New to Madison, Looking for OWS

Bump. Anyone??

I've barely been in the pool since IMOO last year so I think an OWS would not be such a good idea for me but there is a Madison Open Water Swim group on Facebook you may want to join to see if you can schedule something with someone in the area.  If you need to be added by someone you can send me your Facebook information (if you are on Facebook) and I can submit your info to the group administrators.

Check out Lake Wingra. No gas powered boats are allowed on it and its one of the cleanest around.

I've only been in Mendota and Monona, so I don't really have much to base it off of. I've just heard a little bit that Wingra is weedy. Which doesn't bother me that much.

I've been out on Monona from Law Park 3x times. It's been super choppy until this morning, it was glass. Minus a few boat swells coming in. The water is relatively warm. I don't have a full suit, just sleeveless and it's fine for me. Water is relatively clear too. The dreged out most of the seaweed so it seems. When leaving Law Park area, we've been getting in at the closest loading section right by the ski jump and there's weeds you can see, but don't hardly touch for about 10m then it's deep and clear enough to see your stroke through the water. It's nice having the terrace as a reference point on one side so far. Helps me know if I cramp up or something gets weird, I'm only like 50-70m from shore and can swim in quick. Plus there's usually some people along the path that can probably hear us as well should something happen.

I think the cleanest lake around is Fireman's Park in Verona. This is coming from a former Vilas Beach (Lake Wingra) lifeguard.