It gets mentioned every once in a while in this group, so I thought I'd share my experience of this year's Cross Balaton swim ("Balaton-Atuszas 2026") in Hungary.

For those who haven't come across it, it's held in Hungary typically on a Saturday in mid-July to early August (more on that later). The full swim (there is a half distance offering) is a ~5.2km point to point swim from Révfülöp on the North shore to Balatonboglár on the south, travelling south east (relevant for winds)

Reflections on the Race / Event

• Its a big event - With between 7k to 10k participants in the full distance each year, it is a Big Event, but really well organised and it didn't feel too crowded for me like some other big events (marathons/ironmans etc). It has a rolling start from 7am until ~12pm, with I think rush hour probably being 9am-11am. I got there as early as possible (just after 6am to register, with 7am start) and both event villages (particularly Balatonboglár) are a really decent size and didn't feel too packed while I was there.
• The Swim - The Balaton and its surroundings are stunning. You leave the hillier northern shore and can see the other side clearly, the sun had risen but was still quite low in the sky when I started (~7am) so cast a lovely golden hour hue on the course. The course itself is a marked out channel, perhaps 75m-100m wide with sail boats marking the righthand (western) side every 50ms or so and the left side marked by buoys (less frequent than the boats). This year it wasn't too windy so for the most part the lake was quite calm. I have heard in previous years it can get quite choppy. There were a few moments where swells picked up, and I haven't worked out whether this was because of the wake from the passenger ferries going past every 20mins (taking participants/supporters from one side to the other) or whether there was just a bit of chop a couple of times in the middle as gusts picked up. As the Balaton itself is quite shallow by large lake standards, it is silty in the water, so visibility under the water is negligible. If you want to use your watch to pace yourself or see how far you have gone you'll have to look at it out of the water.
• Around the Event - The Balaton is just a great place to visit around the event anyway. Pretty easy to get there by train from Budapest (and very cheap, a first class ticket costing €14) and there are beautiful hikes around the north shore, lots of great cycling and beautiful towns to visit like Tihany, Tapolca, Keszthely, Szigliget and Balatonfured. The local vineyards are great for food and of course a few celebratory drinks!

Things to be aware of (particularly for international participants)

• Exact date of the race - Whilst the website sets out a specific date, it is also clear that they can postpone it across the following ~3 weekends (either having it on a Saturday or Sunday), if the weather doesn't play ball. It should be noted that as its a mass participation event, what the organisers consider to be suboptimal conditions are quite varied and wide. This year it got postponed the first week because of forecast chance of thunder storms (fair enough), the second weekend was postponed as the water temperature was forecast to be too cold, at ~22c! By my standards that is perfect (northern europe!) open water swimming conditions. So you can see, there is a pretty good chance it will get delayed if the conditions aren't (a) pretty warm and (b) pretty calm. They confirm on the Thursday before the weekend whether it is going ahead so you have 1.5 days notice. This isn't a problem if you live near to the Balaton but if, like me, you travelled from abroad and this was the big swim of your year, the first two delays (particularly the second one) resulted in some gnashing of teeth on my part (fortunately I was over for a few weeks and the date it actually landed on I was still there, just). I would therefore say that this is an international event with a big asterisk. If it goes ahead on the weekend you're there, great, but there are no guarantees. The organisers do fully refund you if the date is postponed and you can't make the new one, so at least you won't be out of pocket (well for the entry!)
• Signage - Most of the signage in the event villages is only in Hungarian. There are great maps on the website in advance, and google lens/translate can work its magic, so you can work out where to leave your stuff/register/get the ferry back. There are a lot of volunteers, a decent number of whom speak other languages (typically English/German). But I wouldn't want to roll up to it without a bit of prep beforehand to just take the stress out of registration and bag drop off/pick up.
• The Heat & Shade - With the European heatwave that was going on across summer this year, it was already hot by the time I finished (~8.30am). Whilst each of the event villages are big, they don't have a huge amount of shade, and you can end up standing waiting in the full sun for periods of time (before the swim/queuing for the ferry). I got a bit frustrated waiting for the ferry back to the North shore. Those who are staying on the south shore and taking the ferry over to the start have priority over swimmers who have finished, and they didn't let us on the ferry until 10.30am, which led to a fair amount of confusion and needless queuing in the sun. A lot of bottled water was provided which helped, but worth bearing in mind if you are a supporter with children, bringing shade/fans/water/sunscreen is a must.

Tips on the Race:

• Gear - I did see one fella in a wetsuit, but given the heat in the summer and the proclivity of the organisers to only let it go ahead in >22c water almost everyone was in swim shorts/speedos/jammers/bikinis etc. I slathered on sunscreen beforehand and hydrated a lot before the start. There is the option if you are tired to hold onto or even get on one of the sailing boats that mark out the course, and I believe (at least before they run out!) they have water and some sugary drinks if you need it. I did also see a couple of people rocking flippers and paddles and no one seemed to mind (although it did seem to go against some of the point of the challenge, but horses for courses). What it's worth keeping in mind for your practise is, focussing on body position. As this is basically non-wetsuit AND not in salt water, remaining high and flat in the water is a big thing to focus on when preparing due to the relative lower buoyancy compared to a sea swim or with a wetsuit. The one benefit of the delays in the event was a couple of weeks to train in the Balaton with the gear I had brought!
• The Start - You queue up about 4-5 abreast and are let down a pontoon in waves over the rocks by the side of the lake. You get in to water that is probably 150cm deep (you're not supposed to dive), so really you are swimming straight away rather than wading out. Even though I got there early I was still about 100 people back and walked over the timing mat and still had to wait behind people easing their way in. So if you are looking to post a fast time I'd strongly suggest (a) getting there early and (b) making sure you're in the first 30-40 starters so as not to get held up too much after the timing mat, waiting to get in the water.
• Pick a Side - I chose to swim on the right (west) side with the sailing boats on it. This had the benefit that the boats were a lot more frequent than the buoys on the other side so keeping straight was relatively easy. It did have the downside of me almost going over a few anchor ropes, as on the day there was a south easterly breeze which pushed the boats further right and away from their anchors. So doing it again I'd probably leave 10m gap to the boats, but still swim on the right. There wasn't a discernible "short cut" by going either side. It's a straight line from shore to shore. Every 500m there were larger Buoys with distances written on them which also helped with pacing.
• Sighting - The south side of the Balaton is less hilly than the north, but just next to the swim finish at Balatonboglár, there are two large hills which I used to sight with. They were high enough that I didn't have to keep my head out of the water too long to spot them and stay on course. Depending on when you start you may have the sun in your eyes as you are swimming in a south/south easterly direction. So worth bringing tinted goggles just to help with the glare.
• The Finish - The southern side of the Balaton gets shallower earlier than the north, so you can stand up in knee height water about 200-300m from the end. Again, if you are going for a "fast" time and want to eek every advantage you can stand up and run the last 300m or so.
• (NOTE - the above "tips" are more for those trying to go for a "faster time". The majority of participants take the swim nice and chilled. Lots of breast strokers, lots of chatting/families doing it all together so all in all a very inclusive event no matter your goals)

Final Thoughts:

I really enjoyed it. I love a point to point swim rather than multiple laps or lots of turning. The lake itself and surrounding area is beautiful and well worth a visit and I'd recommend it to anyone, just with the caveat that unless you can be over there for a few weekends in a row, there is a chance it will get delayed beyond your trip. All in all a great experience and one I'll hopefully do again if I'm in the area at the right time! Any q's, let me know.

It is with Swimtrek, and it will be swimming around the Aeolian islands. 2km in the morning lunch on the boat and 2km in the afternoon. I am mildly apprehensive, bc I have almost no experience in open water and none in the ocean. It’s not a race, and there will be a chase Kayaker, but still…

About 3000km/1,864.11 miles - from south to north, swimming towards winter 🥶🥶

He's updating his instagram regularly (knutivan_swimmer), I think he's done about 700 km so far. Oh, and his boat sank at some point and he lost everything, so he had to get a new boat and clothes and equipment.

Give him some love and encouragement on instagram!! It's going to get real cold and dark soon.

(www.instagram.com/knutivan_swimmer/)

I just finished up an Ironman 70.3 Poznan Poland over the weekend and made a rookie mistake with my goggles that almost cost me not even being able to start the race

Mins before the swim start, I went to put my goggles over my eyes from the top of my head and realized the black silicone suction on the right eye completely came off and was nowhere to be found.

After a lot of panicking and yelling asking if anyone had extra goggles, a gracious soul grabbed me and told me to ask the MC to make an announcement (thank you random stranger for telling me to do this and for calming my anxiety!!)

And miraculously another athlete had a spare and gave me them without hesitation. Huge shout out to her!

This is super rookie of me but i had no idea that the black silicone suction was something I had to keep an eye on or maintenance. With them being expensive goggles, i thought they were fine (had them for over a year now). I do swim in the pools a lot but make sure i rinse them off after every swim and always store them in the case.

Because my goggles are so expensive and hoping they’d be salvageable (which they are)i shoved them into the front of my my wetsuit. Definitely wasn’t comfortable.

Ironically enough, ended up with a PR on my swim.

The rest of the race was uneventful but lesson learned, check your goggles thoroughly before the swim!! Also so thankful to the tri community that helped me out on race day!

Also just curious what other people would’ve done if spare goggles HAD NOT been available. I thought about just swimming it with no goggles but i was worried about my eyes stinging really bad the rest of the day or getting an eye infection?

Anyone else currently playing the game, is that a bird, seal, or shark?

I swim in known great white territory and while I’m not so nervous of the sharks to keep me out of the water, I do often find myself playing this “which-one-is-it?” game.

Hi everyone. I recently started swimming at a local reservoir during the heatwave. I love it and am hoping that I might continue now the weather has turned. I plan to go once a week. Do you think this will be enough to help me acclimatize to cooler temps? I'm not in it for the excercise so much as just enjoying being in water. Any advice about how to avoid hypothermia or being put off by cold and rainy weather? Is a dry robe worth the investment?

I recently interviewed Rob Lea on the Ageless Athlete podcast who just became the first person in history to complete both Seven Aummits, and the Oceans Seven.

One of the stranger things he told me was how he prepared for the English Channel after coming straight off Everest.

He was around 175 lb after the climb. An experienced channel swimmer told him not to cram in more swim training. His bigger problem was going to be staying warm.

So Rob spent the next month gaining weight.

He got up to roughly 205 lb on lots of pizza, whole milk, heavy cream. He said he barely trained during that stretch beyond what he needed for the qualifying swim.

What convinced him was an earlier training camp in Mallorca. Rob was one of the faster swimmers there, but the water unexpectedly dropped to around 52–53°F. He managed the shorter swims, then had to get out while slower swimmers stayed in and completed six hours.

That was pretty humbling for him.

A few things I found interesting:

• He realized being the fastest swimmer in the group did not matter much if he could not stay warm.
• He later deliberately carried more weight for cold crossings, including the North Channel, where he spent about 10.5 hours in water around the mid-50s.
• His body weight for some of these swims was roughly 190–205 lb, versus more like 160–180 during his triathlon years.
• Most of his training was much less elaborate than I expected: a lot of pool swimming, some 2–3 hour open-water sessions, and very few training swims longer than three hours.
• He also strongly believes in not cramming training close to a major swim. A week out, he would rather arrive rested than squeeze in one more big session.

There was a much scarier lesson too. During his Molokai swim, he finished 14.5 hours in the water feeling like he was drowning. He later developed swimming-induced pulmonary edema and said it took roughly two to three months before his lungs fully recovered.

Rob has now finished all seven Ocean Seven swims, along with the Seven Summits.

Full disclosure: I host the Ageless Athlete podcast and interviewed Rob for the show. I thought the body-composition and cold-water side of his story would be especially relevant here.

Rob goes deeper into the full conversation.

Feel free to listen on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.

You can watch on Youtube as well.

Are you planning to just swim in an indoor pool until next OWS season?

I just thought the video was pretty cool so wanted to share :)

Hi everyone,

One of my biggest concerns about open-water swimming is accidentally gulping or inhaling water through my nose or mouth. If that happens, I imagine I might start coughing, panic, and struggle to regain control of my breathing—possibly even putting myself at risk of drowning.

What is the correct way to handle this situation safely while swimming in open water? Assume a worst-case scenario where you don't have access to a tow float or any immediate flotation device, and need to manage the situation on your own. And you are in rough, choppy waters with rough waves.

What practical steps should you take to stay calm, recover your breathing, and remain safe?

Any practical advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hello everyone! I am not typically an open water swimmer but I decided my gift to myself for my 35th birthday will be swimming the English Channel, which means I am targeting a 2030 crossing year. I've almost exclusively been a pool swimmer, only attempting open water on rare occasions and not for very long.

As an extensive, down to the last second planner, I have been mapping out my training plan for the next four years. One of the roadblocks I have reached is planning for my qualifying swim. I was wondering if there are any former Channel swimmers who have advice and/or may know someone who would be an appropriate observer when I get the that point (which is not for some time, but again, I must plan everything).

I am located in the Southern Arizona/ SoCal area and will likely be looking to do my qualifying swim in Coronado or La Jolla Shores in March—April of 2030.

I am also open to any other advice seasoned Channel/ open water swimmers have for someone moving from the pool to open water!

TIA

They are both about the same length, wondering which is the two would be harder, given currents, darkness and temperature of water, etc

Use this thread to request open water swim locations, information about locations, or swim groups or prospective swim friends and to ask about kayakers and kayak support. Any such requests outside this thread will be deleted.

Hi everyone,

Let’s say I’m swimming in open water and the conditions are rough and choppy, with a lot of waves.

If I need to adjust or fix something while I’m in the water—for example:

• Swim cap
• Goggles
• Earplugs
• Nose clip
• Clothing/swimwear

—what is the correct and safest way to do this?

Should I stop swimming and tread water while making the adjustment? Should I float on my back? Is there a particular position or technique that experienced open-water swimmers use to stay safe and avoid taking on water while fixing their equipment in rough conditions?

I’d especially appreciate practical advice on this.

Thanks!

I am participating in the Dardanelles strait crossing for the third time and I am concerned with the safety buoy requirement which is now being implemented after a swimmer in the İstanbul race got lost last year.
My first race was without it and I finished in 1 hr 28 minutes. Last year however it was 1 hr 48 minutes. I shortened the strap and I felt like the buoy was restricting my hips and it was dragging and pulling me in another direction like a parachute. It felt like I had a school backpack the whole race. I struggled with it. When I make the strap longer, it gets tangled between my legs. Any tips for wearing it in a certain way so I don’t experience these? Thanks ! (For information I am a short and curvy women so I have a long torso and short legs and a big back lol)

Hi, I am age-group Masters swimmer (28M) who specialized in sprint when I was young. I can keep roughly 1:35/1:37 pace when lap swimming at the pool, and my all out 100m sprint time is 1:04 min LC. When doing interval aerobic training, sometimes I can get 1:28-1:32 times per 100m. Best times in pool for 200m and 400m are 2:35 and 5:51 SC.

However, whenever I go open water to a steady swim, I usually get between 2:05-2:10 pace. I have read that an expected gap between OW and pool is roughly 5-15 seconds/100m, so I am trying to search for reasons for such a gap.

I don’t feel my arm mechanics differ much from ows to pool, so I think it might have to do with my head position. I suspect my head is tilting upwards because of the lack of visual reference in ow, but even then my feet manage to slightly break the water line, so they are high. Can it be my body is sinking even then?

Another thing, my body seems to be stalling with two beat kicking. My coach is prioritizing perfecting the 6 beat-kick during wall pool workouts, and says I have a strong kick when I put my mind on it. Indeed, when I do the six beat in open water (but a relaxed one), my pace seems to get into the 1:45-1:50 range. However, I see a lot of people able to kick strong with only two beat and apparently I cannot do that as of now. Has anyone gone though anything similar?

the bosphorus race, the 6.5km race with the insane tide.. it was so fun to be there, i accidentally made my parkour harder (around 7k) and still got a 1.08. as a first timer im very happy. im a local here but i know theres a lot of tourist participation, so if any of you guys have questions about the bosphorus feel free to ask

Hey everyone! I am hoping to be completing the Mackinaw Straits swim July 2027 and have been training. I just joined the Facebook page for the swim today. Apparently around 2 weeks ago the organizer did an opportunity to register early which is no longer possible and apparently there are around 100ish spots left. Official registration is in November and I'm so upset/scared that I am currently training for no reason. This swim is my dream and I've been telling people about it and feel like I'm a liar if I don't make it in. Do you guys have any insights into how hard it is to get in this swim? I just want this so bad and feel so dumb for missing an opportunity to register. I just want to know if it's realistic for me to get in.

I have seen many amazingly skilled and talented long distance open water swimmers with physiques that don't resemble the typical land athlete (I.e. a higher body fat percentage than what you'd perhaps expect for someone so fit).

I realise the post-swim hunger can be very real, and that cold water can rack up an immense appetite.

But I have always wondered whether there is anything other than the usual post-swim hunger that has a significant effect on the body composition of a lot of open water swimmers having higher than expected body fat percentages for their fitness?

Genuinely curious- please don't take this as a criticism of any sort!

I was diagnosed with ceratitis in my left eye last night when I went to the emergency room and the doctor looked really really serious when he told me he would never ever swim in open water with contact lenses - even with goggles. The (soft) lenses get soaked with water and pathogens and any micro damage (often caused by contacts, but could be there for others reasons) of the eye‘s corneal are open doors for bacteria and the Anthamoebia which can easily make you lose your eye. Not eyesight. THE eye.

Just wanted to share this here as I was not aware of the risk (googled it and got it confirmed) and many others might neither.

I am 37 and have been swimming in the sea since I was a child. I grew up in Cornwall and am a strong swimmer who can swim long distances. Now I live in London I’m mainly in lidos and at Brighton beach but head to Cornwall to swim as much as I can.

Last year while swimming a stretch of coast I’m very familiar with I felt a heart palpitation while quite far out. There was nowhere for me to land safely and suddenly the prospect of swimming the rest of the route felt overwhelmingly scary to me. I began to panic, my heart thumping in a way that felt uncomfortable, and generally heading towards an anxiety attack. I swam slowly back, reminding myself I was safe and capable (I always swim with a tow float). Since then, I have this panic every time I get into the water. It’s distressing for me as open water swimming is a huge part of my life, and I find myself hugging the shoreline now where I used to confidently swim long distances far out. I don’t know how to combat this and wanted to ask if anyone has had a similar experience. One thing that makes me feel better is if paddle boarders are in the water as it makes me feel I have a place to land if I need it.