I just love swimming open water with mask and snorkel. I go twice as fast, it seems, with a snorkel! I can go nice’n’far — really travel.
I sometimes get a bit disoriented doing side-breathing and always seem to lose glide.
I’ve never tried fins really — got instantly blistered when I did — and I didn’t seem to go any faster but maybe they’d be neat if I learned how? Are they the Next Step?
It’s funny: a snorkel probably is “illegal” in Masters swimming or various swim tests or triathlons, which might be why we don’t see it mentioned in “serious” swimming media, but all I want to do is swim far and fast and efficiently! Less energy, more glide: that’s the ticket!
Now, if you do open water swimming, make sure to wear a fluoro orange swim cap. And, really, you need to have a boat with you, too — for protection from boats and to help if you choke or something (and it should be a boat that you’ve practiced getting into). I note that snorkel-swimming for distance is considered riskier due to the tendency to forget to look around as often. Open water swimmers should look around, what, every half minute — not just for bearings but in every direction — 360 degrees — for watercraft.
