Bondi swim

For the first day of winter it was warm, unseasonably so as we discovered later on Sat morning became the best part of the weekend.

20 keen Vladswimmers met at North Bondi and jumped I o the water at 7:15am with the main objective being four hours.

Water was about 22 degrees, still warmer than outside, Vlad was on the kayak, Martin in his scuba gear taking some great photos, the feeding station had become a feeding platform with its own tender boat (thank-you Justin) and as usual I minded the beach.

In his first ocean swims appearance, Andrew Curby swam a ginormous 2 laps which he rationalised as being pretty good for a Sat as he normally did nothing.  It was great to see Chris Gorman back in the water after a period off as he was sick. Jai came in her Wetsuit and swam a strong 4 laps. Other wetsuit wearers were Greg Prerau who was practicing for Cairns Half next weekend where due to injury he can only swim. He pulled out a personal first of 4.8k in just under 2 hours. Fantastic  effort. Rozanne who is training for Maccabi in 5 weeks’ time, started with a wetsuit and disrobed mid swim as feel better without. She managed 5.8 in just over 2 hours. Accompanying her up and back were Karl (surf Muppet) Fiona (the new charm) Greg, and John (channel swim in June) and these guys worked really well together. They have named themselves the Inglorious Lasties.  A few first again here distance wise.

Distances swam ranged from Andrews 2 laps to Justin's 30 laps which he smashed out in 6 1/4 hours.  A great effort from him and a good effort towards his channel training.

Lochie came down and fine-tuned his feeding and stroke rate for Manhattan this weekend. He actually had to slow down the stroke rate and also take a bit more than his usual race pace feeds of 10 secs up to a max of 60secs to ensure he gets enough nutrients for his swim. A good example of different skills needed for different events.

Dan and Marty had a great swim working with each other and swimming a really good solid pace for the whole 16 laps. Dan then did a 4 lap warm down.

Rachael had a solid swim for her 16 laps and made good pace which was great as she was by herself for a bit of it.

We had a few animal sightings. Dean and a couple of others saw a rather large stingray and Lawrence and Ross swam over a shark. Don't know details of its dimensions or teeth size but the boys are still with us so that's a good thing.

A great swim from everyone on a beautiful morning. Well done