Solo OWS'ing

I generally do my OWS alone.  I do solo efforts just inside/outside swimming areas. If there are life guards, they will sometimes make you stay inside.  I swim at Pewaukee and Ottawa beaches. Ottawa does not have life guards.  I will not head far out into lake if I am by myself.  It is not quite the same as going out into the middle of the lake, but you get practice being in open water and with sighting. 

I OWS by myself fairly frequently, but I never go into water where I can't stand up should something happen. Lake Ripley in Cambridge is good for this. The swim area has to be 200+ yards wide. I also swim in Lake Kegonsa, but it's really shallow outside the swim area at one corner (keep the elbows high type of shallow), and the water quality can be marginal at best.

I do nearly all of my open water swims alone and have been doing it for years. I go out in the deep water, with my reasoning being that the things that would kill me in deep water would kill me in shallow water too. If I were restricted to shallow water, I honestly think a pool would be better...but I digress. Here are my thoughts.

1) Don't go out deep if there are boats in the area. You can hear their motors under the water, but it's hard to tell where they are by sound, so you would have to stop frequently to look around for them.

2) Wearing a wetsuit makes swimming very easy, while swimming without one removes any margin of error for big waves, significant cramps, a change in weather, etc. I go without a wetsuit frequently, and it's quite a bit more difficult. I would recommend staying in a wetsuit until you have a couple years of experience in open water.

3) If you are going to be in open water alone, the most important thing is you have to be completely confident in your ability to swim. If you're by yourself, you don't have any room for mistakes. If you just took up swimming last year, or if your endurance is not very good, I would recommend staying in the pool rather than swim in a lake by yourself. The reason is because you're still at the point in the learning curve where pool swimming has a significant effect, and the value of open water is in swimming long distances and/or against obstacles.

Thanks for the advice everyone!  I have gone to swim with the Thurs. group at Wingra and will continue to do that.  It's just that my workouts are sometimes random and spontaneous, and I hate walking into the gym on a beautiful day.  I don't have a wetsuit, but I promise not to go in over my head if I'm alone .

this may sound silly... but a friend of mine who is a very good swimmer does this all of the time...  she suggested buying a noodle and taking a piece of rope and making a sling out of it that you can wear around you...  with the other end hanging behind you... it slips through the noodle with a knot tied in the end...  so the noodle is just pulled behind you... i have not tried it yet but she swears by it for solo ows...  she claims it doesnt really slow you down...  gives you a little extra security should something happen (i.e. cramp, exhaustion, etc...)...  and it makes you much more visible in the water to boaters, etc...  

that is phenomenal advice...safety and visibility in one!!! wonder where she swims??