Chapter 1 Living on Planet Water

Subsequent chapters will be posted at the Discussion Forum, a new chapter every other day, until the entire book is posted.

At 5:30 on a cool June morning, with the sun still below the trees, my swim buddy Dave Barra and I wade into what is our "pool" from early June through late October, a mountaintop lake in upstate New York. Unlike most mountain lakes this one has an aqua tint and clarity reminiscent of tropic seas, but a temperature range familiar to anyone who has swum in "north country" fresh water. Fortunately, this lake is accessible only via a challenging, 4-mile uphill mountain bike trek making our first dip in the bracingly cold water completely welcome.

As we stroke a mile to the far end past evergreens, mountain laurel, and rock formations, we synchronize our strokes and swim noiselessly to avoid disrupting the predawn peace. An observer watching from a nearby high bluff would see our wake spreading unbroken to each shore. About halfway down the lake, the sun breaks over the treeline behind us enveloping us in a golden glow. Upon reaching the far end, we pause, treading water for several minutes silently contemplating our surroundings, before swimming back to where we started.

Six months later, at 6:30 on a December morning, I set off across mile-wide High Rock Bay on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas accompanied by Dave, Greg Sautner, Willie Miller and Justin Dimmel (all featured on the Outside the Box DVD). As we swim south, catching a glimpse of the rising sun each time we breathe left, we match strokes, concentrating so intently on synchronizing stroke length and rate that a mile passes before we know it. As we return, hugging the steep rock walls that line the bay, we relax our formation, so rapt are we over the coral reef and marine life – including rays, barracuda and the occasional nurse shark – 12 feet below.

My good friend, and TI enthusiast, Steve Leveen (co-founder, with his wife Lori, of Levenger, Inc.) recently said he finds it ironic that we refer to Planet Earth when 70 percent is water. "Shouldn’t we call it Planet Water?" he asked. And so we will, at least within Total Immersion. This book is dedicated to the idea of fully inhabiting Planet Water, via the knowledge, skill and confidence to explore and enjoy the best of its wet parts.

As an inhabitant of Planet Water, I’ve swum in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, the Caribbean Sea and countless ponds, lakes, sounds, bays and rivers. I’ve swum in that mountain lake at dawn and by the light of a full moon. On two occasions I’ve swum completely around Manhattan Island – 28.5 miles, under the iconic Brooklyn Bridge and 12 other spans, through three rivers (East, Harlem and Hudson), past South Street Seaport, the Empire State Building, and Yankee Stadium (as well as a huge sewage treatment plant on the West Side that handles the effluent produced by the 1.6 million living on that island) and through both Hell Gate – rumored to swallow small boats in its vortexes – and Spuyten Duyvil (Dutch for "spittin’ devil) and past hundreds, perhaps thousands, of curious onlookers, many of whom no doubt considered me crazy.

I’ve swum solo on occasion but far more often with friends, sometimes just enjoying the pleasure of each other’s company, often "cooperating" in various ways — swimming inches apart side-by-side or in single file, matching stroke rates or swimming in a pass-the-leader paceline. Often, we’re rehearsing tactics for open water races, but our far greater motivation is that the skill and concentration required to do these well makes this the most pleasurable swimming any of us can imagine.

And then there are the races themselves. Many who read this book or study the video it has been written to complement will be interested mainly in improving your performance in races, but the most rewarding outcome – as it has been for me — will be to increase your enjoyment of races. In the pool, you swim against the clock. In open water, you swim the course, the conditions and the competition, and it takes all your resourcefulness and focus to do that well.