Dears
I am planning on partecipate in a triathlon but I never experienced open water swimming before (I can swim in a deep swimming pool but with some anxiety).
Do you know where I can find a place to train my open water swimming (lake, river) in taipei?
Thanks
As far as I know there’s no such place in Taipei. The closest one is a lake in Taidong (probably the same one where triathlon will take place), but someone else here may know a secret place that I’m not aware of.
My suggestion for your is to keep practicing in the swimming pool and plan a couple of weekends to go to Taidong for real practice.
thanks Ricarte
do you think is safe to swim by myself in Taidong the first time ?
as mentioned So far I can barely swim in a deep swimming pool but with some anxiety (e.g. if I don’t wim in the lane close to the wall I tend to freak out)
thanks
newdealer,
I got the pm but I’ll answer here in case this info can help others.
I know of only one decent location to practice open-water swimming in the Taipei area. It’s at the bottom of Xiwan Road (in a river). This place is great to combine open-water swimming with a bike ride up the mountain, but it would be really hard to explain how to get there in words. @ranlee, can you help out (it’s the place where the big tea cup is)?
You mentioned triathlons in the pm. This is my third year of triathlons and I have been able to manage with practice in pools. I’ve even done the swim for the full distance tri (3.8k) so I know it can be done with pool practice.
You can practice sighting techniques in a pool (check YouTube for many good instructional videos) and then just go for it on race day.
If anxiety when swimming outdoors or even in a deep pool is a big issue, I would put off a triathlon until you feel a bit more confident. Or you can bring one of those torpedo buoys with you on the swim. Many races in Taiwan allow that.
I can help you with some things, such as picking a good race. Just pm me if you need help with this. And if you have a bike, maybe you could join me and others for a swim + bike ride when the weather gets warmer. Again feel free to pm me.
I was going to answer, but @marasan already covered everything I was going to say and more!
Great tips! 
Ricarte, It’s my pleasure. Actually, I need to watch myself and make sure I don’t spend too much thinking about these things, and instead focus on work. So hard to do when I could be thinking about swimming and triathlons and cycling up Xiwan Road, and the beer that follows!
Here’s the Google maps location: https://goo.gl/maps/st4ZzQ2Kens
If you do not have your own means of transportation (scooter/car), the location can be a little difficult to get to.
There’s a bus stop there with the only bus line stopping there as F910, but not sure where that’s coming from and Google maps says it’s going to take you a little under two hours to get to if you are traveling from Xi Ke train station.
If you don’t have a scooter/car and planning on training for a triathlon, you have or will buy a bike, correct? You can consider the option of riding your bike there. If you’re traveling from anywhere in Taipei City, the location is relatively easy to navigate.
If you give me an idea of your location, I can give you the most direct route with least amount of traffic.
I’m not swimmer, but when it comes to overcoming your fears, admitting your fears is the first and a big step, so good job on sharing that. Nothing to be ashamed of!
I highly suggest you take up marasan’s offer in helping you train. Having someone to train with and to be your safety net is not something to be ashamed of. Doesn’t hurt that he’s a nice guy and has a swimming prowess of a dolphin 
Ha, ha! Thanks for the directional help and for your compliment. And I agree that it’s nothing to be ashamed of. I would say a good 90% of people trying to get involved in triathlons struggle with this aspect of the sport, swimming, that is. Fear is common. Being slow is also very common. But so many people do it and even end up excelling.
Dear Marasan adn Ranlee…thanks a lot for your suggestions!
At this point …let me spend more time in the pool and hopefully I will come back and join you for a swim!!!
thanks!
Don’t let the swim stop you. I didn’t mean to discourage you, but I think at least fear when in a swimming pool should be mostly gone before doing a triathlon. Again, this is the discipline most people struggle with so know that you will be swimming with many others in a race that are struggling. And you can do a race with one of those torpedo buoys. Most races allow this in Taiwan. You might have to line up at the end, but at least your worry will mostly be gone. And then you can kick some butt in the run and/or cycling.
Dear Friends
thanks again and…to better explain where I am right now…
My fear went beyond buying only a torpedo buoy…I also bought a Tri-Aids Swim Safe (basically a belt with C02 cartridge that inflate a life vest…just in case)…
I am working on my fear right now in the swimming pool…I can swim 80% relaxed on the 2.6m deep size pool…50% relaxed on the 5m deep size pool…in the lane close to the wall
on lane 7 (or 2) I can barely swim one leg with hearth rate at 220…often stopping at 25m paralized adn looking for my coach…
I am Working with a coach on this…I did great progress since when I started (at that time I could not even imagine to go in a pool deeper than 1.50m)…but as you can see I am not still there adn I am surprised to see how slow are the progresses…
The funny thing is that in a 1.60m pool I can swim 2Km (or more if I dont fell asleep… without stopping and w/o problems…so the problem is only in my mind right now…
Back to my nightmare now…the 5m pool …
You must be swimming at Songshan with their 5m pool. I’m glad you know about that Swim Safe device.
Good news:
a) You’re doing the right thing with your fear- tackling it head-on.
b) The river I mention is basically a 60m pool and probably only around 2-2.5m deep.
c) The best venue for triathlon races in Taiwan is in Taidong and the lake is basically a big pool. You can even go to the far right on your swim and have a step about 1.3m down.
Keep practicing and good luck!
Wow…exactly…Songshan pool…you are a real expert…!
So…I abuse your knowledge to ask you an additional question ( 
):
I have heard indeed that on the edge of the Taidong lake the water is pretty shallow but…is it possible to swim the whole leg (1.5Km or 0.75Km depending on the distance) always staying in the shallow water area?
basically: do you think I can make it right now a Triathlon in Taitong (there is oen coming up on April 30 and I am fully trained on biking 40K and run 10K) in my conditions or do you think it’s still too dangerous ?
Thanks again!
You can start at the right, but then you need to cut across the lake to come back. The lake is around 50m wide. You could move all the way to the right after you make the turn at the buoy. So you sart the swim all the way to the right and swim 750m. Start cutting across at the end to the other side. Swim 750m all the way back to the end.
Am I making sense? Even in the middle, the lake is only about 2.5m deep (maybe even a bit less). You can see the bottom (and some fish). It’s a man-made lake.
Can you do it? I think you can, but you are the best judge.
Here’s the lake.
That seems like it’s longer than you describe…
I have never competed and I my intent is not to intimidate newdealer, but do race organizers do something about the mass of people jumping in the water at the start? Seems like you would be on top of each other going into the “pool”.
Well, 1500m is quite a long swim. I still freak out almost every time when I see the course.
The traditional way to do a triathlon is to have that mass of people at the beginning. It’s literally a fight at the very front.
These days, more and more races are changing this. You line up in groups separated by your expected swim completion. And then you have a rolling start, involving 4 or swimmers starting every few seconds (five or so). It works out really well, especially if people don’t lie about their expected swim completion time.
I wish all cycling races did this. Being stuck around people who are either too fast or too slow hinders your finish time.
You are absolutely right…I will think it over during the weekend…that 50m are the ones who scares me the most…
keep you posted and thanks again!
I might do this one in Taidong in September:
There are three distances. Let me know if you’ll be there and we can have a drink together the night before to calm our nerves!