Open water swim dizziness

OM13

As soon as I find myself in open water, lake or sea, if I cannot see well in the water, I get extremely dizzy. Surprisingly, it's fine if the water is crystal clear like in Greece for example and I can see clearly. As soon as I find myself in "black" water, I feel unwell to the point where I have to stop. I recently had to seat still for 2mns coming out of a sprint swim to regain my balance, couldn't walk straight in T1.

Anyone with the same problem  ? Heard of a solution ?

Devine1

I read somewhere that wearing silicone ear plugs stops the dizziness..... After experiencing the mentioned dizzy spells I started wearing them and haven't looked back since

Ginger Triathlete

I had the same problem when I started OW swimming at the start of this season. For me, it was because I didn't have a reference point to look at (like the black line at the bottom of the pool), so everytime I took a breath, my brain treated it like motion sickness (or being drunk!) I'm a reasonably competent swimmer, regularly swimming 2.5km+ in a pool, but it was that bad, I got out after 400m! The only thing that worked, was getting in and doing more OW swimming, so my brain became used to it.

Hope you find a solution soon

James8011

Try pool sessions with translucent tape in your goggles  

or closing your eyes in the water... sounds daft but works.

Matthew Kelly

Earplugs work for me !