How cold without a wetsuit?

For me, depends on the distance and body of water. Though I don't think I'd ever do a 1mi swim with a wetsuit unless the water was really chilly!! I've done the Chesapeake Bay 1mi swim several times in a speedo... but the 3x I've done the 4.4mi crossing, I've used a wetsuit. The base temp at the shore is very different from the temp in the bay itself -- probably 3-3 1/2 miles of the crossing! I always do the Reston Masters Lake Swims w/o a wetsuit - though those are always really nice, hot days and the cool 73-75 degree water feels awesome! The water hardly changes temperature there.

Everyone is different.... I put on the wetsuit if the water is below 65F. I can't imagine swimming without one at 50F. I also wear booties below 60F, and I limit myself to 20 minutes exposure when it gets to 55F. I assume you are swimming with a buddy, and not alone, and monitoring each other for hypothermia.... slurred speech, etc. I want to know how you find someone to swim with at those temperatures. ... Just curious. You guys might call me a wimp, but I'd say I am being properly cautious. I am interested to see what other people think about 50F as a cut-off. Ciao,

I think anything under 65 is too cold with out a wetsuit. but the window between 65-70 depends on the weather. if its sunny and calm then i could go with out under 65, but it if it's windy and cloudy it tends to make the surface water feel colder. according to one race home page. they suggest 60F-63F no more than 95 minutes in the water. 63-65 no more than 110 minutes over 65 125 minutes was written but not sure if the upper limet to that timeframe was 68 or 70 or no top level.

Yes I know I should be swimming with someone but unfortunately I could find no one that was willing to swim with me throughtout the winter, for some reason everyone thinks it's too cold. Anyway it's more extreme when I'm out there alone. I was only able to last about 1/2 hour below 40 degrees. But now that it's in the upper 40's I can last longer. I know I'm a little extreme but I swim straight out otwards this island called egg rock until I get too cold then I turn around and head back in. In a few days when the water hits 50 I'm going to try without a wetsuit but I'll swim along the shore until I can find my limits.

My rough rules of thumb: If the water temp is 65+ degrees, no problems. If it's 60-65, you will need some (1-2 sessions) adaptation. If it's

Paul, 50 degrees (salt water) is about when I would get in when I was training for cold water swims, without a wet suit. If it got much colder than that, I wasn’t able to stay in for more that about 30-45 minutes. At 50 degrees I was good for at least an hour.

We were not allowed to wear wet suits in any race, no matter what the temperature was. The coldest race I ever raced in was 38F. The races I swam in were generally 50f to 65F Lake Ontario to 90F Egypt. Differrent temperatures in all other places. There were no races less then 10 mlies most were twenty to 30 miles long. I tried not to train in water under 60F which to me is the perfect temperature to swim, most other swimmers would get out in low 60F water temperatures after about two hours. Now I only swim open water in the ocean and the temperature where I swim OW is 75 to 80F.

Paul, I am an open water swimmer who lives in Colorado. I have swam without a wetsuit at 49 degrees, while not as enjoyable as one could have it. There were three of us who swam that day. We all were training to swim the English Channel. This swim made me feel very much alive. I have also swam at 10,000 feet in a lake that had snow melting into it. I am not sure of the temp, but my chest was tingling the whole 30 minutes I was in it. Care must be taken swimming at anything below 55 degrees. Make sure you know the signs of hypothermia. The one I always look for is not remembering a phone number that I have known nearly all of my life.

Thanks for everyone's input. I was going to wait until the water temp was 50 but the air temp today was quite warm (80 deg) so I decided to go for it and swam in the 47 deg ocean. I was only able to last for a mile until I started to get too cold, but it's a start. Yeah baby!

After a summer of lake swimming I can get down to 53 (no wetsuit of course!) for close to an hour but I would not be able to start at that temp in the spring after a winter in the hot pool. If you have been swimming outside all winter then you might be able to start with a pretty low temp. It is all in the acclimatization, as I think someone said above. Good luck!