San Jose swim locations?

In the summer you can (dare to) swim at Lake Almaden in south SJ.  There's is also swimming at Quarry lakes in Fremont, but again only thru Oct. 

Looks like City of SJ has limited lap swim for ~$3/visit  see here

As far as regular swims are concerned , most of the cities have lap swims available in their respective community centres. For eg. Camden Community Centre (Cambrian) or there's one in Campbell thats nice too. If you want to go further north , then I like the Sunnyvale pool (fremont high school)

for ows, lake almaden is an option - and its not half as bad as ome would have you believe! I did a couple of practice swims before SJIT and its tolerable especially if they have good water levels. another option if you don't want to go all the way to SF is Redwood Shores. Its right next to one of the office and there is no watercraft traffic and its "open" yearround.

Not sure of your swim background but yes, I'd reccomend feeling comfortable swimming in the pool till u can do either 1000 yards continuous or a 2500 yard routine. IMO this helps build confidence before hitting OWS workouts.

Good Luck

Thank you, everyone! This is very helpful. I had no idea I had so many options so close to me.

As for any BT group open water swims early next year, I'm in! Even when I am comfortable and efficient in the pool, I find my OWS events are hell due to lack of OWS practice.