Great Salt Lake

You should be more buoyant, but after that, I dunno. Can't wait to see the responses myself.

My husband, who grew us in Salt Lake City, says you might want to try it once, but probably not twice. His report: Walking in from the beach is not too bad unless you have a cut, no matter how small. Diving in from a boat actually hurt as he hit the dense water. If you stay in too long, the salinty will irritate skin in sensitive areas. His experience was a number of years ago, it will be interesting to hear from others who have been in more recently.

I'm currently trying to gather information about swimming in the Great Salt Lake and am hoping to do a couple distance swims there this coming summer. Here is some information / thoughts on swimming in the Great Salt Lake: www.utahopenwater.com/.../swimming-in-great-salt-lake.html There used to be competitive marathon swims in the 20's and 30's, but I think that was when the water levels were higher.

I don't know what that would be like but I have been in the Dead Sea (can't call it swimming) and its a fairly aversive experience. I know the Great Salt Lake has a lower salinity..but even so I think it might be kind of rough.

I have found that I get chaffed in salt water where I never do in fresh. I would imagine that in the high salinity GSL chafe would be an issue.

I've swam several times this year in the Great Salt Lake. Yes, chaffing is more of an issue than in fresh water. But if you really lube those areas up, you're OK. The salinity wasn't that bad and depending on where you choose to swim the water is very clear. Swimming down on the south end by the Marina, the water is nice and gets deep enough to swim within 50 yards. With other beaches, you can walk a LONG way to get deep enough. The Antelope Island Marina gave me the impression that the water was dirty. But once you get outside the marina, it clears up and is less congested with brine flies. GSL is quickly becoming one of my favorite places to swim. You don't have to deal with waterskiers, or jetskiers or fishermen. It's awesome. Here' some of my recent excursions: Antelope to Fremont Swim Blackrock to Marina Swim We're even planning to revive an annual Open Water Swim in the Great Salt Lake!

I completely forgot about this thread... I have been swimming several times in the Great Salt Lake with ggridley since my last post on this thread. It's amazing how high you float on the water. I feel much more buoyant in the Great Salt Lake without a wetsuit than I do with a wetsuit in freshwater. On our most recent swim there, a first time GSL swimmer told me it looked like half of my body was out of the water. Some areas are definitely better for swimming than others. The south side of the lake near the GSL Marina has fairly deep and clear water and I like swimming on that side much better than on the north side of Antelope Island. You will want to tuck a water bottle in your suit to rinse out your mouth every once in a while. This is not a "reduced sodium" body of water. The water can get pretty rough when the wind picks up. Because of the high salinity of the water, the waves are pretty dense.