Tassie - A Devil of a Swim

 Shane Gould (Aussie swimming legend who once held the world record for every freestyle distance from 50m to 1500m) has set up “The Devil of a Swim” in her hometown of Bicheno on the east coast of Tassie. This year the format had changed slightly so you could do both the 5km and the 2km swims. Training bud Liam and I headed down to take on the frosty Tassie waters and rack up some kms whilst we were at it. Also Tassie was the only state in Australia I hadn’t done an ocean swim in. Gotta keep ticking items off the Bucket List.

Tassie is completely stunning and we both had a great weekend, both swimming and sightseeing. Highlights including Salamanca markets, Freycinet national park, swimming in Wineglass Bay and the Devil of a Swim.

Salamanca Markets        

                              

The water in Tassie is of a completely different character and hue. It’s as clear and blue as tropical water whilst being quite the cold. We were coming off 21 -22 degrees and were prepared for 19. It turned out to be 17. We hiked down into Wineglass Bay (past a snake – Liam was not impressed) and swam in one of the more stunning locations on earth. We had the whole bay to ourselves. Just amazing. The shore dump was not to be underestimated though and it completely took me out when I was too busy taking photos to pay attention. After swimming 1km we both decided that we’d have to don wetsuits for the 5km swim.

Wineglass Bay – complete with shoredump

We hiked back out and headed to Bicheno. Where of course, we found ourselves seated next to friends of Shane Gould. We would then run into one of them the next day in Hobart. The scale of Tassie is simply delightful.

Some of the pre-race registration had been a little bumpy but the on the day organisation was absolutely perfect. The whole town gets behind this swim and Bicheno SLSC were just wonderful. They run nipper operations and are the base for the ocean swimming community in Bicheno that Shane has pretty much created from scratch. They swim year round. Without hot showers. Legends.

The devil of a swim highlights the plight of the endangered marsupial Tasmanian Devil and remembering the aboriginal heroine Waubadebar.To quote Shane: The name “Waubs” is an abbreviation of “Waubadebar” a female aborigine with an heroic and tragic life. She was probably from a band of the Oyster Bay (Paredarerme) tribe living nearby.

 A strong swimmer, she saved two white men from drowning by swimming them to shore one by one, when their boat was smashed against the rocks during a storm. It was rare for any honour such as a place name to be bestowed on an aborigine.Her grave is located at the back of the Lions Park, near the Silver Sands Hotel. The headstone reads “Here lies - Waubadebar a female aborigine of Van Diemen’s land, died June 1832, aged 40 years.” She died in a boat off the coast whilst travelling towards the Furneaux Group of islands and her body was brought ashore and buried. John Allen, an early settler, in his notebook, dated 24th June 1840, mentions “Waubs Harbour”. Sufficient was thought of her memory for the local settlers in 1855 to contribute funds to erect a headstone.

 The Devil of a Swim is in honour and memory of Waubedebar, as I presume her rescue effort was 'a devil of a swim'.

Paddler

Bicheno (L) and Penguins (R)

 Sandbar Checkpoint

It’s out from Waubs beach, around Diamond Island, onto the sand bar where you have your name marked off and then 2km back to the beach. It’s completely, totally, utterly stunning. I lack the vocabulary to do it justice. Thank goodness for photos.

I’m always in it to complete not to compete. So I was having a whale of time, taking photos, absorbing the scenery, admiring the penguins, coming last and yet still setting a 5km PB. Must have been the despised wettie.

Which I happily stripped out of for the 2km swim. Liam and I were the only ones who swam without a wetsuit in either the 1 or 2km. Everyone thought we were nuts. Given we both came down sick the following week they may have had a point. But the water temperature was totally bearable and the clarity made it thoroughly enjoyable. I really enjoyed the two lap course and was feeling very comfortable with this stretch of coast and it’s incredibly flat water.

Non wettie 'nutters'

The awards ceremony was a very friendly affair. The winner of the 5km did it in just over an hour despite a solid night on the turps the previous evening. Thank goodness for the rest of us he was at a disadvantage. The female winner had just swum 15km to raise funds for coastcare. Amazing!

Headed back to Hobart for adventures at MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) and atop the blustery and cold Mt Wellington. Will definitely be back for more Tassie swimming adventures!

SWOG mark 2

I started this SWOG (swimming blog) to chart my conquering of my greatest fear (open water swimming). I still get bloody terrified on occasion but it no longer paralyses me, or brings on panic attacks.

I’m starting it again because I’m starting to do some long distance swims and one of the most useful things I come across in preparing for these races are other swimmers’ accounts and thought others might find mine similarly useful.

So a little about me:

•          Started swimming at 18 months. I have a certificate for swimming 1.2m under water. It was kind of a big deal.
•          Sometime around 2007 I started struggling to put my face in the water when swimming in open water.
•          2008 I had my first full blown panic attack swimming the swim leg of a sprint triathlon in Sydney Harbour. I couldn’t breathe. I swam the whole 400m without putting my face in the water. I used to have swimming lessons at Greenwich baths, not 2km as the crow flies. Fear is completely, totally and utterly irrational and illogical. And must be tackled head on.
•          So I joined the amazing Can Too. I tackled those fears again and again and again. I learned to love ocean swimming. I became addicted.
•          With Can Too I completed the 2010 2.7km Palm to Whale swim and set my sights on a 5km ocean swim and becoming a Bondi Surf Lifesaver. Eventually I got there.
•          I’m really, really slow but very steady.
•          I’ve done 5 Can Too swim programs,1 run program raised $10,000 and most importantly, returned the favour and helped others get through the break and learn to breathe out underwater.
•          I tried swimming from Bondi Beach to Watson’s Bay (about 11km on a good day) through the heads of Sydney Harbour and was thwarted by the currents.

Bring on Rottnest

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Narranderra 10km swim.

On the road to Gundagai

The big one. 10km. 5 x 2km laps up and back of Lake Talbot – a flooded creek outside of Narrandera. Bondi to Watson’s is nominally list as a 10km – but I don’t know anyone who has recorded that distance. (I understand there are insurance implications for owning the actual distance)  Nonetheless great to get an official 10km swim under my belt.

There are exactly  4 x 10km swims in the entirety of NSW across the entire open water swimming season (October – May). Only of one which gets a featured spot on oceanswims.com (Bondi to Watson’s). One is an obscure Penrith swim in November that clashes with a featured 5km (Umina), one is the Vladswim organised laps of Balmoral at Christmas (both of which clash with Can Too) and the other is Narrandera. A tiny town an hour to the west of Wagga Wagga.

Having said that, demand for these swims isn’t exactly huge either. Despite there being no boat or paddler requirement (the swim provided paddlers for you) there were exactly 5 swimmers doing the swim. 4 from Sydney and 1 from Dubbo. The race organisers knew our names, ages, and everything was exceptionally well organised.

We were paired with paddlers, who set up our feeds (feeds!! luxury!), herded down the astroturf lined steps into Lake Talbot to start bang on 9am.

Wollongong Swim

First lap, everything feels tight and I realise I’m in trouble having gone out too hard at  the 1km Wollongong swim last night.

I become obsessed with trying to get my stroke perfect which for me means:

• breathing every 3 strokes
• breathing into the “bow wave” meaning neither my goggles nor my mouth emerge more than halfway from the water
• head positioning whilst in the water (look down),
• –rotation, rotation, rotation
• a full extension with proper hand entry in the 4 o’clock position (my right hand does some kind of flamboyant wiggly thing upon entry)
• –proper catch – as though your arm was going over a barrel
• –fluttering kick (I have a fairly kick driven stroke, ordinarily long distance swimmers aim for a 2 beat kick but I think I’m a little faster – not necessarily a good thing)
• –engage core (crucial in flat, fresh water) to ensure buoyancy (your arse should be in the air, wiggling around like it just don’t care) and reduce the drag of your legs.

Needless to say, on occasion, this all went to crap. But this is what keeps me occupied for most of the long swims. Chloe McCardel, legend long distance swimmer whom I met at a university debating tournament in 2004 when I printed her swim schedule for her, was once asked what she thinks about when swimming. Music? World Peace? She replied she’s too busy thinking about her stroke. What her head, arms, body and legs are doing. That endlessly repeating check list is absolutely the best way to pass the time.

Despite everything being tight from the get go, it never descends into pain and on occasion it actually feels good.

The water is more transparent than Cohuna last week but I still can’t see my Garmin in the water so I’m reliant on my distance alarm to tell me when to feed. I feed every 1.5km. Ordinarily you’d grab your bottle, roll onto your back, take a few sips and swim on. The lake is so short you can stand for feeds. It takes me about 4 goes to work this out. Not exactly Channel rules.

I change paddlers 3 times over the course of the 3:52 it takes me to swim 10km. Each time they are just so encouraging and lovely. They’ve never met me and volunteer to support the town’s Riverina Rush sports festival. Amazing.

Round and round we go. Luckily the lake is surrounding by beautiful bushland which gives you lots to look at. Sighting is incredibly easy in the flat water and with the rainbow umbrellas of the pool complex behind the buoys at the far end staying on track is pretty easy.

On the third lap I am lapped by the leader, who turns out to be the only other female in the field. What a great way to celebrate International Womens Day! She later tells me I looked more relaxed than any other swimmer she’s ever seen. Out for the equivalent of a Sunday stroll / swim.

This is a good thing.

By 7km I’m yet again, feeling fine and stronger than throughout the race so I start putting the hammer down. The entire 8km up to the turning buoy I inch towards the next swimmer ahead of me. He swims incredibly wide (my coaches were all in my head emphasising the importance of sighting and being thoroughly vindicated) whilst I swim straight as an arrow. He stops to feed at 9km (having only fed twice in the race). The best advice I have received is feed early, feed often. Those feeds you don’t feel you need in the early stages really pay dividends towards the end. So I skip my feed. He again swims wide and I catch him, with a 20m buffer as he needs to straighten up. And I fly home.

I struggle to stand up on the steps though. 10km is a bloody hard slog!

Presentation ceremony. I get to stand on a dias! Who saw that coming? And then there was a lot of watersliding at the super cool waterslides of the Lake Talbot Pool Complex. 

 Bonnet Breakfast of Champions!

We backed it up with the Broulee swims the next day. Awesome swims and awesome road trip!

Melbourne Madness!

First time out for this new, privately run swim at St Kilda. 5km followed by a 1.2km. Luckily for me it was disorganised chaos as my flight ran late. Floyd is a swimmer and promoter and suffers a rare blood condition so organised a swim to raise funds for Royal Children’s Hospital.

That is not nearly as easy as I might have made it sound and the whole thing ran horrendously late but everyone's attitude was to be admired.

The 5km was 4 x 1.25km laps around St Kilda Bay which was a gorgeous 20 degrees but wetsuits were the order of the day – and I followed the trend. It ended up being about 5.6km as one of the turning buoys was so close to shore it had to be moved as we were all stroking the sand as we swam by. Some amazing views, the far industrial shore of Port Phillip Bay. Luna Park. St Kilda “surf” club, the beautiful pier and the long beach. Love a good view.

I was very, very ready to finish and finish last.  Hopped out and the race organiser offers 400m entry. So off I go again. Had a rubbish start. But a great hit out between the 5km and 1200m. And wonderful swimming without the wuss suit!

Very high knees required for the very long sand bank

Yet another lap for the 1200m. Had a cracking race. Thoroughly startled by the fly board (you know the water propelled pack James Bond uses in Thunderball – yeah that) which makes the weirdest sound through the water.

The photographer took a photo of a twist in my strap rather than tell me ... 

Finally finished an hour and half after anticipated and head to Echuca for the evening.

up early for the Cohuna (another hour’s drive) Bridge to Bridge.

This swim has been running for 21 years down Gunbower Creek (an offshoot of the Murray River). It starts at one bridge and finishes at the main bridge in town 8km later.

The current is an unbelievably huge advantage in this swim. I was incredibly stoked to finish the Cole Classic 9km in 2:51. So you can imagine how incredibly excited I was to finish this swim in 2:22.

Swimming down a river is a delightful, peaceful experience with ever changing scenery and unusual challenges for an ocean swimmer. Fresh water so no buoyancy. Every single swimmer bar 2 wore a wet suit to cope with this. So, yet again, I did too. 

One of the things I love about swimming is how little kit is required. Goggles, cap, cossie. Sorted. Not so as you progress but I digress.

Sighting an endlessly shifting water course is totally different to sighting a headland or a buoy. Luckily, for the entire swim I had a lovely swimmer, Lauren, within sight and her dad paddled just behind her making a relatively easy mark. Swimming over submerged logs made for a fun obstacle course.

But the hardest thing was the opacity of the water. I wear my beloved Garmin 910XT in almost every swim. It was my birthday present to myself last year when I did the Can Too run program. It’s a cracker of a GPS watch, and the most accurate swim watch going (according to the experts at 4Seasons). It does loose satellite reception disturbingly often but when the water is so murky you can’t see your hand in front of your face it doesn’t really matter. I really had no idea how much you sight  using underwater markers. Very discombobulating.

As I said, swam the whole way with Lauren in sight, finally caught her at the 1km mark and we spurred each other to sprint to the finish (which was a boat floating next to the bridge).

So lovely to have company. And not only that, we weren’t last! Second and third females overall.

Such a wonderful way to see a whole new part of the country. Super friendly country hospitality – everyone was delighted we’d come from Sydney. Not to mention the Devonshire tea!

We returned to Melbourne via wineries. One of which was literally out of wine, but very pretty 

nontheless. 

9km Cole Classic

So, as soon I got back to Sydney I started thinking about the 9km Cole Classic swim from Dee Why to Manly. This seemed out of reach for two reasons:

(1)   It requires you to have a support vessel (motorised boat of more than 3.8m); and

(2)   The entry form makes it appear as though you have to have done a 10km open water swim or a timed 10km pool swim;

neither of which seemed obtainable.

Whilst I had trained adequately for the double 5km swim I hadn’t trained adequately for the 9km. So I put the idea to one side. Until fates came a knockin’. Do not try this at home!

The 9km had been called off twice last year. They were keen for swimmers. So the organisers called Nick who had entered last year and let him know that swimmers of the same pace were now allowed to share a boat. Enter Fyso.

It turned out our previous 5km swims were enough to get us entered and SJ and husband Matt came to our rescue with the boat. I was keen to have a crack at the solo, but we had the option to convert to the duo if our respective injuries came to the fore.

Race day dawned utterly perfectly. Full of nervous excitement Fyso and I headed to Dee Why and meet fellow 4season swimmers Pete and Nick. Seriously great company on the start line.

Race start for 9km is a very slow affair. Normally everyone attacks the water as hard as possible. But for 9km everyone is conserving energy so only the young guns aiming for a place go hard. We head to the first buoy to meet our boat. No boat. We wait 10 minutes and then head to the second buoy off Long Reef. No boat. We hang with the jet ski and prepare to be told we have to swim in as it’s a strict race rule you have to have a boat. Somehow, miraculously, another boat comes to our rescue and agrees to crew us. At this point we’re 15 minutes behind the peloton and were already the slowest swimmers so the course sweeper can both crew us and pick up the buoys as we pass.

We are unbelievably stoked at our incredible luck but about another 1km in we realise this means no duo option and swimming 9km without any of our carefully planned hydration / nutrition.

Recalling Coach Kingy’s stern “HTFU” whenever I stood at the side of icebergs in the pre-dawn winter gloom I dug in for the long haul.

And what a haul it was. The water was glorious, the view stupendous, the real estate verging on the obscene as it verged onto the cliffs of the northern beaches. We cleared the Curl Curl buoy (half way) at about 1.5 hours and were between Curl Curl and Freshie when I realised we were flying not just swimming. The currents and tides were all in our favour. Our best case scenario was finishing at 11:09. (21 mins / km). The best case scenario was fast becoming a worst case scenario.

Come into the Freshwater buoy Fyso takes a longer line and all of a sudden we’re no longer going stroke for stroke. I make sure he’s in sight, enjoy the view with a bit of backstroke until we hit Queenscliff. I expected to hit the wall at 7km. Instead, I felt the best I had all swim. So I decided to buckle down and go for it. My stand in coach for Can Too that week, Victor Lee, had finally managed to teach me how to breathe properly, breathing into the pocket of air created by your bow wave during the week so I focussed on this and my stroke and put the hammer down.

At the last buoy we said goodbye to our fantastic boat, and the swimmer ahead of me decided to have his final feed. Sucker.

I crossed the line 3^rd last in 2:51. 18 minutes ahead of my [very] stretch goal and an hour and nine minutes ahead of my “don’t get disqualified” goal. Fyso crosses 2 minutes later. We are both on cloud 9 (km swim).

Thanks to all of the amazing support. Including Cap’n Matt whose noble vessel failed to launch and the incredible boat who came to our rescue. And especially Fyso. 

Palm to Whale and the Penrith Swims

So it turns out there are well run 5km swim in Sydney. They’re just not well advertised. And held in Penrith.

The first of these was the Bridge to Bridge on January 27 – the day after Palm to Whale. I’ve written extensively about Palm to Whale before so I’ll quote facebook statii and talk about the Little Big Swim. Last year was the worst head space I’ve ever had going into any swim. I was knackered from getting endlessly slammed in the break zone with my mentee Silpa. See photos:

Afterwards:

“Well today was a case of mind over matter. And matter nearly won. It was a case of go hard or go home. And I just wanted to go home. But wearing the Can Too cossie meant having another crack. And 9 minutes, 3 tries and 4 start waves later I finally made it out. Turns out I Can Too. I am so proud of everyone who turned up - in weather like this you deserve a medal. I don't care how far you swum - you're all heroes for not going back to sleep!”

So Silpa and I faced the Little Big Swim with some trepidation this year. She was a trooper, facing 6 foot surf I struggled through in a wet suit. And she rightly pulled the pin when she stood of the precipice of getting out and got swept backwards by a big ‘un.

At which point I faced one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made. I was through the break, along with Margie and Kay and decided to keep swimming with them. Thank goodness for the Can Too coaches who stepped in to make sure Silpa was okay.

Margie was off like a shot so Kay and I swam on, collecting friends and followers. Kay has phenomenal surf instincts and so she, Gail and I navigated the return break like pros whilst those ahead of us got completely, totally and utterly slammed by enormous sets. Such horrendous luck. Once we hit the sand bar the surf threatened to slam us again, but thanks to one of the Can Too coaches we navigated it with ease. Then we were running up the beach – smiles wider than the surf zone.

 

My turn – Palm to Whale. Had another hard time getting out. But didn’t panic, took it easy, and despite badly misjudging the required depth, got out in reasonable time and was rewarded with making oceanswims.com. Basically – ocean swimming celebrity. Woot.

Started reeling in those ahead of me. Caught Sophia going round the first buoy. Super smiley buoy. Caught Kellie as she was involved in a three swimmer pile up because some doofus didn’t look where he was going. Cheered Mel around the final buoy. And then I was home.

And for the first time I’d enjoyed Palm to Whale. So it was all about the finish.

Including a few double dips at finishing.

Onto the Penrith swims.

These are held at the International Regatta Centre. The water is a bit manky and it’s fresh so no buoyancy assistance whatsoever. There is quite a bit of weed, which I imagine is much like being attacked by a Grindylow out of Harry Potter. Thus justifying post-race Hermione style hair.

Bit tricky backing up after the Big Swim so I went out really easy from the deep water start. 3km loop followed by 2km loop. Was feeling really good coming into the 4^th km and ramping up when, 60m short of the turning buoy water safety came up and told me that half an hour had expired since the winner crossed and my time was now up. WHAT THE? That makes the time limit 1:33. Jeepers!

They let me swim home, and given I was then 100m short they not only recorded me as having finished, but I also won my age category in both the 3km and 5km swims. (Technically I guess I also lost my age category but whatever).

Crazy.

The second Penrith swim was the Western Sydney Open Water swim on 8 February and it was brilliant. $10 for 5km. $2 per km. Unheard of. This time they provided caps and bussed us to the start of the rowing straight and then we swam around the island. Nice scenery and the rowing lanes can be sighted under water making staying straight a breeze.

I whinged about the water quality last time, but actually it’s fine. And compared to the dirt solutions I’ve subsequently swum in – crystal clear.

A seriously enjoyable swim. And the race numbers were top notch. As was the bacon and egg roll afterwards!