Great videoš
Hope you loved it as much as I didā¦ that climb up to 3600ft over just 13 miles is truly epic.
My last Ironman that I actually started back in 2014! (god itās been a while!) - loved the mass start.
First year back in triathlon this year since my last (Outlaw half) in 2016 which was also a mass start, so no doubt going to feel strange during the rolling starts this year. Canāt really comment as I havenāt experienced one but they definitely donāt look as exciting
I did Lanzarote this year Iām a slower swimmer aiming for 1.20 so started near the back. It was brutal until the first turn back to the beach. Getting kicked and swam over was no fun at all, in saying that I knew that was part of it and look back at it with some fear but also a sense of accomplishment.
Iām a very confident swimmer (not fast) and surfer and have dealt with some heavy heavy situations with hold downs at reef breaks but that swim at Lanza, yeah you can keep that!
I quite fancy doing Nice in the next year or two but the sea swim does put me off a bit. I only have one experience of a sea swim race and that was Dublin 70.3 and due to the taxi not turning up I was really late only just made it into the sea before the following wave. I got to swim largely on my own and it was great, although about half way around I remembered my timing chip was in one the transition bags. I found the Outlaw mass start (2017) much easier than the AG start last year in terms of aggro but did have an awful swim last year, unrelated to the biff.
I do think that if I decide to do Nice itās up to me to be prepared correctly.
The two experiences I have of a mass swim start over IM distance were both pretty good, mainly because of the design of the swim course. Both involved a long swim before the first turn buoy, so people had thinned out a bit before all hitting one small point in the water. IMCH last year had the staggered start and I found it a lot more stressful as a swim. A few people who were much slower had seeded themselves too far up, to give them as good a chance of making a time of day cut-off on the bike and IIRC the first turn was relatively close to the water entry point, so you had swimmers across the the course all funnelling into a narrow point very quickly;therefore a lot more biff. It was the most stressful un-enjoyable swim for me in all my triathlon starts, even including the sprint open water tris I have done in the past, which have been much more of a punch-up than the HIM and IM tris. The Alpe dā Huez short course tri was brutal, but again, the swim course was well designed with a wide start line that allowed people to find some space relatively quickly. I donāt look back and think that the staggered start detracted from the race experience, but my lack of swim training and open water practice in the run-up, sure did.
In terms of āsanatisingā IM, I think most peopleās viewpoint on here are quite skewed (at least the regular posters that I read). Most of you have many tris under your belt and a lot of experience of different races and situations. For the vast majority of people on an IM start line, whether seasoned age grouper or IMJ type, an IM is effectively a time trial over three events so the wave starts donāt, I think, detract from the personal racing element. If you are a KQ type athlete, then I would have thought they should have enough experience and race-savvy to seed themselves appropriately, to give themselves the best chance of getting into the top 2 or 3 in their age group.
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Lanza? Unless youāve done the Perranporth (extreme surf) Triathlon swim on a ābadā year; donāt even start 
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They arenāt comparable. Heavy surf and hold downs and reading the water are totally different to getting punched and kicked by 2000 angry swimmers.
In proper surf 8ft Aussie, (not this face height BS that the Pommies use) you are in control of your actions and mostly, the outcome. In the fist and feet fest of a mass IM start, much less so.
Giant surf doesnāt stop me sleeping, giant fists do.
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You can still get swum over in the canal if you have paced your swim poorlyā¦
Not all sea swims are equal, In the 70.3 worlds in Nice, I thought that the sea was lovely. Even though it was non wetsuit, still a really nice swim, pretty calm, nice clear, warm water.
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Cāest la vie 
Ah yes, but most of us donāt have your Kelly Slater like skills 
Heās got no hair, Iāve got no hair, weāve both shagged Pamela Anderson, thatās where the similarities end.
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Advice on this thread will shortly read: wash your hands, donāt race in China or SE Asia.
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or London judging by todayās news
or anywhere if youāre currently on a (big) boat!
When I qualified for the 1/2 IM worlds many year ago, they had split the start into 2, I canāt exactly remember the split, (I assume > 40AG given the year I qualified), but I was in the 2nd one.
My strength is my run and the race was at Exmoor where the the run route can seriously blocked up and I needed every second. Thankfully they sent an email later and allowed anyone who wanted to āraceā in the 2nd wave could apply to move upā¦ I did, I remember only being overtaken by 1 guy in my AG on the bike and I reeled him in on the run, but he still beat me overall as clearly he had not moved up. Everyone else in my AG who qualified had moved up to the first wave.
That worked really well from my experience, similar to what H is suggesting.
(FWIW, that was one of my greatest ever runs, 7th fastest run on the day! (no proās that year) that would never happened it I had been stuck in wave 2)
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