head in the water. It felt like my brain was going to freeze… my jaw cramped so bad my ears hurt! Luckily it was momentary.” - Givonne Galanti Law 

Instagram 

• “Getting a good grip on the kayak because I couldn’t swim 400 yards non-stop😢.” - @sjdj3000 

  • “I’m a pretty strong swimmer and had to stop a LOT also. I breathed by pulling my head up looking forward to see where I was going too. Open water is so different from pool swimming in many many ways. I swam a lot of backstroke, too. That way I could breathe as much as I needed 😂.” - @kofikaiser  

  • “That was in 2015 at my first sprint triathlon in Truckee. To make matters worse in altitude.😅” - @sjdj3000      

  • “Oh YES! Altitude IS an adverse factor. I’ve been to Tahoe recently for a convention and didn’t feel well the whole time. Difficult to breathe. I can’t imagine physical activity like swimming or skiing like that.” - @kofikaiser     

• “Jumping in.” - @kofikaiser     

• “It was January and I wasn’t ready for how cold the water was. When my face hit the water it felt like a thousand needles in my face. It took a few minutes for my body to adjust 🥶.” - @brvblkbrd 

• “Sighting.” - @ genii_rutherford 

• “The swim.” - @velo_pacific_ 

• “Getting over how weird it is to not be able to see my limbs (or anything else) in the murky Bay water.” - @suz_orange   

• “Controlling the panic breathing at the start (hadn’t practiced swimming in a wetsuit).” - @kayonthego   

• “The cold!” - @emandsammom   

• “My first OW was on Maui 25 years ago. The hardest part was trying not to be distracted by some turtles ❤️😊.” - @megswim12 

• “Getting into the water.” - @sandraf_b_ows  

• “Cold!” - @megswims   

• “Not panicking at the start then maintaining a straight line.” - @johnzeitler1 

Look out for our “Ask the Community” posts each Monday on Facebook and Instagram.