Return to normalcy at Cooks Hill...

 Just a quick note - Cooks Hills was a return to the ocean swimming conditions that we know and love... water c. 20C, clear, very clear, gentle, reassuring swell, light offshore breeze... cloudy, but oh, so lovely... and the hot showers! Rigged up on the beach through a fire hose run through a gas heater on the promenade... certainly a treat, and one of the idiosyncracies of this swim that marks it into our psyches...

Such a good result for the Cooks Hill club as organisers, too, with 312 mug punters finishing, after 249 last season. This was the first of its three outings that this swim has enjoyed a reasonable day. It was postponed the first year, from memory, and last season was a day from hell. But today, il etait formidable!

Maybe you did the open water at Penriff...

More later, but tell us what you reckon...

Billie, Brighton, Freo, Carlton, Bay of Islands, Champion Lakes, all points between...

Gosh, we're tired. Always are after Billie. Reason being that we always have a quiet little drink with the Billie organiser, Cap'n Graham Foran, after Billie, in their Bilgola Berger Bar, which is half a surfboat cut down the middle. It's the best bar on the circuit, capping off the best day on the circuit. Billie is, without doubt, the best boutique ocean swim of the season. We love going there. And while the water was cool again today, and brown, almost impossible through which to see, it was a smoothish flat, fast swim, with just a little swell onto the bank at the start, and a ripple to bring you home again. And no-one could miss the booees, with the hot pink balloons dancing gaily above them.

Next year, there is talk of all the Pittwater swims, from Newport to Palm Beach, getting together into a mini series. That will make Billie even better.

But tell us what you thought of Billie, and Brighton, Carlton Park in Tassie, Freo and Champion Lakes in WA, and the Bay of Islands in NZ...

Wetties... Yay or nay? Bondi-Bronte raises perennial issue...

There are a lot of things one could talk about regarding the Bondi to Bronte swim, but the most contentious point concerns wetties: whether they should be worn? Should they be allowed below a certain temperature? And if they are allowed, should wettie wearers compete with newd swimmers, ie in open company? What happened to the old Back of the Pack division, in which punters could use whatever swimming aids they like -- and wetties are a swimming aid -- whilst conventional swimmers relying on their own ability rather than the capacities of the level of scientific aid that they can afford, compete in the open divisions?

Tell us what you think...

And whilst you're about it, tell us what you thought of North Curly on Sat'dee, Toowoon Bay on Sat'dee, and Mornington, also on Sat'dee...

Swim Pricing & Professional Organisers

I just went to register for the Bondi to Bronte swim. Haven’t done it for a while but I’m now fit enough to have ago now.
What’s with the pricing ??? $40 normal and $50 on the day ??
I was waiting until today because cold water and me aren’t the best of friends or my low level asthma. Is it just me or as a few swims start to get professional organisers the price doubles?
I would mind a lot less if ALL the money went to the actual surf clubs, but does it??
I would think not, so I would like to know what % actually does. I believe charities that use professional organisers have to declare somewhere what % ACTUALLY goes to the surf club (I could be wrong here but If it isn’t it should be and/or they might not classify the surf clubs as charities).
So Bronte (and by extension the Cole Classic), what is the % of my money that goes to the clubs.... Care to let us know?
In the interim, I will go to a couple of extra  races where all the money goes to the clubs and they don’t see me as a cash cow..   and , if by chance, I feel like making a donation to a professional private profit-making organisation, I’ll drop in to my local bank.
Peter