Beach Start (tips needed)

Haven't done a beach start yet, but I've found on a beach exit that, though I'm not exactly sure where the point is where I'm faster standing up and running, I've definitely found that if I stand up too early, trying to walk through water drains my legs pretty darn quickly. So now I make sure that I do wait until I can touch and sometimes a little later so that the water is right around knee level before I stand.

For a beach start run in, keeping your knees high and sort of pointed out.  It looks goofy, but is effective.  Once the water is too deep to keep that up, dolphin dive and start swimming.

make sure you don't dive into the back of someones legs.  run out high knees, spot an opening  and dive super shallow.  nothing worse than going deep and coming up under another swimmer.

what everyone else said.  My first was a beach start, and I wished I would've asked that question.  I "waded" too far in, and made starting tough on top of the already sky rocketed heart rate.  Coming out I stood up too fast and running through the ocean is not exactly fast.  My legs had it by the time I hit the LOOSE sand run up to transition.  Never been so happy to get on my bike.

I'm a MOP swimmer, so I just wait and let everyone go ahead of me.  That means walking out to about little over the knee and just start swimming my race. I'm in no big rush to run out there and start diving.  When I do that I get all hyped up and start swimming way to hard and get winded. 

You're not going to win or lose the race in the 50-foot run from the beach into the water. Let the high-energy crowd stampede into the water in front of you, high-step out until you're about thigh deep and start swimming. You will quickly begin passing everyone who sprinted full-speed into the waves and are now busy catching their breath.

On the way out of the water, swim/bodysurf into shore until you find yourself grabbing handfuls of sand with every stroke, then stand up. Most people stand up too early.

Depends, are you a FOP swimmer"?  True, you won't win/lose the race, but I disagree with jmk above a little bit.  If you can get out quickly and be in the first few people at the first buoy, you'll have a much cleaner swim.  Anyway, my tips, almost all my tris are running beach starts

Seed yourself front to back.  If you are FOP, go to the front row.  BOP, hang out in back.  Self explanatory.

Seed yourself left to right.  Get in the water (or ask the guards, or watch prior waves) to see which way the current is going, if any.  Sucks to have to swim back to a buoy the current has taken you past.  Line up and enter the water UP current of the buoy.

Walk the entry before the start.  If you plan on running in, make sure there aren't any holes in the knee deep water.  Stepping into one of those unexpectedly sucks.

Run to the water, high step with your knees until you can't clear your feet, dolphin dive until waist deep or so (or when you can't effectively push off from the bottom anymore), swim.

Coming in, check out behind you to see if any waves are coming.  If they are, try to catch them.  Whatever happens, keep swimming to shore.

When your hand touches the bottom, do a couple quick dolphin dives then run out (opposite of going in)

Thanks for all the info! Living in Michigan pretty much means that you always swim in a lake, so you never have to consider waves or current. I'd say I'm a MOP swimmer, but my coach has been having me train by sprinting the first 75 meters to break out and then begin my pace. My plan will be to high-step out and shallow dive around waist-deep. Swimming in, if I can touch it'll only be ~3 ft. deep, and depending on the distance to shore, will high-step out. If it's farther to shore, I'll dive until I can run out.

Be careful trying to sprint the first 75 yards.  You may find the first 75-100 is traffic filled.  Every time you stroke you may touch someones feet.  When the race starts your heart rate will be through the roof especially if you run in with high knees.  High traffic and High heart rate aren't the best situation for a fast start.  Every start is different.

Lots of people say let the masses run out and go out slowly.  I did that in my first race and was stuck behind all the fast starters that quickly ran out of gas and flopped over to the back stroke and i had to spend the entire race weaving around them.  Option two is to get out in the front of the pack, not nessasarily sprinting... try to be close to the front maybe off to the side and get in the water and find your groove... breathing is everything.  Once you calm down, breathe, and stroke its easy...