Culburra Beach Saturday 3rd April

Not drowning but waving

Photo: oceanswims.com





Tilbury Classic 2k
Retro-swimming with Nowra-Culburra SLSC
I knew it would be good day yesterday when I arrived at the Nowra-Culburra surf club to see a pod of dolphins feeding in the surf not 20m from shore

In fact I was so intent in watching the dolphins that I missed most of the pre-race briefing in the surf club
Not a problem I thought, I'll just keep the cans on my left and follow the other swimmers
I didn't hear that part about the "washing-machine" conditions around the headland or the fierce sweep in the surf at the start

It was certainly an interesting swim in many ways
The weather was overcast, then sunny, then raining, no sunny, then raining really hard
There was a big southerly swell, but safe enough to start the race on the high tide
The swim was scheduled to run from Tibury Cove at Culburra Beach south around the headland to Warrain Beach, The organisers sensibly reversed the direction of the swim so that swimmers would avoid finishing through the messy surf conditions at Warrain Beach

It was a small group of around 75 swimmers that lined up on the beach. Only one start wave, young and old stood together for the head count to make sure that what went in was the same as what came out
We started 100m south of the first marker, the sweep and rip knocked me off my feet and helped push me to the turning buoy
The big swell out the back made navigation a little difficult
Encountered the washing-machine conditions on a shallow reef off the headland
Spotted lots of fishes, I swam over 3 little rays
Actually that was probably 1 little ray I swam over 3 times, at one stage the current was pushing me almost backwards as I swam forwards, until a surge pushed me clear of the bommie
The last couple hundred metres into Tilbury Cove was smooth, there was even a little wave in the cove that I could ride onto the beach
As is my custom with these away-from-home swims, I lined up with some elite swimmers in the 400m "dash for cash" and surprisingly didn't finish last

I really enjoyed this swim and the morning at Culburra
It had a real "old school" feel about it
A nice change from the busy ocean swims in Sydney
The organisers were friendly but left nothing to chance on water safety

Time 47:03
Couple navigation stops and swimming against the current around the headland
It felt further than a 2k ocean swim