Dealing with cold ocean swim for face

First: I'm a scuba diver in Seattle, not an open water swimmer. From my experience: There's nothing you can really do for your mouth and neck areas. You're just going to be cold. Keep your head and body as warm as close to comfortable as possible. Keep the water away from your eyes. If your head is and core body is warm then you'll be fine and will not suffer hyperthermia. You loose most of your heat through your head, and that should be your main concern. If your issue is just your face - get used to it. It's really not that bad after a few minutes (about 3 minutes for me). In fact, your face should go numb and you don't have any sensation at all if the water is cold enough. I think you may of actually made the feeling of having a cold face worse by doing *** stroke. In this way your face stayed warm enough to notice the temperature of the water. Next time: before the race - put your face in the water for a few minutes. It'll be tough at first, but I think you'll find that it's not so bad after you get used to it.

I have raced a ten mile swim in water 48 degrees (no wet suit just my speedo and me) it is cold you just have to put up with it. A little vaseline in the friction areas. George www.swimdownhill.com

I am just getting into open water and long distance swimming. I have been a swimmer my whole life and am very passionate about the sport. Last year I started triathlons and did my first open water swims (although they were short 1 mile in comarison to the major long distance swims). I want to focus now on long distance swimming since thats were my strengths are. I usually spend at least 2hrs a day in the water :) I am looking for some good events this season. I have looked into the Boston Light swim and some of the Potomac are swims. Does anyone have any good experiences or events?? :confused:

Thanks everyone for the tips. I think I knew that I just had to suck it up, but I was hoping that someone would pull out some kind of hidden open water "secret" for dealing with the cold water to my exposed face. They make a special swim cap for open water swimming, that's made out of the same material as triathlete wetsuits, I've seen them from 2-3mm thick and it goes over your head, ears, and velcros under your chin. It's only around $20 but may have saved me 20 minutes on my swim this saturday. I may try that, as mrcnwmn said, to keep the heat from escaping my head.

For Cold water swim caps see this page www.geocities.com/.../coldwatercaps.html the Barracuda Hot head is there and some others that are cheap work well and are legal for English Channel swims, which the hot head is not.the bubble strap cap was worn with a Seal mask this Sept 04 by a 55 yr old from San Francisco Ca. "El Sharko" on his English Channel Swim , he's a SF bay swimmer and thats about 55 F water year round. A cap will keep you much warmer

Herman Willamese the dutch marathon swimmer used to wear a small wool cap under a regular swim cap. I just wore a regular rubber swim cap and it was enough for me I would sweat after about a mile. I would let cold water in to cool off until it warmed up again, then I would let more cold water in again. Your head actually gets quite hot when you swim a long distance. George www.swimdownhill.com

You must run hot or it must be where you are from (Canada), because being born and raised and still live in Sunny California, I think any water temp less than an indoor gym pool is too cold for me to swim in, without any protection.

It is surprising how well you can take cold water when you are making your living swimming in all kinds of water. Most of the races in Lake Ontario were swum in temperatures from 51 degrees to 60 degrees. One time after I finished a race in lake Ontario my heart rate was down to 15 beats a minute, my core temperature must have been pretty cool. In Egypt the water was in the 90's and I was so dehydrated that I shivered after the 44 k race. George www.swimdownhill.com

Originally posted by auto208562 Do ear plugs help with retaining heat also? They do keep the water out of your head, and I think that helps a little. SB

The first thing you should do is practice, race day shouldn't be your first open water swim of the year. Otherwise for tris, get in substantially before your wave starts. As others have stated it takes 5-10 mins for your face to get accustomed to things. Often at races they won't let you get in but you should be able to go to the edge and start splashing water on your face. Then, when your wave is called get in as soon as possible and start putting your face into the water. This will give you up to 5 minutes of cold water exposure immediately. What you experienced is a common ocurrence. You can fix it quickly. The hot head cap, earplugs, etc helps for long term heat, probably not an issue in a tri. But for the specific issue of face freeze, there's no other way to get around it than letting your face acclimate - or go numb as the case may be.