With more and more people swimming in open water events, what is the best way to separate the heats: by gender? by speed? by age? by swimwear (wetsuit vs. non-wetsuit)? by swimmer's choice?
The need to maintain safety and segregate the swimmers into separate heats becomes more evident. But this raises many issues - none of which are easy to resolve.
If the heats are separated by speed, how do the race organizers best separate the swimmers? Is it by their best times in a pool event? If so, what pool event: the 400-meter free, the 800-meter free, the 1500-meter free? If it is by the open water races, is it by their performance in last year's event? At a different open water event? If so, what are the parameters of the open water qualification swim?
If the heats are separated by gender, and the women's heats go behind the men, is that fair to the elite women? If the heats are separated by age, what are the optimal age breaks?
An online poll at The Daily News of Open Water Swimming is showing some interesting poll results after the first few days.
I'm a 40+ woman, and while I wouldn't call myself "elite" I'm pretty fast compared to other women my age. In races with enough participants to justify wave starts, I much prefer time-seeded waves. For races of 1 mile or longer, seeding by recent 1650/1500 times seems to work well.
If the waves are divided by sex or age, then those who are among the fastest in the later waves run up on those who are among the slowest in the earlier waves, often pretty quickly. It's both a racing problem and a safety problem, IMO, when my chief competitors and I suddenly come upon and have to pass some guy doing a leisurely sidestroke, tacking his way toward the first buoy at half our speed or slower. The encounter probably isn't all that fun for sidestroke guy either.
Thank you very much for all your suggestions. We have been having these discussions since the early 1980s (at least at the Waikiki Roughwater Swim) and am always interested to hear from other swimmers.
I agree with Chaos, time is the best way to design start waves. As for what time should be used, I'd go with a 1500. With the 1500 you at least know all the starters have the same start speed although maybe not the same endurence.
I'll use the La Jolla Rough Water swim as a great example (IMHO) of getting it right and getting it wrong:
On the Gatorman race they get it right: mass start, all ages, all sexes together. I love being able to race against whoever is going to push me. Newbies might get their positioning at the start wrong the first time they do it, but, generally, people seem to know where to place themselves along with beach for a clean start.
On the Masters mile, they get it wrong by segmenting it by age. As a 40-something who'd prefer to race against the fastest out there (it would've been fun to line up and draft off Chip Peterson for the first 25 yards!), I've not liked this set up.
Extrapolating from my experience on the mile, I would imagine that most of the fast women would prefer a time-seeded start, but I could be wrong.
Like I said above, I like all people together like the Gatorman. After all, if you look at other endurance sports (tris, marathons), you don't generally see the sexes segregated.
Now, as for seed times and waves, it's a good idea, but only if people are honest with their seed times. Ideally, there would be the open water database equivalent of SWIMS for entry purposes.
I almost think this should be rephrased as how to organize large open water swims. On overall question, if for safety, size of venue etc., it's required to have heats the priority should be given to speed. Qualifying could be recent distance pool times or how you placed in a recognized open water events (by percentages such as top 15%, next 15% etc). The other categories of gender, age and even swimwear would be secondary. On the question of men and women swimming together, in most of the Open water events I've been part of men and women always have swam together. I can't speak for all of them however most of the stronger and elite women I have coached or been training partners with, want to race with the men. A few men might like separate starts but only because they don't want to be embarrassed by the women coming out the water ahead of them. ;) On a personal note, I'm long over the fact that women will beat me in swimming...lol. I personally wouldn't mind separating wetsuits and naked as to know where I stand with the group I'm racing with, however the suits do make nice drafting partners in some races...:)
Separate from heating, I believe for race promoters to have continued success with there event year in an year out, it's important to have strong recognition programs and awards. Don't underestimate the need to brag about your weekend warrior endeavors when you get back to the office. At a minimum participation awards, then for the competitive part of the program there should have separate awards for men and women, wet suit and non wet suit and in larger events age group awards.
if an event is large enough to require wave starts, i prefer they be seeded as per time; not age or gender
I agree, although the only event I usually do where this would be an issue is Big Shoulders.
For races large enough to require heat starts, I don't think they should be with age or gender, but I also don't think a pool mile should be used. Some open water swimmers don't even participate in pool swim meets, so may not have a mile time to go by, plus the pool is very different than an open water mile.
My opinion would be to break it up by a range of time. For example, if it's a 5k swim, break the heats into 10 or 15 minute groups (e.g. 1:00 to 1:15, 1:15 to 1:30, 1:30 to 1:45, etc.). Where ever your previous 5k time fits is the heat you swim in. If the person has never swam a 5k before, then they can use other races to determine where they think they'll be time wise. Also have an option for a swimmer right on the edge to "swim up" if they want to so they have more competition. Someone with a 1:17 5k may want to swim in the 1:00 to 1:15 group so they have more competition.
For the Dwight Crum Hermosa pier to pier, they recently changed it to a men's seed and a women's seed. I think it's unfair to the women. First, they do not ge the benefit of drafting off the faster guys (not a sexist thing, there are some fast women in the results but traditionally the majority of the top finishers were male). Worse though, is now they have to pick their way through the slowest of the male swimmers to get to clear water.
But there are now some 800-900 starters, which is why they hav split the start. Seeded times would be hard to administer I'd think
The Big Shoulders this past year sent off a fast wave first. This fast wave was based on established open water times and was reserved for those who truly hoped to compete for a top finishing spot. I can't remember if it included women or not, but it should have if it didn't.
Once you get past the true competitors for top spots, set waves however you want, though perhaps more established open water times might help.
Often in races I'm out in the first wave because of my age and gender. I typically run over a bunch of guys who think they should start at the front of the pack. 30 minutes later, I'm like a floating tire to the faster women.
