Open Water Swimming Manual

Lynne Cox has set open water swimming records across the world, and now she has focused her decades-long experience and expertise into this definitive guide to swimming. Cox methodically addresses what is needed to succeed at and enjoy open water swimming, including choosing the right bathing suit and sunscreen; surviving in dangerous weather conditions, currents, and waves; confronting various marine organisms; treating ailments, such as being stung or bitten, and much more. Cox calls upon Navy SEAL training materials and instructors' knowledge of open water swimming and safety procedures to guide her research. In addition, first-hand anecdotes from SEAL specialists and stories of Cox's own experiences serve as both warnings and proper practices to adopt.
Open Water Swimming Manual provides a wealth of knowledge for all swimmers, from seasoned triathletes and expert swimmers to beginners exploring open water swimming for the first time. It is, as well, the first manual of its kind to make use of oceanography, marine biology, and to weave in stories about the successes and failures of other athletes, giving us a deeper, broader understanding of this exhilarating and fast growing sport.

Lynne Cox was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in Los Alamitos, California, where she presently lives. She has held open-water swimming records all over the world, for among others, the fastest crossing of the English Channel (at age 15), the Santa Catalina Channel, the twelve-mile Oresund between Denmark and Sweden, and the Kattegut between Norway to Sweden. Cox was the first woman to swim across the Cook Strait in New Zealand, the first to swim across the Strait of Magellan, the Beagle Channel between Argentina and Chile, Lake Baikal in Russia, and around the Cape of Good Hope. In 1987, Cox crossed the Bering Strait to the Soviet Union, and in 2002 swam more than a mile in the 31°F waters off Antarctica. Cox has been inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame. She is the author of Swimming to Antarctica, Grayson, South with the Sun. Her articles have appeared in many publications, among them The New Yorker and the Los Angeles Times Magazine.
"The greatest open water swimmer." —Sports Illustrated