I cannot remember the last time I was in a pool. For me, it’s open-water swimming or nothing. I do surf patrols and think nothing of doing a point-to-point swim across a bay or lake. I am pretty comfortable out there, and very rarely think about the dangers of open water.
However, yesterday I did a 500m swim that took me well and truly out of my comfort zone. During surf patrol at Shelly Beach on the Central Coast, I got the IRB crew to drop me off half a click straight out to sea and swam back in. Normally when I swim I’m maybe 250 – 300m offshore, so seeing the beach a bit further away was daunting, and added to the fact that out that far one could not see the bottom was another factor that got the sphincter a little tighter.
Stepping out of my comfort zone like this was good in one way though. Normally I swim at around 3km/h, but due to the fact that I was very motivated to get back in to shore I managed 3.5km/h.
Very glad I didn’t get them to take me out a full kilometre!
