A Window Of Opportunity In The Open Water World

What is a window of opportunity?

It a brief time period in which an opportunity exists – or will be missed. With all the various dynamic elements in any open body of water, a swimmer’s window is also a critical time frame that opens and shuts as fate – and winds – would have it.

A window is a period of time that an open water swimmer plans ahead of time in order to start a marathon swim or channel swim attempt. A window is typically longer than one day and can be as long as several weeks depending on the body of water and conditions.

Harry Huffaker patiently waited months to tackle the first attempts at the 30-mile Alenuihaha Channel between the Big Island of Hawaii and Maui in 1970. Others wait patiently and anxiously for their slots from the English Channel to the Tsugaru Channel.

A window is used in order to allow the swimmer to avoid difficult or impossible conditions due to weather or other unexpected phenomena (e.g., lightning, storms, winds, sewage breaks, political upheavals, or legal issues).

Copyright © 2013 by World Open Water Swimming Association