Know Your Course

Gulp&Go Open Water Swimming

Author: Stephen Clendenin

English 202, Writing About Sports

04/10/11

Blog Post #9

Know Your Course

There are over 3,000 sanctioned open water swimming clinics, camps, tours, races, and events in 158 countries. There are distances varying from a single mile, to a marathon in the water. The terrain varies from the tropical paradises of Barbados, to the frozen tundra of the arctic (popularly called ‘Polar Bear Swims’). Where there is water, people swim. Common places such as the English Channel, the Hudson River, or the Cole Classic (Australia) usually host thousands of swimmers yearly. To date, the world’s largest mass participation open water swimming event is the Sun Moon Lake International Swimming Carnival in central Taiwan. Sun Moon Lake (Jih Yueh Tan in Taiwanese) has between 18,500 and 22,000 swimmers take on the 3.3 kilometer distance. Imagine all that white water, the flailing limbs, and perhaps even the hungrily awaiting sharks sitting at the bottom of the lake, waiting for some unfortunate soul to be lost among the mass of swimmers. I shudder to think. But truly, the likelihood of that happening is not nearly as high as the Rottnest Channel Swim. True to its name, this open water swim is a 19.2 kilometer struggle through some of the strongest currents in Western Australia. This swim is also known as having some of the most abundant amounts of marine life to deal with. In my own limited personal experience of marine life in open water swims, I think I was stung by a jellyfish in a tiny spot just under my bicep. In that same race, my friend Brad became entangled in the slimy clutches of a Portuguese Man-of-War. The PM-O-W is among the top ten most deadly jellyfish in the oceans. Its tentacles can grow up to one hundred and sixty five feet long, and are filled with venom that create whip-like welts on the skin (lasting two or three days) and can be extremely painful. Upon exiting the water, my friend Brad was immediately taken and doused with hot water, given lots of medicine to rub on his skin (it was green and looked like twice-digested algae). Not to worry though, he lived, and enjoys telling the story much more than I do. But ANYWAY, the point of that story is: always be aware of the course. Moments before getting in, the lifeguards had posted a warning, telling us that there was dangerous marine life out in the water. Now, warnings such as these may not deter the more hardened open water swimmers, but the smart ones will stay weary. Swimmers who swim the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim need to be aware that when circumnavigating Manhattan Island, they will be dealing with 28.5 miles of temperatures between sixty-four and sixty-seven degrees, various flotsam and jetsam, and who knows what else. Know the course you are getting into when you join an open water swim.