Finally, the fat lady swims: North Steyne to Shelly Beach and back

The first wave of kidlets hit the surf in the 2.8km swim.

The weekend was shaping up to be a beauty. I checked beachwatch and seabreeze.

Sun - tick
Light winds - tick
Friendly waves - tick
Perfect temperature, in and out of the ocean - tick

No one wanted to drive down south with me to the Coalcliff to Stanwell Park swim. And can you blame them? After the Caves Beach debacle I couldn't trust myself to toddle around the block without getting lost.

I chose the familiar, shorter path. The 15th North Steyne to Shelly Beach swim.

Feeling cocky and confident, I entered both the 1km and 2.8km swim. It cost $45.

If the conditions were less than ideal I could always pull out of the 1km.

I left home early, giving myself plenty of time to get to the beach for the 9.15am start of the 1km event.

Parking on Raglan St, I walked down the hill towards Manly and let the sun seep into my pores. As usual, I was nervous but also excited and happy.

It had been so long between swims and I couldn't wait to fling my body into the ocean like a bloody sacrifice. 

Woman against the elements. Woman in her element. Woman like an elephant. 

I gained several unwelcome kilos in my month away from ocean swimming. Skirts tighter, jeans' button digging into belly button.Too much neurotic eating and not enough serious swimming. 

I didn't think I'd see anyone I knew on the beach because a lot of the diehards were down south - though I knew Sharkman would be there because I'd seen his name on the 'progress entries' list on the oceanswims website. 

Sure enough, I met him on the sand. The day before he'd completed the 3.8km swim across Lake Macquarie at Belmont (argh, nightmares of Caves Beach).  I did that one last year.

It made sense for Sharkman to do both North Steyne swims in order to boost his kilometres' total in to maintain his title of the King of accumulated Distance.

While chatting to Sharkman, I spotted THE DEFECTOR aka Mr Very Big (VB).

Until recently, VB and I were members of the same swim squad along with Mr Mild Mannered (MM) and The Lawyer.

Then VB did the unthinkable. HE CHANGED SQUADS.

Worse still, he didn't tell us. HE ABANDONED US.

It's not about the squad. It's about MATESHIP.

VB, if you read this, remember this isn't bloody Ireland, it's bloody AUSTRALIA. MATES MATTER.


VB has joined another squad because he needs to practise long-distance swimming in preparation for a 13 kilometre swim in Galway Bay in August. Fair enough. His new coach specialises in distance and our head coach, Mr Mean, is into triathlons and shorter ocean distances.

We'll miss the Irish bastard.

But he did what he had to do. Because more than mateship, it's all about THE SWIM. The striving to get better, faster and to go for longer (in those new budgy smugglers - see below).

VB was his usual charming self and apologised about his defection and lack of transparency. I forgave him on behalf of my peers.

He wore his new budgy smugglers. Too garish for mine. I noticed the budgys before the man himself! There's a long story behind those swimmers, but best not go into it here. Another time.

And now to the swims.

The ocean was a blue satin sheet, with the occasional ripple and a frilly white edge. OTT.

Let's just say it was "noice".

There were a couple of waves in the 1km but the oldies started with the 40+ age group. It was an anti-clockwise rectangular course with a couple of orange buoys to guide the way.

Regular readers of this blog know I have no sense of direction. So it comes as no surprise that I swam past one of the buoys I was supposed to turn around. I had to retrace my strokes to get back around it, which affected my time by about 60 seconds. *Shakes head at own stupidity*

Because the surf was so small I had no trouble at the start or finish. I ran up the beach, where the number on my inner arm was checked by three different timekeepers as electronic ankle timers weren't being used.


After some free grapes and a complimentary protein snack I felt ready for the longer swim down to Shelly Beach and back along the beach to North Steyne.
 
Usually I'd find the 2.8 kilometres daunting but on Sunday it felt just right. I managed to swim down to Shelly without feeling tired. It wasn't all that different from pool swimming because there was little turbulence. Most of the waves came from the surf life saving inflatable that occasionally whizzed by. Yuck. Diesel fuel stinks.

Swinging around to the right at Shelly Beach and back through Fairy Bower I expected to see heaps of marine life. The water clarity wasn't as good as usual, probably a result of weeks of rain. I couldn't see to the bottom,  as you can on a good day. And I didn't see many sea creatures, though a school of long slender fish scooted beneath me for a couple of minutes as I worked my way back to South Steyne.

I started to tire about three quarters of the way through my swim but it was really just my right arm, which gets sore because of incorrect technique.

I had noticed early on in the swim that two other white-capped swimmers, like myself, were keeping me in their sights. Or was it the other way around. Not really. One was a woman and the other a male. The male disappeared for a while and I forgot about him but towards the end of the swim I noticed him again on my right side because I kept accidentally bumping into him (I breathe to the left so I couldn't see him).

The chick definitely had her eye on me. This got my goat. I thought, "Hey lady, leave me alone. I'm here for a good time."

Because I was breathing to my left and she breathed to her right, we kept an eye on each other. Then I slowly but surely pulled away. Afterwards I checked the finishers.

I know who you are chicky babe.

Does that sound threatening?

The swim ended with me getting caught up in some gentle breaks in an attempt to body surf back in. Maybe next time.

I finished in a reasonable time and came fourth in my female age group in both swims. That's fourth out of the eight women in my age group! I was happy with that.

Afterwards, my arms were heavy and tired but I didn't care.

It was good to be back on the beach.

This coming Easter long weekend, two swims that were postponed have been rescheduled - Freshwater for Good Friday and Bondi on Easter Sunday. What better way to meditate on the meaning of life.

     

Cole Classic 2012: is it worth the effort?

I wonder what would happen if he got a haircut? A finisher in the Cole Classic

Saturday, February 3, the day before the Cole Classic: 

Around midday I checked the official Cole Classic website to see if I could pick up my timing device and cap on the day of the swim. Nowhere on the website did it indicate that people like moi - late earlybirds who missed having their timers and caps mailed to them - could pick up their gear at the event.

So I made the 90-minute return trip to Manly to collect my stuff and discovered that I could've waited until Sunday. Apparently the organisers don't like to advertise that timers and caps can be picked up on Sunday because it can get "chaotic"*. 

Chaos: The walk from Shelly Beach to Manly Beach

I paid $52 to enter the Cole Classic so I reckon the least the organisers can do is inform people of their options on the website. 

I thought, 'Bugger you Fairfax Media** . I spit on you and your capitalist-pig owners who never spare a thought for the struggling masses who like to swim.'

Then I had a pleasant dip at Shelly Beach, communed with the fishies, drove home and downed two reasonable glasses of Merlot before 7pm.

Sunday, February 4, the day of the Cole Classic - magnificent sunshine after a week of solid rain: 

I organised my 'crew' - Mrs Snorkel, Ms Fivestar, Mrs Onyabike and Mme Zen - to be at the beach by 10.30am. This coincided with the start of the 2km swim - the inaugural 9km swim from Dee Why to Manly started at 8am and the 1km swim started at 8.30am. 

My crew walk towards Cabbage Tree Bay

The traditional course starts in the calm cove at Shelly Beach and finishes at the surf beach  Manly. But the surf at Manly was looking pretty rough and ready when we arrived. The organisers had already decided to move the finish line to Shelly. 

It's a small beach so the logistics of sending swimmers out and directing them back in is a challenge. I reckon the beach is less than 250 metres wide? My maths is bad so correct me if I'm wrong.  

I was in wave 15. Get it? There were 14 age groups and whatever else starting the swim before my group. There was a 10 minute wait between each wave, which meant that females in the 40+ age group didn't start until 12.40pm. That's more than two hours after the first wave.  For gawd's sake, the 2km race presentations were underway at Manly before my cohort started at Shelly!

They've got the right idea: Cabbage Tree Bay

That's dumb and not fair. By the time my wave entered the water the conditions offshore had significantly altered. The surf was up and there was more chop out the back than at a karate demonstration. I think the swim could still work with five-minutes between swimmers.

I'd had enough by the time I was herded into a holding pen with my mauve-capped cohort (why do they always give the old ducks mauve caps?). I was tired, hungry, thirsty, hot and sunburnt. I felt like a refugee in Speedos. 

The holding pen for each wave of swimmers

 

What about the swim? It was OK, I guess. I've had better. There was lots of chop, much water swallowed, I didn't see any fish and as I turned at the buoys my teeth were nearly kicked out by swimmers doing breaststroke.

After the swim I caught up with my 'crew' who had sensibly abandoned me early on. They left the hullabaloo at Shelly, preferring to snorkel at Cabbage Tree Bay. So much for support! 

Next year I'll think twice about the Cole Classic. It is a corporate event and not all the money made goes to charity or the local surf club. It's a profitable event for Fairfax. Otherwise, why run it?

On the other hand, it's fantastic for those swimmers who are starting out in ocean swimming. The course to and from Shelly is pretty much risk-free. Also, the buoys are clearly marked and there's heaps of support out on the water.

At least my peeps bonded.

Next week's swim of the week is at North Bondi. 

Speak soon.   

PS: At lunchtime yesterday Manly Beach was closed because of dangerous surf. Today 23 Sydney beaches were closed.

*the words of the nice girl employed by Fairfax Media

**ailing newspaper, radio and online organisation of which 13 per cent was recently procured by Australia's richest person, the adorable mining magnate Gina Rinehart

The day before The Cole Classic 2012 at Manly: the sun is back!

I'm off to swim in the Cole Classic today but I was at Manly yesterday (which I'll explain in my next post). Finally the sun came out yesterday after a week of solid rain in Sydney. It's flooding in northern NSW and southern QLD.

I love the rain but this time around I thought it was never going to end. Now all I hear is cicadas and all I see is blue sky. I'm off to the beach!

I saw four lizards on the walk from Manly to Shelly Beach. They're out catching rays after weeks with barely any sun. 

Prediction: The Cole Classic is going to be a bun fight as 5000 punters head to Shelly Beach

This weekend The Cole Classic is on at Shelly Beach in Manly. Traditionally, the 2 km swim runs from the sheltered, still-water Shelly Beach around to the ocean beach, South Steyne.

For the past three years, inclement conditions have led organisers to move the course so it starts and finishes at Shelly. This is a nightmare as Shelly is a narrow arc of sand that isn't particularly well suited to a big ocean swim. At any one time there might be a couple of thousand punters squished onto the beach and spilling over onto the promenade that winds its way back to South Steyne.

It looks as though this weekend might have the same surf conditions as 2010, with huge swells predicted for Sydney's beaches on Sunday.

This will pose a major challenge to the Manly surflifesavers and Fairfax, which now runs the event and theoretically gets to take home a hefty profit after the whole shebang is over.

For the first time the swim is sold out, with 5000 entrants at mostly $49 (early bird entrants) and $59 a pop.  I know a lot of the swimmers will be competing in the 1 km event, but that doesn't change the fact that it's gonna be mayhem in the water if organisers don't make the ocean entry points and exit points clear to swimmers. Many of the swimmers are novices and have no idea about ocean swimming etiquette - NO BREASTSTROKE! And a lot are bad swimmers who can barely swim 500 metres in a pool, let alone in the ocean.

Even though the 2 km swim starts at 10am, I don't expect to get into the water until 11.30am (fingers crossed). That's a long wait if the weather is as brutally hot as it has been in Sydney for five days in a row, where temperatures have peaked in the 40s Celcius.

And to make matters worse, I'm without my swimming partner and driver, Davo, so goodness knows how I'm going to get to and from Manly on the day.

I really don't know why I'm doing it. But who knows, I could be wrong. 

Let's hope so.

PS: I am on my way to creating a separate blog for my writing as I find the swimming and writing do not work well together. My writing blog, a work in progress with only two posts, is over at Wordpress. It's at http://www.shaynesands.wordpress.com The plan is to eventually move this blog over to Wordpress, too. We'll see what happens. Or what doesn't.

Ocean swimming story in The Sydney Morning Herald and we're off to do Gerringong on Sunday

Today's edition of The Sydney Morning Herald has a story on 'the allure of ocean swimming' in its summer supplement. The story is first and foremost a plug for The Cole Classic on February 6, which is sponsored by Fairfax - which owns SMH.

However, it's not a bad read and does have some interesting observations from die-hard ocean swimmers. It also warns people about the sport's inherent risks, including my worst-case scenario - swimming into a pack of bluebottles.

And it points out that ocean swimming is becoming hugely popular and poses the question: will this affect the camaraderie in the sport? The journalist asks this at least twice, but never gets around to finding an answer. (This is just me niggling. But, if you set up a premise for a story, shouldn't you then follow it up?)

And here's me just niggling again. The man behind http://www.oceanswims.com/ Paul Ellercamp is interviewed for the story. Funny that, I thought he was deadset against the commercialisation of The Cole Classic, with its exhorbitant entry fee and raft of prohibitive OH&S rules that have led to the swim being re-routed to and from the calm waters of Shelly Beach, rather than finishing at the surf beach South Steyne, since Fairfax took control two seasons back. Ellercamp could've talked about camaraderie in relation to The Cole Classic!

I guess any publicity is good publicity... Here's the link, if you're interested: http://www.smh.com.au/executive-style/fitness/swell-of-surf-swimmers-20110106-19hmy.html

There's a swim at North Bondi this Sunday, but The Hiss and I are heading to the South Coast, where we plan to enter the Gerringong swim with Davo. It depends on the weather (raining today in Sydney) and, more importantly, ocean conditions. I hear this can be a challenging course. At the moment I'm up for it, but at the moment I'm dry and warm as toast and about to have a cuppa.

Have a good weekend.

Photo: The surf at South Steyne was deemed to be too rough for the organisers of last year's Cole Classic, who redirected the swim back to its starting point, Shelly Beach.

Cole Classic 2010 where everyone's a winner - sort of

The bloke on the PA system at yesterday's Cole Classic kept saying: "Everyone's a winner here today."

This isn't strictly true. The big winners were Josh Beard (first man home) and Luane Rowe (first woman), who swam away with tickets to ocean swims in Vanuatu.

Moi, I got a bag with a copy of The Sun-Herald, a medallion (does that mean I'm a winner?), a snack bar and a sun-protection lotion sample.

But even though I'm a grumpy old bitch, I'm not complaining. It was a fabulous swim and a huge improvement on last year's mess.

Fairfax, the newspaper proprietors, have run the event for the past two years, which has led some die-hard ocean swimmers to bemoan the commercialisation of one of Sydney's 'iconic' ocean swims. And it is expensive at $47 - $57 if you miss the early-bird entry cut-off.

But today, despite erratic weather, it ran like clockwork. The organisers learnt lessons from last year, so the swim started on time, no buoys were shifted around the course mid-swim and the starting swimmers didn't collide with the swimmers coming back in.

The swim start has now been permanently moved from Manly to the sheltered Shelly Beach and is supposed to end at Manly. But because the swell was a bit big (didn't bother me) the finish was moved to Shelly - as happened in 2009. The organisers weren't taking any chances on the newbie entrants.

Apparently, there were around 4500 swimmers in the 1 km and 2 km events.

The early morning weather was miserable, after sheeting rain during the night, so I half expected the swim to be called off. But the gods shone down on Shelly and gave us glimpses of sun mixed with light rain.

Davo and Precious Princess (PP) were my swim mates. Poor old PP hasn't done any exercise for about nine months (she reckons walking to the bus stop counts) so she felt it. Afterwards she complained of having pain down her left side mid-swim. PP is 18 and a little prone to exaggeration. She also partied hard last night and Friday night.

Davo was in the 7th wave of swimmers (old blokes) and I was in the 10th with all the other 50+ women. Let me tell you, these birds are rough and tough as nails. It was like a scrum as we raced into the water after the starter gun, and throughout the swim/race I was poked and prodded by my 'sisters'. Don't ever let anyone tell you that women over 50 are mellow. There was a lot of repressed anger in my cohort!

After the swim, Davo said he thought he'd seen baby sharks, which is exactly what I saw about 5 metres (not good with depths, so might be wrong here) beneath me and 1 km or so into the swim. The little critters were cruising below like choreographed ballet dancers. Apparently, juvenile dusky sharks hang out at Fairy Bower on the western side of the beach. Two sightings couldn't be wrong. PP was in such pain so she saw nothing during the swim, except her life flashing before her eyes. Serves her right.

I loved this swim. The water was glorious and I saw lots of fish.

My only misgiving, if it's true, is about the profit that Fairfax makes from the event. Mr Oceanswims, who runs www.oceanswims.com, claims Fairfax makes a $100,000 profit. If this is the case, I reckon they should come clean and donate any leftover cash into the surf lifesaving community.

Still, I'll be back next year just for the fun of it.

The photos are of PP and Davo with their 'winners' medals, the view to Manly and looking at Shelly Beach from the esplanade.