Would you say swim with fins or swim bare feet in the ocean?
Fins if you are in the ocean for sure.
I was curious to see what you’d recommend a 3,000m fin time to be at prior to Selection?
Your pace should be 2 min per 100m and I would recommend being able to swim 4000m. So it would be 4000m in 80 min.
Do you have any advice for improving your 500m - 1000m swim times?
One thing that helped me was alternating with hand paddles and fins. It really helps you feel what movements will help you propel yourself in the water. Also a big thing people miss is working on reducing your time on the wall during turns.
In any swimming event that isn't a fin, is there a particular stroke that is required? Will I be able to use CSS on the non finning swims?
When you have fins on you will do the Combat recovery stroke or lead arm trail arm swim. Without fins on, you will do freestyle unless you’re dragging a buddy or swimming underwater.