Open Water Swimming
Open water swimming is an activity in which people swim in outdoor bodies of water such as oceans, bays, lakes, rivers, canals, dams, reservoirs, lagoons, fjords, seas and lidos. It also include specialty types of swimming such as ice swimming, marathon swimming and wild swimming.

Equipment
No equipment is needed for open water swimming. Many choose to swim with a swim suit and goggles. A brightly colored swim cap is recommended to enhance visibility and may be required for some organized swimming events and races.

The use of wetsuits is growing in open water swimming, but swimmers with wetsuits are awarded separately from swimmers without wetsuits because the wetsuits provide a competitive advantage. This is due primarily to increased buoyancy and improved heat retention. Some open water swimmers, in fact, believe that wearing a wetsuit is contrary to the spirit of the sport. Some competitive open water swim events either do not allow the use of wetsuits, put wetsuit-clad swimmers in a separate category, or make swimmers ineligible for recognition and awards. The rules for this is often temperature dependent. Typically, a non-heat-retaining swimsuit, goggles, and swim cap constitute the complete swim garb for competitive open water swimming. Non-competitive open water swimmers will wear more or less garb according to their individual preferences and local custom.