Open Water is Hard!!!

I had my first open water event today during the Tri-Indy.  Pretty cool as it was in a canal that was 4' deep.  However, I ran into the sides several times.  Everytime I got a rythim going I would run into the people in front of me.  This either caused me to get kicked in the face or get a big drink of water from their wake.  At one point I tried to compensate for my natural drift to the left.  I actually ended up swimming directly to the other side and ran into that wall.  It was alot of fun and I actually started to laugh about it after I realized I was just going to have to work through it.  My kids got a kick out of watching me going sideways to the course as well.  They thought I was going to turn around and swim it backwards....lol.