The Eyeline 1000 Ocean swim is held off Noosa’s main beach, in Laguna Bay. The bay is open to the North – North-East, which appears to be the prevalent wind direction at this time of year. On the following satellite image, I’ve marked an approximation of the “M” shaped 1000m course (in orange):
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The 1500m Noosa Triathlon swim course (in red) is held in a sheltered, salt water canal, just behind the main beach. It is a deep water start, rather than a run-in from the Lion’s Park beach. The center of the canal has pretty good depth. Although a ‘no-no’ it is common to see some age-groupers trying to run along the shallow sides. Well before the start of the triathon Sunday, I walked over to the bridge at the 300m mark. From there I could see a small ray (~ 1m tail) resting in the shallows. Hopefully it made an escape before the thousands of swimmers churned by its peaceful spot.