
I took my new wetsuit to Musselman’s Lake for a lesson in open-water swimming with Coach Kelvin (right). We covered how to put it on, how buoyant we are in wetsuits, and how to let in a little water so it won’t drag so much. Then I swam a little and get accustomed to the pull and drag of neoprene. It was… interesting. I tended to get seasick when not swimming because, I guess, I was bobbing around without any feedback from the water. I also tended to veer off course—a lot. I don’t think it’s exactly because I’m more buoyant; I think it’s because I can’t feel the water directly. So I’m not evening out my strokes or something.
On the first leg of our swim, I felt that I wasn’t getting anywhere, that a current was carrying me back almost as fast as I swam. That feeling was less when I swam across the lake instead of along the shore: I was able to just swim along without worrying too much about progress. I stopped often and changed strokes; but I was able to swim and breathe and eventually to get to the far shore. I began to see fish near the farther shore. I think they were pumpkin-seed sunfish, an introduced species.
After a rest, we reversed our course and returned to the beach, then back along the shore to our starting point. Later, I found out that it seemed to take so long because it’s farther than I thought it was: about 300 yards from the start to the beach and perhaps 400 yards across our end of the lake (which is really a large pond).
There’s already noticeable seaweed groves in the shallow water and it wasn’t really cold enough to need a wetsuit. it will be choked with weed and warm as tea as the summer goes on.
Workout: approximately 1400 yards, all strokes.
The larger body of water is Musselman’s Lake. The road at the top is Aurora Side Road; and Ninth Line curves around the east end of the lake, which is where we started our swim. The light-coloured patch where Ninth Line meets the north side of the lake is the beach.
