Swim The Planet – Post #2

Water temperatures for the Freedom Swim are expected to be between 11C and 14C degrees and the swim should take about three hours, making it longer and colder than anything I have attempted previously.

A legend of open water swimming in the Cape is the late Theodore Yach, who swum from Robben Island to the mainland a record 108 times. Theo sadly passed away last year but his approach to swimming in cold water is insightful, “The mind controls everything” he was quoted as saying. “He embraced the cold, invited it in and mentally controlled it” said Martin Goodman, another local open water legend and good friend of Theo.

As a designated ‘skin’, I will be swimming under English Channel conditions with bathers, swimming cap and goggles. My preparation for the cold includes cold showers and ice baths and testing out swimmer’s grease and ear plugs. My boat crew will withdraw me from the swim immediately should I display any signs of distress and the swim organisers have an ICU unit on shore. Re-assuring.

Cold might not be the biggest concern. Without exception, the first response I receive when I mention that I am swimming off Cape Town is “what about sharks”. Yet others remind me that Cape Town is home to 40% of the world’s white pointer shark population. Re-assuring x 2.

Despite the fear of sharks being well and truly in excess of the risk of such an encounter, many open water swimmers experience differing degrees of shark-anxiety. Some even have a policy of not mentioning the ‘the S-word’, myself included.

Source: Reuters

I will be swimming with an electronic shield which has been proven to be the only effective S-deterrent although the range is only a few metres. Swimming in a large group of other swimmers with the sounds of boat engines and other activity should, hopefully, discourage recalcitrant sea creatures from approaching. I will apply petrochemical-based cream as ‘swimmers grease’’ instead of the usual whale fat or lanolin so that I smell like nothing even remotely edible. Nevertheless, a degree of S-anxiety exists and I hope to never encounter one of these things.