Open Water Swim Clinics

Invest in yourself and improve your open water swimming skills for a safer and more rewarding swim experience. 

We want you to be prepared too and we want open water swimming to be something you embrace versus something you fear if you are a new swimmer . These clinics are good for you if: 

• You're a good swimmer but don't have open water experience or you haven't been in the water for awhile,.
• You're just rusty on your OWS and racing skills
• You're looking for tips and pointers to improve your stroke and technique in open water.
• Swimmers who are new to open water swimming in lakes or ocean venues.
• New triathletes who are trying out a new sport even if you're a good pool swimmer.
• Triathletes and swimmers who haven't been in the water for awhile.
• Open water swimmers looking to improve skills and gain more comfort in the water.

We are segmenting our clinics into two clinics depending on your open water skills and comfort level.  However, swimmers of all abilities are welcome to any of the clinics but the first one is specifically targeted to new open water swimmers.  If you've got more experience and just want to swim you are more than welcome - just be prepared to share your experience and expertise with the newer swimmers!

Clinics are starting in June this year with one clinics on June27 and one on July 25.  That gives you time between the clinics to practice. 

Clinic #1 - Basic Open Water Skills - June 27 (Saturday)

We will start the season on June 29 with an introduction to open water swimming for people who have no or limited experience with swimming in open water, or swimmers who are rusty in their skills.  This clinic will talk about gear, water and swim conditions, gaining a comfort level in open water, and having an experience with the basics of entry, exit, sighting, breathing, etc.   No experience in open water or ocean is necessary to participate but you should be able to swim 100 yards with a focus on freestyle. Starting earlier will give you an opportunity to fully develop your open water skills before you get to your first starting line of the year.  You'll meet new swim buddies, have opportunities to seek out additional coaching and open water workouts.  You'll also be more comfortable in subsequent clinics. This clinic will be limited to only 25 participants to enhance smaller group coaching.

Clinic #2 - More Open Water Skills and Practice Sessions - July 25 (Saturday)

This clinic is a continuation of the beginning clinic and will focus on intermediate skills.  If you have open water skills and would like to improve them and  prior  experience in open water but you're not quite comfortable and need to improve your skills, you've not been in the water for awhile, or you started with the earlier clinic and want to continue improving your swim, and swim some longer distances away from the shoreline.   This is an opportunity to improve your skills for sighting, group swimming and drafting, race entry and exit, fine tuning for your stroke and gear.

Most people attend both clinics if they can because it's an opportunity to build new skills or fine-tune your existing open water skills. 

You can select to register for the swim clinics individually as clinic 1 and 2, or both clinics.   Clinics are $50 for each for the two clinics. There is a 10% discount for registering for both. 

All clinics are USA Triathlon sanctioned clinics and a one-day license or annual membership is required for participation. Because these clinic are taught by USA Triathlon certified coaches you only need to purchase one USAT one-day membership for both clinics if you are not already a member. Additionally, the one day membership can be deducted from a future purchase of an annual membership in 2026.  If you are already an annual member you will not need to pay for the additional one day membership license.

All Open Water Sessions  will meet at Cowell Beach in Santa Cruz.  You will receive specific email instructions and directions as well as gear lists before each clinic session.

This is where you will find resources and notes for each clinic.  Notes will be posted approximately on week before each clinic.  Please take a moment to download the pdf and review before coming to each clinic.

What to bring for Clinic 1 and 2:

A towel to sit on at the beach and maybe an extra towel to dry off after the swim. 

Goggles *

Wetsuit - long sleeve is best, especially if you get cold

Swim cap **

Ear plugs (if you wear them)

* Goggles - if your goggles are new spend a few minutes conditioning them before you wear them.  All goggles have a thin layer of protective coating during the manufacturing process.  If you don't get all of that off they will fog up.  So wash them in warm, soapy water with a soap like Dawn or something that will help take all that slippery stuff off the insides.  Another option is to use NON-ABRASIVE toothpaste to clean the inside so you don't scratch them.

** Swim Caps - We will have swim caps for you or you can bring your own.  

What  to bring for Clinic 3: 

Your bicycle, helmet and bike shoes. 

Anything you think you'll need for race day and transition (you can leave your wetsuit home for this one!)

Clinic #1 - Basic Open Water Skills - June 7 (Saturday)

We will start the season on June 7 with an introduction to open water swimming for people who have no or limited experience with swimming in open water, or swimmers who are rusty in their skills.  This clinic will talk about gear, water and swim conditions, gaining a comfort level in open water, and having an experience with the basics of entry, exit, sighting, breathing, etc.   No experience in open water or ocean is necessary to participate but you should be able to swim 100 yards with a focus on freestyle. Starting earlier will give you an opportunity to fully develop your open water skills before you get to your first starting line of the year.  You'll meet new swim buddies, have opportunities to seek out additional coaching and open water workouts.  You'll also be more comfortable in subsequent clinics. 

Some reference materials are available here for you to download. 

Please review the notes from clinic one and the attachment below on Rip Currents. 

You will find a summary of the most frequently violated USAT rules at this link:

https://www.usatriathlon.org/multisport/rules#:~:text=Eight%20Commonly%20Violated%20Rules,that%20is%20out%20the%20front

Nutrition Information is posted here.  This is a great summary and information to get you started on managing race nutrition.