Tag Archives: Cape Town

Human Rights Day Swim 2013

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I have taken a new approach to Open Water Racing this season, and have tried to avoid the extreme cold of the West Coast of Cape Town. I have found that the fitter I have become, the leaner I have gotten and the direct result of this is a lower threshold to the cold water. After a bit of persuasion from my training partner, Richard Willmore, I decided to join him at Camps Bay for this years Human Rights Day swim 2013.

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.

PhilSwim

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Robben Island Swim: Solo

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After returning from Italy and World Masters Swimming Championships in July, I have been set on doing a solo Robben Island swim crossing. I knew that with the extra effort and dedicated training I put in for World Champs, that I would set myself up nicely for a fast crossing.

I got hold of Derrick Fraser, a renowned waterman from Big Bay, Bloubergstrand, the finish point of the standard Robben Island to Big Bay swim. I asked him to assist me during my swim, as well as provide insight into the ideal conditions and the best route to take on the day. When swimming in the ocean, or open ocean in general, the route taken plays an absolutely vital role in the success of your swim. With Derrick helping me, I knew I had the best person on the boat providing both knowledge and experience.

We agreed on what weather conditions were required and I was ready to wait for the ideal day. The key for me was to get a day with perfect conditions so that I could give myself a great chance of a good time, rather than just settle for any weather conditions and “just make” the crossing. I wanted to do it properly. There was also another factor at play here, it had to be over a weekend as I had no more annual leave available from work, to use for a mid-week swim. Waiting for a perfect weekend day made my wait that much longer.
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Around the Island Swim 2012

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On Saturday we packed the car and headed off to Langebaan for one of my favourite local swims of the year, the 3.2km Pearly’s Around the Island Swim. I had my family taking up the backseat and training partner Duncan Bonney for company on the one and a half hour car trip. There was great excitement from my side as it was James’ first trip to the beach and he was coming with to watch his dad swim. The ocean holds such a special place in my life, so it is something I look forward to sharing with my son as he grows up.

A great view of the Island from the Langebaan Beach

The beautiful West Coast Road heading out of Cape Town provides great views of the ocean and as you pass the West Coast National Park just before Langebaan, there is often plenty of wildlife on show. The swim event forms part of the Annual Langebaan Lagoon Festival. This year there was quite a buzz around town as we arrived. Preparations were underway for the antique car show, they had a Pilates session happening down on the beach, along with talent shows and DJ’s pumping their music.

Registration took place at Pearly’s Restaurant from 09h00 and race briefing started on time at 09h45. The race was split into 3 options, a short 400m fun swim for the kids, a one mile out and back swim and the main event, the 3.2km Around the Island Swim. The one mile was first to go at 10h00, followed by the 3.2km ten minutes later. The water was a very fresh 15°C and by the start the wind had picked up and was blowing very strongly from the South (left to right across the course), creating decent sized wind swell and chop on the water surface. The 3.2km route took you straight from the beach towards the island, where at a turn buoy 300m out you turned left, swimming as close as possible to the rocky edge of the island. You circumnavigated the island in a clock-wise direction. Once around the island, roughly 2.6km, you ended up back to the same turn buoy, made a left turn and headed straight back to the beach for the finish.

It seemed as though the race was going to be a rematch from the Camps Bay Human Rights Day swim last week (Report) as Danie Marais was lined up next to me on the start line again. Being tall, I had a great start as I was able to run quite far out, lifting my legs and jumping through the water. I set off at a relatively comfortable pace and was soon caught by Danie and Duncan, both sitting nicely on my feet. Danie reached the turn first and I followed him closely. Danie surged around the buoy and I followed on his feet, dropping Duncan in the process. Danie and I then worked well together, taking turns on the front and each of us testing one another every couple of hundred metres with a good surge in speed. With the island being so rocky and rugged, there are plenty of obstacles along the way to watch out for. There are kelp beds everywhere along the route and the occasional rock quite close to the surface. The race is not only tactical but navigational IQ plays a huge role if you are trying to swim fast and as close to the edge of the island as possible. Danie and I were definitely pushing the limits as on more than one occasion we found ourselves completely entrenched in seaweed and laughing at one another as we tried to get scramble over and through the kelp beds. We had a paddler leading the way for us, he must have had a few chuckles whilst at the same time having a great race unfold before him. With us nearing the final turn and nearly the entire way around the island we both had turns on the front trying to push the pace with neither of us successfully getting away.

We rounded the final turn together and set off as fast as we could with 300m to go. I managed to hold onto Danie’s feet for about 200m of the last 300m, at which point he put in a last big surge to which I just could not respond. Reaching the beach just behind him, I crossed the line just four seconds back. Danie finished in 38:23 and I placed second in 38:27. Danie was frozen, I reckon a bit of hypothermia was setting in. My wife, Nes, and James were there waiting for me, towel ready and cheering dad on. Well done to Danie, who is definitely pushing me hard in these races, always great to race head to head like that. It is really what racing is all about for me, so much fun! Can’t wait for the next race against him which will be the 10km at SA Open Water Swimming Championships at Albert Falls Dam, Natal, in two weeks time.

Duncan held on to a solid 3rd place finish in 42:20, helping Danie and I take the team event honours as Vineyard Swimming Club. Bryan Allot dominated the wetsuit category, winning in 43:02. Emma Alsop, the birthday girl, won the Ladies race in 45:42. Well done and happy birthday Emma.

Duncan Bonney - 3rd, Philip Emslie 2nd and Danie Marais - 1st

After the race we enjoyed a great cup of warm coffee and lunch at Pearly’s restaurant while we waited for the prize-giving to start. Rob and Craig, the race organisers, put on another fantastic event. They really go all out and this is one race I recommend you put onto the calendar for next year. There is talk of the hosting one or two other swim races in the awesome lagoon, I can almost guarantee they will also be fantastic races. The prize giving was also great, they had loads of prizes for swimmers in every category, as well as great spot prizes from the race sponsors.

For a full set of Results: Click here

Hopefully I will see you there next year, I will definitely be back.

SA Masters Swimming Championships 2012

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For many people out there, who don’t understand what Masters swimming is, Masters swimming is for persons 19 years and older. Age groups commence in 5-year brackets e.g. 25 to 29 years, 30 to 34 years. The 28th SA Masters Swimming Championships took place at the University of the Western cape from 14 to 17 March 2012.

There were a couple of phenomenal swims, in particular on day 1, where two of my oldest swimming friends achieved a great record. Thane Williams and Bevin Reynolds, were part of the Cape Town Masters Swimming Clubs Mixed  4 x 100 Freestyle Relay team with Tarryn Stanford and Ryk Neethling that broke a Fina Masters World Record. Absolutely awesome, I was over the moon for these guys. Great to see good friends achieving such great heights in the pool.

Thane Williams, Tarryn Stanford, Bevin Reynolds and Ryk Neethling after smashing a World Record

My schedule started on day 2 with one individual race per day, it included the 800m, 400m and 200m Freestyle individual events and a 4 x 50m Medley Relay, where I swam the backstroke. The three freestyle events, along with the 3km Open Water swim, will be my focus events for the World Masters Swimming Championships taking place in Riccione, Italy, in June.

 

My primary goal over the past few months has been to improve on my 10km Open Water swim. I will be racing this at the South African Senior Open Nationals in April, and as a result I have done very little speed-work in the build up to SA Masters Champs. I knew that all the shorter pool races were going to be a challenge for me. My main focus for this event was always going to be the 800m Freestyle, where I was up against Tyron Venter from Phoenix Swimming Club. This event is long enough to not be a sprint, but short enough to require a fair amount of speed. Tyron and I were seeded in lanes 4 and 5, and set off stroke for stroke next to each other. The first 400m went by very quickly and we were literally going lap for lap alongside one another. Our feet touched the pad on each lap within half a second of each other for 700m. In the last 100m Tyron took off, he went a blistering 1:02.46 for the last 2 laps. I didn’t have the legs or speed to go with him, and had to settle for second place. We both dipped under nine minutes and also both swam SA Masters Colours qualifying times.

See the splits below.

1 Venter, Tyron    26 Phoenix-CG                   8:53.05 SSAQT
               1:01.99    2:08.82 (1:06.83)
      3:16.92 (1:08.10)   4:25.21 (1:08.29)
      5:33.27 (1:08.06)   6:41.75 (1:08.48)
      7:50.59 (1:08.84)   8:53.05 (1:02.46)
2 Emslie, Phil     28 Cape Town-WP                 8:57.72 SSAQT
               1:02.36    2:08.99 (1:06.63)
      3:16.87 (1:07.88)   4:25.15 (1:08.28)
      5:33.40 (1:08.25)   6:41.91 (1:08.51)
      7:50.39 (1:08.48)   8:57.72 (1:07.33)

Next up for me was the 400m Freestyle, this was definitely going to be a bit short and fast. Tyron won in 4:14.93 and I finished 2nd in 4:21.22, my quickest 400m this season. The 200m Freestyle was much of the same, this is an event where the sprinters step up to the slightly longer race and compete against the distance swimmers. Chris King, an out and out sprinter, set off at an extremely fast pace and ended up smashing the SA Masters record for the 25 to 29 year age group, finishing in 1:58.61. Matthew Josephson finished 2nd and I was overall third.


The last event in the pool for me was the 4 x 50m Medley relay, where I swam the backstroke. This was loads of fun as I don’t often swim any of the other three swimming strokes. I had a great start and came up from underwater on the legal limit of 15m. I touched the wall second and my team mates from Cape Town Masters Swimming Club held on to second place.

 

Shortly after the relay, was the final event of the competition, the Dash for Cash. This is a 50m Freestyle, where the top sprinters across the different age groups are invited to compete for prizes. The two age groups are 50 years and over, and 19 to 49 years.

In the ladies 50 and over event, Debbie Carroll just pipped Cecelia Stanford for the win.

1 Carroll, Debbie   Wahoo-CG                       30.17
2 Stanford, Cecil   Cape Town-WP                   30.59
3 Campbell, Heath   East Coast-KZ                  31.42

The Mens 50 and over was just as close, with Andre taking the win over Terry.

1 Steynberg, Andr  56 Wahoo-CG                       28.20
2 Downes, Terry    63 Coelacanth-NT                  28.66        
3 Spies, Izak      58 Cape Dolphin-WP                29.20

The Ladies 19 to 49 was another extremely close contest between Sam Gunther and Edith Otterman.

1 Ottermann, Edit   Cape Town-WP                   27.47
2 Gunther, Sam      Phoenix-CG                     28.78
3 Cadiz, Perry      Cape Town-WP                   29.81

Ladies 19 to 49 years start

The ultimate pool event was the Mens 19 to 49 years Dash for Cash. Unfortunately this event had a bit of drama, with Thane Williams, one of the favourites, false starting. This left the door open for Chris King to take the money, winning by over 1 second.

1 King, Christoph  27 Cape Dolphin-WP                24.42
2 Langenhoven, Ch  24 Coelacanth-NT                  25.64
3 Tatterson, Brya  48 East Coast-KZ                  25.69

Thane Williams with a "flying" start in the Dash for Cash

The next event, SA Masters Swimming Championships Open Water 1km and 3km swim, to be held at Blue Rock dam in Somerset West, the next day.

The pool event was loads of fun, with everyone having a great time. The atmosphere at all these Masters events are very social. I highly recommend it to any swimmers looking for some great fun, with a bit of racing included.