Island to Island Tri

Response from the race director follows.  Many details are yet to be finalized.

"Thank you for your interest in the 1st Annual Island to Island Tri.  There have been a couple of items we've be working on that have delayed a prompt response back to interested parties.  The details are all very positive in nature and as you can imagine, closing down a federal shipping channel for even two hours takes a little extra effort!

First of all, we plan to have a registration site up by the end of December.  We will provide that web address as soon as the site is up and running.  The other developments are as follows:

We have decided to partner with the Jekyll Island Authority to stage the Island to Island Tri.  As you may know, the JIA's Turtle Crawl Tri is entering its 9th annual event this May and rather than compete head-to-head with them, we've decided that it makes more sense to work together in offering three race options on the same day.  

Due to this partnership, our dates will change to Saturday, May 21st, a date that is perfect in that we avoid summer heat and the tides are what we need.  Outside of theGolden Isles being a fantastic area to hold any event, much of the uniqueness of our event is the swim.  In order to have a successful swim from one island to the other, tides are extremely important.  The ideal tide, which we will have on the 21st, is an incoming tide, with a race beginning about an hour after dead low tide.  This allows a smooth swim off of Jekyll, then out into the channel where a swimmer will get significant assistance from the incoming high tide and current.  Dead low tide on the 21st is around 6 a.m. making a 7:30 race start ideal.  We've had two athletes who are regular tri participants do the swim for us under identical conditions and it took them 34 minutes.  Both reported significant help from the current upon entering the deeper channel waters

The JIA has asked that we tweak our distances slightly so as to not compete directly with one of their race options.  The Turtle Crawl has historically offered a sprint and Olympic race option.  Our final distances will likely be 1.2-1.3 miles for the swim (this distance is more or less set in stone), a 30-40 mile bike and an 7-9 mile run.  The Turtle Crawl has its own race director and we will have our own for the Island to Island.  We are in the process of interviewing prospective directors and will involve them in what the final distances end up being. 

It's important to note that the ONLY race option that will offer the Island to Island swim is ours.  The Turtle Crawl will still feature the swim out into the ocean and back.  Our race will be timed and USA Triathlon sanctioned.  As for limiting the number of race participants, we plan to keep the size of the Island to Island manageable but do not have a feel yet for what response will be.  The Turtle Crawl has grown to about 650 participants so we are unsure on how our new partnership will effect numbers but will keep everyone posted with regular updates as registration rolls in."

Thanks for posting the update.  I was going to email the organizer myself for more details. This should be a fun event.  I liked it when it was closer to the olympic distance but am still interested in the longer course. 

This looks pretty interesting..

I have spoken to the organizer who told me that they got Coast guard approval/clearence for the swim portion. He also can provide numerous details and answers questions readily. Look 'em up on tri find and he'll get back to you. I'm definitely in for this one as it's my home turf and I'd like to say I completed that swim