March Swims

5 events completed in March:
- Lake Macquarie 3.8k
- Manly (1+2) 3k
- Cronulla (1+2.3) 3.3k
- Balmoral 1k
- North Steyne 1k
Total 12k swum in March

Should get close to the 100k mark by May
There's 25k of oceans swims around NSW in April
The calendar starts getting compressed this time of year with ocean swims on every Saturday Sunday and public holiday
I'll have to look at doing all of them

North Steyne 28th March

North Steyne (Manly) Sunday 28th March
Vertigo fail
1k ocean swim
North Steyne surf club to Queenscliff and back
Swam the 1k short swim slowly trying not to look up and finished ok but feeling pretty dizzy afterwards
Didn't have the stomach to do the longer swim today
I'll rest up this week and get them next weekend

Balmoral 21st March

godzilla














Balmoral 1k harbour swim
Beautiful day on Sydney Harbour, flat water and clear
Turned out to be a bit of a spint, went hard all the way
Quite crowded at times with large wave numbers, lost some momentum swimming around other swimmers
Time 19:21

Gear 1 Challenge 20th March

Gear 1 Challenge, Seas The Limit Club Event, Botany Pool
How many laps can you swim in 2 hours ?
Started ok, first hour on just under 2:00 pace
Couldn't maintain - slowed down to around 2:05 after 90 minutes
No shoulder pain or leg cramps after 2 hours, which was good
Arms tiring near the end, more training needed for longer swims.
Total swum 116 laps = 5.8k

Cronulla Shark Island Swim 14th March

Jellyfishing









REVENGE OF THE PURPLE PEOPLE-EATERS
Cronulla Shark Island Swim 2.3k
Cronulla Beach Swim 1k
On Saturday morning I inadvertently pranked a fellow-swimmer at Coogee by telling her that the swarm of Purple Jellyfish lurking just beyond the breakers was quite harmless. She was not happy yesterday after then swimming through the swarm and being stung many times by those same purple jellyfish. It was an honest mistake, albeit a little ill-informed.
Today was payback day.
With the same Easterly wind blowing in at Cronulla and tell-tale purple blobs washed up along the shoreline, I knew it would not be an easy swim.
King Neptune served up hundreds of stinging purple jellyfish at Cronulla today. Not as thick as at Coogee yesterday, but difficult to swim through nevertheless. Then into the mix he added thousands of the harmless white jellyblubbers, so swimmers could not be sure if they were grabbing a harmless jellyblubber or a stinger with every stroke.
I did the 1k "warm-up" swim first. I swam into a few stingers on the way out, a couple of them brushed my legs with their tentacles, some little stings, but no trouble at all.
I had a plan to avoid the stingers in the main 2.3k swim. I knew where they would be, and by swimming with my head forward in the clear water, I could spot them and meander past before they got me. As I approached the first turning buoy in deep water about 400m out, I was congratulating myself on my successful strategy. I never saw the creature that hit me in the back, but it must have been a whopper. It felt like I had been tasered in the kidneys. Like a slow racehorse that had been jiggered by an unscrupulous trainer, I accelerated in the water to get away from the swarm.
Actually the sting wore off quite quickly, so by the time I finished the race it had gone. On the way back in I had made friends with the little purple jellyfish and quite enjoyed watching them swimming underwater. The sea bottom around Shark Island was lovely with plenty of fish to be seen in the clear water. I really enjoyed these swims today.
1k time 20.09
2.3k time 52.17
I held about the same pace for both swims, there were a few currents around the island which might have slowed me down a little on the longer swim.

Manly, Sunday 7th March

Manly Daily Ocean Swim, 1k & 2k ocean swims
Had to get back to Sydney Saturday nite, so I did these 2 swims at Manly on Sunday.
Did the 1k swim first as a warm-up, shoulder a bit stiff from the Lake Macquarie swim yesterday.
1k swim from Shelley Beach around to finish at Manly Beach. Sheltered inside the bay, a bit rough outside.
Started at the back to warm up slowly, then had to swim through a wall of breastrokers nearer the finish. Time 19:38
The 2k swim was more fun. Started in the middle of Manly beach, first leg was about 600m out to sea straight into the Easterly wind and chop. Then fight through a big swell to Fairy Bower, across the bay and back to Manly beach, where there was a bit of a wave on.
Good swim, tough conditions. Time 42:48

Lake Macquarie Saturday 6th March

Lake Macquarie "Across the Lake Swim" 3.8k
Swim across a salt water lake from Coal Point to Belmont
Registration at Belmont, then a slow ferry ride to Coal Point,
Jump off the back of the ferry, in-water start and swim back in a straight line to Belmont
Water warm and conditions good
Started strong, tried to stay with a pack of swimmers most of the way, couldn't maintain race pace all the way, slowed down after about 3k
Time 1:12:05
10 minutes quicker than my time for this swim 2 years ago

Canberra November Swim Video & More Pics

Pit Stop


High elbow recovery

Common wealth Place Jetty

Bushland, towards Black Mountain

Spear fishing

Call 911

Family of spectators