Open Water Swim Clinics

Invest in yourself and improve your open water swimming skills for a safer and more rewarding swim experience. 

We want you to be prepared too and we want open water swimming to be something you embrace versus something you fear if you are a new swimmer . These clinics are good for you if: 

• You're a good swimmer but don't have open water experience or you haven't been in the water for awhile,.
• You're just rusty on your OWS and racing skills
• You're looking for tips and pointers to improve your stroke and technique in open water.
• Swimmers who are new to open water swimming in lakes or ocean venues.
• New triathletes who are trying out a new sport even if you're a good pool swimmer.
• Triathletes and swimmers who haven't been in the water for awhile.
• Open water swimmers looking to improve skills and gain more comfort in the water.

We are segmenting our clinics into two clinics depending on your open water skills and comfort level.  However, swimmers of all abilities are welcome to any of the clinics but the first one is specifically targeted to new open water swimmers.  If you've got more experience and just want to swim you are more than welcome - just be prepared to share your experience and expertise with the newer swimmers!

Clinics are starting in June this year with one clinics on June27 and one on July 25.  That gives you time between the clinics to practice. 

Clinic #1 - Basic Open Water Skills - June 27 (Saturday)

We will start the season on June 29 with an introduction to open water swimming for people who have no or limited experience with swimming in open water, or swimmers who are rusty in their skills.  This clinic will talk about gear, water and swim conditions, gaining a comfort level in open water, and having an experience with the basics of entry, exit, sighting, breathing, etc.   No experience in open water or ocean is necessary to participate but you should be able to swim 100 yards with a focus on freestyle. Starting earlier will give you an opportunity to fully develop your open water skills before you get to your first starting line of the year.  You'll meet new swim buddies, have opportunities to seek out additional coaching and open water workouts.  You'll also be more comfortable in subsequent clinics. This clinic will be limited to only 25 participants to enhance smaller group coaching.

Clinic #2 - More Open Water Skills and Practice Sessions - July 25 (Saturday)

This clinic is a continuation of the beginning clinic and will focus on intermediate skills.  If you have open water skills and would like to improve them and  prior  experience in open water but you're not quite comfortable and need to improve your skills, you've not been in the water for awhile, or you started with the earlier clinic and want to continue improving your swim, and swim some longer distances away from the shoreline.   This is an opportunity to improve your skills for sighting, group swimming and drafting, race entry and exit, fine tuning for your stroke and gear.

Most people attend both clinics if they can because it's an opportunity to build new skills or fine-tune your existing open water skills. 

You can select to register for the swim clinics individually as clinic 1 and 2, or both clinics.   Clinics are $50 for each for the two clinics. There is a 10% discount for registering for both. 

All clinics are USA Triathlon sanctioned clinics and a one-day license or annual membership is required for participation. Because these clinic are taught by USA Triathlon certified coaches you only need to purchase one USAT one-day membership for both clinics if you are not already a member. Additionally, the one day membership can be deducted from a future purchase of an annual membership in 2026.  If you are already an annual member you will not need to pay for the additional one day membership license.

All Open Water Sessions  will meet at Cowell Beach in Santa Cruz.  You will receive specific email instructions and directions as well as gear lists before each clinic session.

The Open Water Swim Clinics brings an exciting race distance to Santa Cruz, California on June 27, 2026. Don't miss this beautiful event!