We couldn't be at Byron Bay this year, and we are very sorry we missed the 200th anniversary of Byron (Lord) swimming the Hellespont, which fell today (Monday, May 2). We would loved to have celebrated it with a Mondee morning swim from The Pass back to main beach. To our mind, the Fridee, Sat'dee and Mondee swims of Byron weekend are the highlights of the weekend, followed by a cuppa and brekker, as Le Roi Roy calls it, at the pub. Sundee's swim is the just the catalyst. We're in Fiji right now, in the very remote Yasawas, at Otto and Fanny's, one of our favourite places in the world, helping with arrangements for our visit back here with a peloton of ocean swimmers in September. We're also doing an awful lot of sitting on the beach reading, and gazing into the distance, through the breeze, over the Blue Lagoon, over the sou'-eastern horizon...
But tell us about your Byron experience...
I love Byron Bay (hey, what a good idea for a T-shirt)
ReplyDeleteThe pair of dolphins surfing off the break at The Pass scadoodled before the swim's start at Wategos at 10am, when the older punters surged into the surf in age-group waves followed by the younger mob and, finally, the elite Superfish.
I like this starting in reverse order concept because, as an older slower swimmer, I get to have company all the way - even though it's usually passersby. Plus, a crowd cheers me aross the finish line and I get to see the winners arrive - this year they were Ky Hurst (first man - just) and Melissa Gorman (first woman).
It was a beautiful swim, though the view to the bottom wasn't as clear this year because of the swell's undertow(?) swirling the sand about. Still, my friend saw four turtles and I spotted lots of fish on the journey along Main Beach.
The current gave everyone a nice advantage, which means it's not really an advantage, and the surf on the way in was a bonus for bodysurfers.
I heard the organisers say there was a record number of participants, so Winter Whales is only going to get bigger. But I also heard that the club is threatening to can the event? How can that be when it's gotta be a huge money spinner? Or did I hear wrong?
I and 15 of my closest swimming buddies made the trip from Victoria to swim in the beautiful waters of Byron Bay. We had an awesome time swimming in warm water, loved the sea life that swam below us and enjoyed swimming a course that was not Victorian.Despite race reports, there was a sighting of a rather large shark by one of my club members, apparently it just made her swim alot faster. What else do you do when your 2 km away from the finish line? Glad we had the opportunity to arrive 3 days early to swim the pre-swim swims and met a fellow open water tweeter while I was there. (Lovely to put a face to a tweet) Apart from the first two buoys and the last yellow buoy, I didn't see any others. Lucky I knew to aim for the pine trees. Anyone else have trouble spotting them? Another well organised, efficient open water swim, glad we made the effort to come. Also very glad one of our boys won the trip to Vanuatu (so is his wife by the way!)If what Shayne above suggests above is true and the swim is in danger of not being on next year, I know we'd be very disappointed. Where else will we all travel for a holiday together, all under the guise of an'open water swim' ? Thanks again Byron Bay, I miss you already.
ReplyDelete~ Nicole "AquaGirl72" Chester
The answer to your question, "Where else will we all travel for a holiday together, all under the guise of an'open water swim'?", Aquagirl, is, "the Mana Fiji swim and Yasawas swim cruise".
ReplyDeleteSee oceanswims.com for details. Look forward to seeing you there.
http://www.oceanswims.com/oceania/manafiji.html