|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Click on Thumbs For larger size shots and Click on Page Number For more shots
Artiste. What was the water temp, we wondered? Had been c. 18C leading into this swim, which was doubling as the open water event for the International Firefighters Games, then underway in Sydney. That gave us cause for some concern, for some, if not many of these firepersons, international visitors, as Newcastle's Mike Rabbitt would say, may not have much experience in surf, let alone heavily dumping surf. Our concern was not alleviated by the briefing, which told the firepersons, nattily attired in pink caps -- "This is no reflection on you gentleme... or ladies," assured the briefer from Narrabeen SLSC -- which advised the visitors that all they had to do to get out through this heavy, punding dump onto a shallowing bank was to get quickly through the gutter separating the shore from the bank, then dive under the waves. "You'll only have to dive under one wave," said the briefer, a tad optimistically, we thought, knowing that sets usually come in groups of four or five waves, not one. Were it us briefing -- and the perspective of irresponsibility is a luxurious one, certainly -- we'd have told them also to keep their heads down when they dived under that "one wave", and to grab the bottom. The actuality was not so bad. Water was quite warm once you entered it -- maybe 20C -- and commenced to a'swimmin'. And while we did indeed have to dive under several waves, not just one, they weren't as heavy as they looked from the shore. Maybe that's because most of us have some experience, we did keep our heads down and we did grab the bottom, but we got out pretty easily and quickly, as did most others, including our international visitors. Making your way through heavily dumping surf on a shallow bank is all about timing.  
Swap ya. We bounced around on the water's surface into the conditions, then skidded along the surface along the back reach, before bouncing around again on the reach back south. The back reach was a joy, but with a pitfall: with the swell, chop and breeze blowing from slightly to the right of your heels, you were tempted to run with it, which would take you in. It sucked in many. You had to swim slightly across it to keep on course out to sea, past the booees of Lincoln green and deep-sea blue, two booees from the Lost-at-Sea Range of colours so loved by swim organisers. At least, our caps all were brightish. Lovely day, really, with a good barbie, although the breeze grew cooler as the morning wore on. The Narrabeen club really should insist on putting the finishing pads down on the beach, however. Every other club does it. Where they were positioned in the walkway down from the clubhouse lawn to the beach provided a convenient finishing chute, but they really were way too far up the beach for the comfort of most ocean swimmers, who are old farts who entered a swim, not a beach run uphill. Particularly for this old fart, about to get both his hips replaced. Next year's Narrabeen swim will be the last Saturdee in October, 2013. We look forward to it. Noice to catch up with lots of old comrades, many of whom we haven't seen since last season finished.
Here's our pictorial account... Click on Thumbs For larger size shots and Click on Page Number For more shots
Results... click here Credits
oceanswims.com uses Olympus cameras, this time the Tough TG-1 and PEN E-P1. Our thanks to our favourite ocean swimming brewer, Chuck Hahn, for the
James Squire Award. Follow us on Twitter - @Aquagirl72, @glistenrr, @KAOSVIC, @sparkleocean, @CoffeeMumSwims, @TacomaJim, @1worldimages, and @oceanswims Have your say and tell us what you thought of these and other swims on the oceanswims blob... click here
|
Tweet this page...Tweet
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
First Sydney swim of the season at Narrabeen, and it was an interesting event, to say the least. First impressions on arrival at Narrabeen -- a wide open, windswept Sydney northern beach -- was of a heavy dump extending all along the beach. Swells up to 2.5 metres dumping onto a shallowing bank, held up by a gusty and cool offshore breeze from the sou'-west. Looked nasty. 
The course was shaped like Marie Antoinette's breast, reputedly the model for the flat champagne glass, with a short reach to the sou'-east right into the chop and the breeze -- more a wind than a breeze -- which by that time had swung a little to the south. Then there was a very long reach north, running with the conditions for 600-700 metres, before heading sou'-west back to the gates behind the break. It was about 1.6km, according to our GPS-in-a-plastic bag.
