Swimming the Kona Ironman Route

One of our favorite places to swim in Kona Hawaii is off the Kona Kailua pier. The small beach on the south side of the pier is the starting place of the annual Kona World Ironman Championships. Because of the popularity of the Ironman race and the year-round athletes that train in the Kona area, the route is usually crowded with athletes doing their daily workouts from the beach to the buoys and back.

The route is marked with buoys along the way so you can follow them for a short or long distance swim. The buoys are known locally and named for their round trip distances, so the 1/4 mile buoy is really only 1/8th a mile from the beach. There is a string of small buoys close to shore attached by a rope line from the beach to the 1/4 mile buoy (located 1/8th of mile from the beach). It is best to stay on the shore side of the rope line to avoid the boats using the pier to load and unload passengers to the Kona submarine, para-sail, and cruise ships.

After the 1/4 mile buoy, there is a 1/2 mile buoy, which is in front of the Kona Inn restaurant.

Currently the 3/4 mile buoy is missing, so the next one is the 1.2 mile buoy which is located in front of the Kona Resort. The swim to this buoy and back to the beach is 1.2 miles. You can’t see the 1.2 mile buoy from the 1/4 mile buoy, so if you want to swim to it, head towards the Kona Resort, making sure not to get too close to lava shoreline. The 1.2 mile buoy is the half-way mark of the Iron man swim. Beyond the 1.2 mile buoy there is an unmarked white buoy at the 2.4 mile mark (the turn-around point for the Ironman's 2.4 mile swim portion of the race), but we have yet to swim out that far to confirm it.

Since we aren’t hard-core swimmers, we snorkel along the route to take in the colorful reef fish below the swimmers. There is a turtle that hangs out at the 1/4 mile buoy. If you are lucky you will run into a pod of dolphins playing with the swimmers or schools of colorful fish. Depending upon when you go, you may see water aerobic groups, scuba divers, standup paddlers, kayaks, and of course swimmers blasting past at Olympic speeds.

If the Ironman route seems daunting, you can snorkel on the other side of the Kailua pier, in front of the King Kamehameha Kona Beach Hotel. There is a larger beach and calm cove with great snorkeling at the mouth of the cove next to the Ahu’ena Heiau (temple) across from the pier. We prefer this area when we are with kids, non-swimmers, or if the surf is too rough for us to feel comfortable snorkeling the Ironman route.

There are no lifeguards at the beach, so look up frequently to make sure you aren’t getting to close to the shore or heading out to sea toward an oncoming boat, jetski, paddler, or fast moving swimmer. Getting too close to shore could result in crashing against treacherous black lava. If you aren’t up to the swim, you can still enjoy the scene from the Kailua Kona seawall above the  beach.

Kailua Kona pier is located on Ali'i Drive in front of the King Kamehamameha Kona Beach Hotel. You can park for a fee at the hotel or behind Ali'i Drive at one of the public parking areas.