This weekend has some hot weather approaching.
Id like to swim at the beach - elwood, st kilda, brighton etc.. i was just wondering which beach around these areas is the best in terms of cleaness, or safeness..sharks !! just heart about the 200kg shark found in rosebud!! scary !!
When i am there - should i just keep swimming the same pace accross the bay along the shore??
or does anyone have any sessions or drills etc..you can do in the ocean. I am training for triathlon swimming distance 500m - 800m

THANKS !!

i live in bendigo but i love swimming down in the mornigton beach ,,the second one around ,,clean ,,good gradient out ,,semi sheltered ,,not real busy ,,is some poles to swim out to ,,i love rye beach too but that is a fair drive for a swim

I love those 2 beaches as well, but too far to travel for me... im looking for the best part of the beach around brighton..st kilda..elwood... area :)

Not sure about any swim training tips sorry. Would Mentone be too far for you? I have just been looking at Surf Life Saving Clubs for my daughter to join and Mentone beach just seems that bit fresher. Otherwise I also don't mind Sandringham (a bit closer to St Kilda) but in my hey day (prior to kids) I spent a lot of time at Elwood. Always too scared of what i might find in St Kilda.... (even though I lived there)

Mentone beach (my front garden) is great - clean most of the time, very shallow sloping, never too busy in comparison to some of the closer to city beaches.

You can water quality reports from the EPA for vic beaches here. Just go to the "check your beach" section.

hi runhappy123,

I am training for this kind of ocean swimming distance as well....I just did the Sandringham Tri and found the ocean there quite good.. Much cleaner than St Kilda, I think anyway.

Not sure of what drills you should do - I would like to know too - I came 46 out out 92 in my age category for the swim but then ended up coming 2nd by the end of the race.......so you can see that my swimming is really letting me down !! That was my 2nd EVER ocean swim however, so just having the confidence to swim freestyle and not panic was my goal.

Good luck with the training and let me know what beaches you find good!!

Just been on the website recommended above.
I dont understand the water bacteria readings, is 10 a clean measurement? or are higher readings what we're looking for.
Ive just been looking at the simple ratings of water cleaness.

Port Melbourne: fair
Middle Park(before you reach st kilda): good
St Kilda: fair
Elwood: good
Brighton: Good

Which beach is the best?? and does anyone have some good ocean swimming sessions !?!? :unsure:

runhappy 123,

from the EPA website;

Good Water quality is expected to be suitable for swimming.
Fair Water quality is expected to be generally suitable for swimming but may be affected by stormwater.
Poor Not recommended for swimming.
Unacceptable A no swim advisory has been issued for this beach.

The less bacteria the better :) in general don't go swimming the day after heavy rain.
If all else fails, let your nose make the decision for you.

Hi

I find Mordialloc the best place to do open water repeats.

Jump from the pier and swim to shore walk
back along the pier and repeat.

You can also combine it with run along the beach
then repeat

Swim is just approx 150-200m

Can't go past Half Moon Bay at Black Rock. Specialist open water training is available on Monday and Wednesday nights and early Friday mornings

black rock training sounds a good idea..is this training program free?if not, how much does it cost.
is it run by a triathlon club..if so who runs it?
what kind of sessions do they do?

thanks!!

What are Brighton Baths like?? is that part of the ocean completely closed off?

Also does anyone know the total distance of the baths

thanks everyone for the help..any training tips would be great !! :)

I think they are approx 200m x 100m wide

so if you swim out on one side across at the

ocean end and back in you have a 500m swim.

They also hold an Aquathon there on a Wednesday

night with varying distances

eg 500m swim 5km run

or 300 swim 3km run 300m 3km run

these are a lot of fun but this year the

price went up to enter. I think insurance

might have had something to do with it

They are now $30 entry medals and prizes

They used to be about half that last year.

Not every Wednesday but I think there are

still 3 or 4 races left.

I can give you more details or go to

www.trivic.org.au

and the aquathon series is called the

Splash n dash

I like Sth Melbourne beach for training for a couple of reasons:
a) it's the closest beach for those of us north of the Yarra
b) it's a good couple of hundred metres from Sth Melb SLSC to the pier so a couple of laps is a good training swim
c) there are bouys there so you can practice sighting the turn points
d) there is a kids playground so my daughter can play while my wife watches and I swim, then we can swap while my wife goes for a walk.
e) best of all, if I ge there before 10am I usually have the place pretty much to myself.

Black rock /half moon bay is my favourite too. You can swim out the the wreck of the cerberus (ship wreck) - its a couple of hundred metres out. It ususally pretty calm / flat there too.

Their are a couple of non organised groups who use the half Moon Bay Area. Squads with John Van Wisse are $6 [I think]. Good sessions to do are sprints between the boating markers

I'm pretty sure that Brighton Sea Baths are still closed at the moment.

runhappy....just curious....did you find a club or people to do your ocean training swimming?

Where? When?