World Ocean Day – Do your bit

If you can, head down to your nearest beach and try your best to fill a bucket with rubbish. If ten people reading this post can do it, thats 100 litres of rubbish that won’t end up in the sea.

Video: World Ocean Day 2013

Every little bit helps!

My Birthday

Love you mom!

• Unhappy
• Tired of the same old routine
• Bored
• Lacking motivation to go out and live your life to the fullest
• Listening to the same people complain everyday about the same things
• Hearing about so and so, who had this amazing adventure
• Suffering from FOMO (the Fear Of Missing Out)

I dont know about you, but

Acceptance

Having swum in this event for the last two years and having won it once before, I was very keen to come back and recoup the trophy. Last year I had an extremely close swim with Danie Marais in which he managed to outsprint me to the line and at the same time, claim the course record in 38min23sec.

Vanessa, James, Richard and I set off from Cape Town at 07h30, making the one and a half hour drive out to Langebaan, up the West Coast from Cape Town. Along the entire route we could see that the Ocean was like a mirror, not a breath of wind and perfect conditions for a sea swim.

Upon arrival in Langebaan we could see that this was going to be one of those “perfect” days. The lagoon, a sheet of glass reflecting the sunlight. The only ripples caused by surf ski paddlers out on their morning training session and children splashing in the shallows. After registration we made our way onto the beach and got ourselves ready for the double mile, 3,2km circumnavigation of the island.

Having done very little swimming since my 25km swim 6 weeks ago, today was going to be a true test of how long I could sustain my fitness levels. The start line filled with 45 swimmers, we were ready to race at 10h30. A Gu Roctane gel in my tummy and rocking my new Arena Cobra Mirror Goggles, I was ready to go. With the sound of the siren we set off into the chilly water, heading straight across to the island.

Race Start – Photo Craig Brandenburg

Once we reached the island, 400m from shore, we rounded the turn buouy, heading anti-clockwise around the island. Shortly after the turn I looked back to see Anton Botha, Lisa Cowling, Paul Templeton and Richard Willmore sitting nicely in a bunch behind me. With the water being so clear and flat, it was easy to spot who was swimming behind me. Following the lead paddler through the kelp beds, I managed to put in the odd surge which split the group up. Anton and Lisa stuck with me, but Richard and Paul dropped off the pace slightly.

As we made our way around the island, we swam zig-zags through the kelp beds and rock outcrops, paying careful attention to obstacles in our way. Swimming over the odd piece of kelp, scratching nice gauges in my chest, was par for the course. Anton, Lisa and I remained out front for the entire route around the island.

Approaching the turn-buoy and the final 500m/600m, Lisa and Anton began pulling up alongside me. I must be honest, I just didnt have another gear to try and pull away. The three of us rounded the turn at exactly the same time, leaving us with 400m to sprint it out for the win.

Shortly after the turn, Anton swam directly over me, forcing me underwater and resulting in a large mouthfull of salt water being swallowed. This left me trailing about 2 or 3m behind him and Lisa, having to try and catch up again. I persevered and managed to get back up to Anton’s feet in the final 100m. Anton choosing a line slightly left of the finish chute, allowed me to overtake him and reach the sand first, jumping to my feet and sprinting over the line to take the win.

Sprinting For The Line- Photo Craig Brandenburg

Looking Back – Photo Craig Brandenburg

A great swim, pushed right to the line, I was fortunate enough to come away with the win, but had to push hard in order to do so. Congratulations to both Anton and Lisa, who both put up a great fight and made it an extremely fun race to take part in.

Final Results:
1st – Phil Emslie 37m45s
2nd – Anton Botha 37m55s
3rd – Lisa Cowling 37m58s
4th - Paul Templeton 40m33s
5th – Richard Willmore 40m54s

Thank you to Rob Meintjies and his team at lagoonlife.net for hosting yet another fantastic event.

As I look back at my couch and some of the major decisions I have made over the last week, I realise that no matter what, in order to do any great thing, you need to be willing to get off your butt and make it happen.

There are a few big, exciting prospects lined up in the life of PhilSwim, keep watching this space to find out more.

Rich came to pick me up at 06h30, we headed off to Newlands pool for our regular training session. I managed to fit a very comfortable 5,5km before we packed up and headed on to Camps Bay for our “Main Set”, the 5km Human Rights Day Swim. This years event featured an 800m swim, a 1 mile swim and a 5km swim.

The water was a very fresh 12°c to 13°c, which was bordering on our limit in terms of cold. We have done very little in the cold water over the last few months. Nevertheless, we were on the start line raring to go in the 5km event. We were entered into the solo non-wetsuit event, I was wearing nothing but my regular Arena Powerskin Revo Jammers, Moulded Silicone Cap and Cobra Mirror Goggles.

Human Rights Day Swim 2013 Map

The start gun sounded and we were off, diving through the massive shore-break out into the Atlantic Ocean. The water caused a good burn on cheek bones (from the cold) as I tried to keep my face under the surface of the water. By the time I reached the first buoy I was already starting to feel comfortable and made the left turn, swimming parallel to the beach. Bryan Allot had taken it out hard and was setting the pace for the first few hundred metres.

Nearing the far buoy, I had settled into a good rythym and managed to catch and pass Bryan. My aim was to try and keep a steady pace throught the six 800m loops making up the 5km swim. The first three loops went by very quickly. As I approached the turn at half-way, I was met by the leaders of the 1 Mile race who had just started. Leading the way in the 1 Mile was a good mate of mine, Kent Horner. Kent immediately sat on my feet as we pulled away from the other 1 Mile swimmers. Kent and I worked well together throughtout the lap. Heading onto my penultimate loop and Kents final loop, I let Kent take the lead. I managed to sit with him throughout the loop as we passed many of the back-markers, taking advantage of the slipstream on offer.

Kent gave a nice little wave good bye as he headed for the beach at the end of his two laps, I made my way onto my final loop. Having been in the water for over 50 minutes, I was starting to feel the cold. The last lap was a bit of a struggle, but I managed to pull through and finish the 5km in around 1h05min, Bryan Allot held onto second position, finishing a minute or two behind me.

A great day out and a fantastic way to celebrate Human Rights Day. Check out www.freedomswimseries.co.za for full results as well as more information on their other swim events.

Which type of person are you? Are you working hard in order to earn results or are you making excuses?

Go out and have a kick ass Wednesday, open the door of opportunity and go after those dreams, I am!

Unfortunately there was a truck that overturned on the pass 30 minutes prior to the start of the session. This resulted in major traffic problems due to the road closure and forced people to turn around and head home. The few that stuck around and managed to get to the dam enjoyed a great session. The response was great and it seems that all of the participants learnt many new tricks. This will hopefully allow them to feel more confident next time they head out into the open water for a swim.

We covered some of the following areas:

• The start
• Sighting techniques
• Breathing techniques
• Pacing
• Swimming in a pack
• Nutrition and feeding
• Rounding Buoys
• Salt Water versus fresh water swimming
• And more

Keep an eye out for the next skills course as I plan to do this again in the near future.

Ann – nice long strokes

Kerry – great technique

Open Water Sighting

Richard – High Elbow

Richard – Sighting

After an initial bit of confusion, the SA Open Water Swimming Championships were brought forward by a month, the initial date was mid-April 2013. This change caused last minute adjustments to training programs and added a bit more pressure to everyone’s final preparations heading into the SA Open Water Swimming Championships. The event hosts three distances, namely the 10km, 5km and 3km swims, I was swimming the 10km and 5km races.

Day one greeted us with fantastic weather, the dam was flat and temperatures soared into the mid-thirties. The 10km race got underway at 10h00 on Saturday. This is a very competitive race and the qualifying standards are very tough. As a result of the fast qualifying times, the field of the men’s and women’s races are quite small and due to this, it was decided to combine the two races, starting the males and females off at the same time. I was ready to go, wearing my Arena Powerskin full body open water suit and Arena Cobra mirror goggles.

10km Start

As the horn went off to signal the start of the race, the men’s lead pack quickly formed and broke off the front of the field. The pack consisted of six swimmers, Chad Ho, Danie Marais, Troy Prinsloo, Gareth Beech, Rudolf Visser and myself. With Chad having missed out on the Olympics last year, he seemed adamant to break away on his own, not leaving any room for his competition to take him out in a final sprint for the line. He continued to put the hammer down on the first of four 2,5km loops. Chad’s initial pace split the group of six completely. Chad got away off the front, with Danie Marais following close behind. Troy Prinsloo held onto 3^rd position whilst Rudolf Visser, Gareth Beech and I continued to work together as a pack. With Chad leading, Troy and Danie battled it out for the second place.

Gareth, Rudolf and I had a battle of our own going on. At the end of every 2,5km loop, their was the option to feed, where a designated feeder hands you bottles or GU Gels etc to replenish and refuel along the swim. What happens at the feeding station is that swimmers need to swim slightly to the side of the course to get to the feeding station. This allows other swimmers to either try and break-away while the others feed, alternatively, they can slow down and wait for the feeding swimmers in order to continue working together as a pack. Drafting with other swimmers saves a lot of energy and allows for much faster swimming. I fed at the first feeding stop, Rudolf Visser skipped a feed and decided to try and break-away, Gareth and I chased him hard and managed to catch back up to him by the 400m mark into the second lap.

Approaching the end of the second lap and the 5km mark, all of us headed off to the side in order to feed. Rudolf tried his best to push me off course, attempting to restrict my feeding. He hoped that I would miss the feed and pay for it later in the race. There was a lot of pushing and shoving in the water, this happens a lot in open water swimming. I managed to get a half feed in but it was not easy. The three of us continued to work well through lap three.

Nearing the feeding station for the last time at the end of lap 3, we all fed again, this time I took slightly longer in order to get more GU Brew Electrolytes on board as well as a GU Roctane gel, in doing so allowed a gap to open up between myself and the other two swimmers.

I set off on the last lap chasing hard, I must have fallen about 10m back from Rudolf and Gareth and was working hard in order to try and catch up. Rudolf saw the opportunity to try and get away on his own and worked very hard on the 1km stretch to the first turn buoy. The fast pace set by Rudolf worked to my advantage as it was tiring Gareth out, he fell back slightly and I noticed that I was slowly but surely catching up to him again. With 1500m to go, I caught Gareth, pulling up alongside him. This was now going to be a battle for 5^th place between us. Gareth dropped behind me, trying to get into my slip stream. I managed to put in one or two hard bursts in the lead up to the final turn, which signaled 500m to go. I managed to get slightly ahead before the turn, leaving me with 500m to go, hanging on to 5^th position.

Sprinting For The Line with Gareth Beech Chasing

Finished

In the meantime, Chad Ho had streaked away to win, leaving Troy and Danie to battle it out for the last Barcelona, World Championship ticket. Danie led Troy through the entire race, but Troy called on his Olympic experience from 2012, to catch Danie and out-sprint Danie for the line to take second place. Danie finished just behind, in third with Rudolf coming home in Fourth place.

I managed to hold Gareth off over the closing stages of the race to take 5^th place on the day, in what was a tough day out and a personal best time of 2hours 06 minutes.

Gu Recovery Brew Time

It was great to have my wife Vanessa and son James cheering me on, as well as my parents and parents in-law.

Family

Devon from GU Energy South Africa came out for the day to support Troy and I, which was most appreciated.

Western Province Aquatics played host to an amazing event, Sandra Reynolds and her team pulled out all of the stops for what was a great South African Championship race.

The plan is to cover a few crucial areas of Open Water Swimming, providing tips that will hopefully save you time and energy whilst you are out there in the water.

Open Water Swimming Tips

Feel free to contact me on the details above in order to book your place.

Where: Silvermine Dam (at the top of Ou Kaapse Weg)

When: Saturday 16 March 2013

Time: 14h00 Start