We all love the beach right? A sunny day is an invitation for gathering some friends, body surfing, hot chips and potentially a pretty bad sunburn. For me, these holidays, every January the beach has a whole different vibe. The association to the word beach involves nasty stings, being trampled over and some pretty sore legs.
The Australian Open water championships take place in mid to late January every year, inviting swimmers of ages 14-19 and open age swimmers to compete in distances from the 5km to 10km. For my family, this has become a yearly trip, which has been located in WA for the past 4 years ( I am not at all thrilled about the longest possible flight). Although Bunbury is quite literally the furthest destination from Sydney possible, it is a little different to Busselton ( last years venue) which is a positive slight change of scenery. Most swimmers arrive on the Monday 19th or Tuesday 20th after a 5hr flight and 2 hour drive down to the quiet town of Bunbury, for me this trip is usually a mix between mutual annoyance of the entire family, sweating, overstimulation and hunger, but once arrived, most swimmers like to check out the conditions of the race course. Too much chop or swell can cause some nervous conversation, but the whisper of stingers in the water really raises concern, especially with the 14-15 year old girls age group as I have discovered through some informal observation of their loud squealing and delaying of entering the water.
Open water swimming was introduced into the Olympics 2008 in Beijing and has only grown from there. The 10km event, the swimming distance of a marathon, is the main event and certified olympic distance. To prepare younger swimmers for this distance you gradually move from the 2.5km swim, to the 5km to the 7.5km and then finally the 10; the 5, 7.5 and 10 are all national certified distances and for myself and other younger swimmers an opportunity to make nsw state teams, podium finishes or for my brother, make a junior worlds team and a trip to this years venue, Argentina!
Through open water, many opportunities including travel, meeting new people and learning new skills have arised. Every year, the media coverage grows more and more, with 400m World Championship medallist, Sam Short attending the championships in Bunbury this year and encouraging people to come try out this new and growing branch of swimming in Australia. His win in the new event, the 3km knockout furthered this new engagement. The mixed 4 by 1500m event also stirred up some aggressive cheering and very close finishes as teams used different strategies in positioning the 2 female and male swimmers in their team. My team went with a fastest to slowest approach, with the two boys and then following with the two girls and finished with 8th place against the open swimmers, including elites like Moesha Johnson and Kyle Lee, Olympic and world championship medallists in the 10km.
However you spent your time at the beach in these holidays, I hope you enjoyed the beautiful opportunity to spend time with people you love and put some sunscreen on, unlike my brother.
