Callala Bay open water swim

As always these days, there is an open water swim before a triathlon, just for a bit of fun and sometimes can be a good way to blow out some cobwebs or just good for a recky for the next days race. This open water swim was 1000m, which in respect to the training we do isn't all that much. But when your used to chasing that black line day in day out and you turn up for the swim to see the wind is up, the weather has come in and threatening to rain and there is a 2-3ft swell hitting the beach that 1000meters changes dramatically to something resembling a massive 5km set from hell.

Fortunately the swim didn't out to be all that bad, it was actually fun. The beach had an easy entrance with no surprises under the water and you could get out relatively easy, the biggest drama was the dumpers coming through - you just had to time it right. There was a nice current running up the beach which helped out quite nicely, so there wasn't too much thrashing and bashing the water. Coming back into the beach for the finish, if you timed it right, again, you could catch a nice little wave and body surf it in.

A nice group of 45 people turned up to enjoy this little paddle and by the looks on their faces as they came out of the water, they all agreed that is was tough but enjoyable. My swim was relatively comfortable, coming out of the water 2nd overall and 1st in age.