Open water technique...advice?

In about a months time i may be doing an open water event.... in the sea. you lucky!! what other technique tips do any of you have? 200-300m probably won't require any special technical change. Overall, I'd say you have to make sure your goggles are well fit, salty water tends to burn. best way to breathe, when to breathe, how to start from the beach, how the hell do i make sure im going the right way!? Breathing becomes the occasion to see where you're positioned. So ideally, breathe on both sides once in a while to see what's happening around you. Breathing/looking up front can also become important to see if you're going in the right direction, or to see if you're drafting the right swimmer/group of swimmers. Because if there's one major difference between any openwater short race (no coach in a boat) and pool events, is that with OW you can draft other swimmers. So very often, you just put yourself behind others and follow. Then a quick look in the front once in a while (as well as on each side) will indicate if you are in the right train. Group DQed isn't unlikely when the lead swimmers go wrong and that all the others are following like cheeps. but it'll be wavy and there'll probably be some underhanded-ness in the melee at the start specifics of the technique will vary quite a lot based on the type of waves, and based on their direction. So it's hard to issue generic statements. If waves are short (3feet and less) and against you, then you absolutely got to increase stroke rate and don't attempt to glide too much. If waves are big and in the same direction you're swimming then you got to surf 'em, then you're likely to glide much more. But if the start is from the beach and the swim is only 300m long, then you're likely going to face short waves. If your usual technique involves recovering the arm with the hand very close to the surface, that won't work. If there are some breaststroke swimmers at the end of the pack, get away from them. They can kick you in the face. If you swim comfortably and are confident you can match the speed of the head of the pack, then position yourself in the first half of the pack, locate some swimmers to draft, and following them while giving a look in front and on both sides should be your strategy. To figure this out, you may want to have a look at past edition's results. You'll have an idea about how fast the lead swimmers are. When you draft them, stick very close to them otherwise you'll loose a lot of the benefits of drafting. Things will undoubtedly become confusing at some point in the race, then you'll have to make decisions such as leaving your pack to join an other one, swim alone, transition from being alone to try to join a pack etc. That is improvisation based on what's going on during the race. Near the end (you have to know this by looking at front), there will probably be some sprints. If you still have some energy left in the tank then you may leave your drafting mates and try to pass them. This is very similar to cycling races drafting/sprinting principles.