After my mournful but cathartic post about not finishing a swim race a few weeks ago, I wanted to share a happier update that people were very kind about the whole thing, urging me not to give up on distance swimming, praising my progress and just being all-round good people. So thank you, good people!
(And I’ve decided my experience of getting fished out of the water in choppy seas, with the rescue boat drifting off in the current as they tried to pull me in, is a better story than completing the race would have been.)
It also made me pause and think about what I want to get out of sea swimming and swim events. I love my long swims, but do I need to race? I enjoy the community aspect and meeting new people, but do I need to pay $50+ for one event (and branded merch) to do that? Or should I support the smaller events and courses that educate, raise awareness and money for good causes, and are more inclusive?
Well, yes.
Safer swims
In December I signed up for an ocean safety course that was run by a local marathon swimmer (we have a few here because Wellington Harbour is connected to the 22km Cook Strait between the North and South Islands – it’s not on my to-swim list, by the way, but I love hearing the stories of those who have done it!).
Not only was the course very useful in terms of risk management and learning how to look out for other people in the sea, but the entry fee was donated to a marine education centre. There was also a point during the course where people starting sharing unexpected things that had happened to them in the water, such as a jellyfish sting or encountering a seal, getting caught in a rip or strong current, and what they had learned from the experience.
At the end we got in the sea and pretended to rescue one another using the skills we’d just been taught. I think it was one of the most fun and rewarding courses I have been on. Most of us knew one another already and I could tell we were all learning a lot, despite being regular sea swimmers.
I took notes, so here are a few of them in case they’re useful:
Buy a tow float for visibility and for something to hold onto if you’re in trouble. Also take a loud whistle – good for getting boats to notice you! (I had the tow float, but not the whistle.)
Be a good person to swim with. Think of others and get to know their patterns so you notice if something seems ‘off’, e.g. they’re swimming slower than usual, or turning back to shore.
Have a safety plan and set intentions with your buddy: how far will you go? Will you stay together, or catch up at each buoy?
Stingrays tend to be in the shallows. Shuffle into the sea to disturb sand so they know you’re there. Put your legs down, don’t swim over them in the shallows or they’ll feel threatened.
Panicking swimmers will try to grab you. Stick your leg out so they can’t. If they grab your arm, jerk it up/down. If they grab your shoulders from in front or behind, submerge to escape (they won’t follow you as they don’t want to go under). If they grab your foot, do a crocodile roll (twist your body) to remove their hand. Talk to them (shout and swear if you have to!). Tell them to calm down, turn around to lie on their back and hold their tow float. Then tow them to shore (eg hold the sides of their head, or by the chin and swim with one arm). Get them to kick if they can.
Shorter swims
A few weeks ago I organised a little swim event. It’s not the first event I’ve organised but it was the first one outside of my Master’s degree. It was part of Explore Your Coast, a fundraising initiative by the local marine reserve. Because I was in the thick of finishing my Master’s and we’d just adopted a new puppy (scroll down for a photo), I made the event as simple as possible: show up, have a dip, optional food afterwards and a donation to the marine reserve. A few people messaged me in advance asking how long the swim would be, and when I replied that it was just a dip and chat, they seemed really relieved. I think a lot of people just want to get in but don’t want to go out of their depth, especially when it’s all new to them, which is sensible and exactly how I felt when I started. Fortunately it was a beautiful sunny morning and I think people enjoyed it. I’m keen to organise more fundraising swims/dips now.
Photo by Nicole Miller.
Future swims
A few days ago I handed in my final assignments and my Master’s degree (Science in Society) is done! I thought I would feel excited, and I do, but I also feel a bit sad because I’ve enjoyed it so much. It took me two years and was one of the best decisions I’ve made – it really has changed how I see the world and I’ve met so many wonderful people too.
As part of my final course, I spent this summer on a work placement at Te Papa (Museum of New Zealand) with the Fish Team – a small team of about four people who were very welcoming. (I’ll write a separate post about this another time, because there’s more to say and I have some great fishy photos to share.) We bonded through our connection to the ocean, whether via swimming, spearfishing, diving, or sailing over it on offshore field trips, and also by drinking coffee. They are prolific coffee drinkers and so am I! One of them even dropped a bag of L’Affare into the deep sea (10,000 metres) once to see what would happen. (TL;DR the bag remained intact but the resulting brew tasted a bit funny.)
At the end of the course I had to have a career consultation at my university. My hubristic side thought: Hah! I don’t need career advice, I’ve got decades’ worth of experience! I guess I was imagining a high-school-level career person suggesting I add more bullet points to my CV, or practise the obligatory ‘Tell us about a challenge you’ve encountered in your career and how you overcame it’ segment of a job interview.
I’d had to prepare a draft email written to someone I wanted to meet with to ask about a job, so I’d sent that through earlier. We talked about the email and she made a few useful suggestions for me to think about. Then she said: “Email aside, if you could do any job you wanted, what would it be?”
I didn’t have to think. “I'd swim, and people would pay me to write about it!”
Her eyes lit up and an hour later I was following my dream of being a professional swim writer sharing ocean conservation stories. I was buzzing with excitement, and felt a bit like Jennifer Beals in that scene at the end of Flashdance where she knocks the socks off the stern, cigarette-smoking judges in the auditorium as she leaps through the air and ‘What a Feeling’ spins on the turntable. (Classic child of the ‘80s reference.)
My neoprene socks may not be legwarmers, and I may not be flying through the air in slow motion, but it’s good to have dreams.
Past swims
A Facebook Memories post popped up on my feed recently from three years ago. I had just started swimming regularly in the sea and felt like I’d discovered this amazing new thing and wanted some company! I look refreshed and happy, but where is your swim cap during that ‘brisk southerly’, Past Shona? Actually, I don’t even think I owned a cap at that stage and I couldn’t swim freestyle at all.
And finally, here’s a puppy pic! Welcome to Harper (left). Bella is being a great big sister. As I type this, they are both curled up in a dog basket next to my desk.
Congratulations again Shona!
Water very warm here. And yes, we too have stingrays. And skates and eagle rays. Makes going for a swim interesting.