Growing up, my siblings and I spent hours at the beach. During the summer, we went straight to the beach after school, and spent pretty much the entirety of our weekends there. From a very young age, I remember my dad taking me out ‘over my head’ deep, and teaching me to bodysurf. I was all over it. As a kid, I never had that much fear in the water.

Despite being a water baby, I never had swimming lessons outside of school. At age 15 I taught myself to swim properly, because I wanted to do a couple of triathlons. This involved going out to the tiny wee 20 meter pool at Cherry Farm (an old psychiatric institution near Karitane - now redeveloped into a village but it still has the original pool from back in the day), trying to copy the technique I saw on YouTube, and filming my own technique to see how it compared. This strategy worked surprisingly well, causing me to come out of the water at the front of the pack, before getting whizzed past as soon as everyone got onto their bikes! Luck was on my side when I won a Ruby Fresh wetsuit at the Challenge Wanaka triathlon as a spot prize.

At age 16, I was at Warrington beach with my family, when I got recruited to join Warrington Surf Lifesaving Club. A year later, I decided to do the White Island race, which involved going around White Island on a board, ski, canoe, or swimming! I chose the swimming option, making this my first proper open water swim, as well as a good chance to test out my new wetsuit.

Before the race, I was unsure that I would make it around the island. This would be the furthest I had ever swum in one go. Armed with a ‘can do’ attitude, and cheered on by my fellow club members, I climbed down the steps and into the water. My initial nerves melted away as soon as I started swimming, and despite the challenging conditions, I ended up really enjoying myself, and finishing strong!

After totally surprising myself at White Island, I wanted a bigger challenge, so I signed up to the Ruby Island 10km swim in 2025. This swim also went a lot better than expected, so for the next challenge I decided to ditch the wetsuit, and do the Whakatipu Triple Challenge in togs.

After completing that, I was sold on skins swimming, and opted to go wetsuitless from then on out.

Always looking for the next challenge, I started researching any longer swims that I could do in New Zealand. This is when the idea of the Cook Strait came up, but I quickly dismissed it as it seemed a bit too far fetched! About a year later, the idea popped back up, but as a very real possibility this time.

Fast forward to today. I have decided to give the Cook Strait a go this coming summer, which means a lot of swimming now in the lead up. I set myself the goal of swimming around all of the islands close to Dunedin, to stay motivated and experience some similar conditions to the Cook Strait.

Sharing my island swims on Instagram has raised a lot of questions from followers. “How do you stay warm?” “Are you scared of sharks?” “What do you think about?” and “Why are you doing this?” are just a few. While I love swimming in the cold water, there are definitely challenges to overcome, but I have strategies to make it work! A big challenge is definitely the cold. Pre-warming myself, swimming fast enough to generate heat, eating enough food, getting warm afterwards (but NOT in the shower), and most importantly, being sensible about it are just some of the ways I make sure I don’t get too cold.

Getting in is the hardest part, so I like to imagine myself already swimming and having a great time to motivate me to actually start! Due to the nature of swimming, you are alone with your thoughts for a long time. For me, this is usually welcome, as it gives me time to plan things. In fact, I thought up this paragraph you are reading right now while doing a 5km pool swim! I often daydream and am completely off with the fairies while swimming. But, when sore, cold or tired, that is when I need to hype myself up to keep going! To do this, I’ll think about my goal, and remind myself that every little bit counts toward my Cook Strait training. Discomfort is just a part of the sport, so I embrace it and see it as practice.

I think about my progress, and remind myself that just a few months ago, whatever short swim I am doing at the time would have felt like a huge deal. I also like to think about just how lucky I am to be in a position where I can do this, with enough physical ability, time, and support from people to make my crazy goal a real possibility.

The community is one of the main reasons that I am so motivated to swim, both from having other swimmers to push me, and having so many people on board with my goals, getting excited about what I’m doing. I love the challenge of open water swimming. There is no real limit to it, and people have achieved some insane things in the open water, which inspires me to push my own limits.

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The swimming season in south-west Western Australia is just about to open. Well, I suppose if you’re die-hard (like most open water swimmers seem to be) it never really closes so what I mean is, swimming is about to happen in sunshine. At least I hope it is. We have just shivered through a long, wet, chilly winter. Longer, wetter, and chillier than usual. Swims in sunshine have been snatched at the edge of sunset, in glimpses between cloud bands, but, mostly, non-existent. There is an earnest desperation to the swimmers at the moment, as they yearn for spring.

Spring swimming sounds delicious. Gentle, warming breezes, wildflowers nodding dainty heads along the path to the beach, brilliant sunrises and more comfortable sea temperatures. The reality of spring swimming around Cape Naturaliste is that the Leeuwin Current, which transports warm, tropical water down from the north moves further out to sea and cool, Southern Ocean water floods the shoreline on the Capes Current. This is coupled with freshwater upwellings that dot the favourite swimming spots - winter creeks bursting with rain push up into the ocean, usually right where you want to step into the water. The sea gets colder, just when you want to be packing the wetsuit away and swimming in skin.

Somehow cold water doesn’t deter the vibrant community of swimmers. There are a few official swimming clubs in the region that cater to all ages of swimmers, with a focus on pool swimming and competition, but early morning at the beaches you’ll meet the unofficial clubs. Groups of mermaids and mermen who woke up one day and decided to make ocean swimming a regular thing. Most mornings at my favourite swimming hole, Yallingup Lagoon, you’ll find two or three different groups swimming laps around the 350m circuit that loops from the beach out to the fringing reef, across the length of it, and back along the shore.

Earliest in and quickest ‘round the laps are the ‘Fat Turkeys’, a group of men who swim hard and fast and have several Rottnest Channel Swim* soloists amongst them. These guys often swim outside the reef in unprotected waters, ignoring the little shadow of caution that most ocean swimmers in this part of WA have inside them. At the end of their swims, the Turkeys are buoyant. Friendly and full of jokes as they head to the showers.

The next swimmers into the water are the mermaids, in several waves. The A wave swimmers are strong and fast. There are a few Rottnest Channel Swim soloists in this group as well. The B and C wave mermaids tend to focus on sight-seeing and stopping for chats a little more than the A wave. If there’s an octopus hiding in her garden the A wave will spot her, and the B and C waves will stop to make friends. Finally, there are the Knickerless Swimmers. This group ranges in age from late 60s to early 80s and is completely dedicated to thrice-weekly dips. They meander with masks and snorkels, finding pleasure in a slow, mindful swim rather than the mad dashes of more competitive groups.

I am in the mermaid B wave. I enjoy the challenge of open water swimming races and have swum the channel to Rottnest as part of a team in the Port to Pub** race. I also enjoy stopping to make friends with an octopus. For me, swimming is a path to calm and perspective. Am I competitive? Yes, but also focused on finding pleasure from the swim rather than the win.

When I moved to this town in 2014 I didn’t know anyone. Through swimming I have been introduced to a whole community of people I might not have otherwise met. On the rare occasion I bump into someone from another group at, for example, the coffee shop (perhaps the next most common place to find a wild water swimmer, after the sea), the first question is always, ‘have you swum today?’ followed by a breakdown of the conditions, marine life sightings, water temperature, and when the next swim might be. This salty line of connection and resilience runs like a thread through all the regular swimmers of Yallingup Lagoon.

As lighter mornings and a bit of sunshine encourage more swimmers out of bed earlier in the day we occasionally end up with all three groups (plus a myriad of other keen surfers, swimmers, and dippers) in the water at the same time. This creates the perfect conditions for sighting practice as people move around the lagoon at different speeds and, quite often, in different directions. The changing platform fills with people. Cold swimmers queue for freshwater showers. Sand, towels, wetsuits are flung everywhere as people move in and out of the water, and there is the kind of excited conversation that only happens when the endorphins are flowing. To a non-swimmer or casual beach-goer, the hectic energy swirling at this interchange must be intimidating. Too bad if you want to rinse the sand from your feet, there are five swimmers at the showers and a guy coming up behind with his surfboard… By about eight o’clock, it is done. The lagoon emptied of these groups, the showers are free, and there’s space, once again, to drop onto the bench and quietly watch the water. The swimmers are dispersed to their favourite coffee locations to warm up, check in with each other, and talk about swimming.

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Notes:

*a swim from Cottesloe Beach to Rottnest Island, about 20km out to sea, and the crown event for open water swimming in WA

**a different swim across to Rottnest. It starts from Leighton Beach, ends at the Rottnest Hotel and is ‘a swim for all’.

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Link to Katies' Substack

Hi, I’m Littlejohn — a Canadian/Irish guy living between Helsinki, Mallorca, and Big Sky, Montana.

I mainly OWS (open water swim) in the Baltic Sea or the many lakes near Nagu in the Archipelago of Finland. I love to swim in the Med off our place in Mallorca.

But I’m currently swimming in Bozeman at Glen Lake Rotary Park (near MAP Brewing Company — an après swim tradition).

We also swim at Lake Levinsky at the foot of Big Sky Resort and the famous Lone Peak — a never-erupted laccolith fed by melting snow. It’s refreshing!

Recently, I was pacing my friend Bradford there for the Bozeman Triathlon on June 21st. He finished 2nd in his division.

There’s also “Buoy Nights!,” put on by TrainAnything up at the Hyalite Reserve every Thursday night starting at 6 p.m., from July through the end of August. It’s a short but glorious window when the water’s warm enough to swim.

It’s a great scene up here in Montana — some of the most athletic people in the world, like climber Conrad Anker, call it home. There are also private jets and billionaires, but I don’t know anything about those...

Catch me at the outdoor music at Len Hill Park or at the “Brothel,” the cycling-inspired dive bar on Aspen Leaf Dr.

Summer is short here (and yes, it has been known to snow on the 4th of July) in this last best place — so get moving!

And my connection to Ruby Fresh?

I used to be the Senior Editor at Snowboard Canada magazine and Canadian Editor at Snowboard UK magazine right back in the day when Eddie Spearing, the owner of Ruby Fresh, was the publisher. He was surprised when I got in touch after many years saying I was a keen swimmer too.

Now I work in tech and import Spanish wines to North America. I’m a dad to three (plus one bulldog), and I stay fit through open water swimming (OWS), CrossFit, biking, snowboarding, and golf.

— LJ

#OpenWaterSwimming #Montana #Finland #Mallorca #Triathlon #ColdPlunge #AdventureLiving

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Grandfather clock time. The subtle characteristics of the clockwork mechanism my father religiously kept wound up, winding the key every three days, which is now my task, listening to the rhythm of the tick, and the tock, there in my ears when I listen, and in my subconscious when not. And the chimes, on the hour, day in day out. Reminding me.

I have many books on the subject of time. For instance the books about Harrison’s chronometer to keep track of time and thus calculate longitude and the seafarers position on the globe. And not get shipwrecked. Incredible precision and technology for the time. Or books on the theoretical physics of time. How it is measured. The history of time. Why is a second a second? Why is a second and minute and hour base 60? Why? I think I know why ‘base 60’ but that’s for another day. Have you thought about how time is measured? Have you?

Today, as I write this, it is my fathers 125th birthday were he alive. He lived in, or came, from another time. But that is still not what I mean by ‘what is time’? No.

What is time?

The arrow of time goes in one direction. Entropy, the breaking down of all matter only has one direction — to be broken down even more. Hot goes to cold. Solid goes to dust. Dreams fade. Entropy moves to the ever lower denominator. To an ever decreasing state of being. Towards absolute zero. It doesn’t go the other way. The 2nd law of thermodynamics. It’s sort of common sense. But Time? What does time do? Can time oppose the arrow of entropy?

Can time move in another direction. Can we experience phase shifts. Dimensional shifts dependent on decisions taken at any given instantaneous moment taking us along other roads less traveled. Can we move inter-dimensionally through perceptional phases? Do we know we have moved through a phase. Through time?

The grandfather clock ticks a second but what is it marking? Yes, a second of ‘time’. But what is time?

The Arrow Of Time, or perhaps the Arrow Of Entropy, apparently can only move in one direction. Are they the same? Can they be separated? Entropy breakdown is a separate physical reality from time, whereas time is purely perceptual. I think. But is it?

How long has the civilised human lived on the earth? 6000 years? 10,000 years? The Sumerians were the first, we are told. The dinosaurs left Earth 65 million years ago.

That’s a big gap.

How long for traces of a previous civilisation to be obliterated and no remnant left to witness? Have you thought about that? Well, apparently it’s 1.2 million years. So between the Sumerians and the dinosaurs there’s a fair few civilisations that are theoretically possible to have come and gone.

There’s a hole in Darwinism. The ‘missing link’ you will have heard it described as. The jump from chimp to human has not been made, anthropologically. It’s merely theory. A model.

How old is the universe? 13.5 Billion years we are told. When was earth ‘born’? 4.5 Billion years ago we are told. Have you thought about how big ‘a billion’ is? It’s unfathomable.

But that’s a big gap.

Can you contemplate that gap?

Was time born at the start of the big bang?

Where did the big bang come from? A zero point? A random moment of nothing from which everything emerged?

But what about before that moment? Think about it. You can feel it. Try to feel it. Work through it and feel, as you stroke, that before the instantaneous moment of creation there was already time.

There was Time before Creation.

What is time?

Listening to music, as an analogy, you can only hear music in a forward motion, from beat to forward beat, through the psychological thought movement we unintentionally create that is time. We move from moment to moment. Beat to beat. Music needs forward progression. But music also too solidifies a past memory in that moment of that time of our lives. Time connects. Time is instantaneous.

What is time — is it a vertical shaft or a horizontal tunnel? Up, down, left, right?

How do we move back through ‘time’. Why do we, as physical entities, collide and cross personal time lines? Where do we all, all the 8 billion of us, fit.

Relativistic travel lenses time relative to the viewer at light speed. So what is time? Time is local. Time is total.

Seconds Minutes Hours Weeks.

When you are swimming stop thinking about distance, think about time. Time well spent. Sacrifice time, maximise comfort.

Complete the task. It’s just you out there.

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Well are they?

Most ‘thermal’ suits use 3mm & 4mm #39 grade neoprene combined with a fleecy lining. You'll often find the fleecy quick dry lining called a 'zirconium layer'. The fleece traps a layer of water which the body heats up and this acts as a thermal barrier, plus the fleece itself is made of a combination of hollow fibers which traps air which you warm, and the zirconium fibers. Zirconium is a really good insulator, with the idea that the zirconium will insulate the body from the cold of the water radiating it’s way through the neoprene from the outside. And it’s fluffy and comfy.

One of the problems however with this type of thermal suit is it is heavy when dry, and even heavier when wet. When swimming you are carrying that layer of water trapped within the fluffy layer with you, so the weight of the water will slow you down. A 'normal' thermal suit is not a fast wetsuit.

Another issue is if the suit is not a good fit you will get a flush of water coming through, which then, of course, nullifies that nice relatively thick ‘warm’ layer of water you built up.

Ruby Fresh suits are not marketed as a ‘thermal’ wetsuit, as such. But they are warm. We should push this angle more. Ruby Fresh suits use a titanium foil layer on all the panels of the torso, the shoulders, the arms and also the calf panel. The titanium foil layer is sandwiched between the outer smoothskin SCS neoprene and the jersey liner. You can actually see it easily if you stretch the inner jersey of, say, the arm against a finger. It looks ‘silvery’. The titanium reflects a goodly proportion (35-40%) of your body heat that you generate, back to you.

The jersey liner of the suits is a normal nylon liner i.e. not fluffy, so it does not hold a heavy weight of water as does the ‘fluffy’ layer gaps and pores. But, there is a laminar thin layer of water between the inner nylon jersey layer and your skin which you have warmed and which the heat is retained within due to the titanium -alpha layer. Consequently the suits are fast AND warm. The Echo model uses 4mm #39 grade Yamamoto neoprene on the main panels; the Flow uses 5mm Aerodome. Plus, the Flow suit, being 5mm thickness + Aerodome is warmer too, because it is mechanically thicker (and obviously more buoyant).

An extra tidbit…

There’s one other thing to mention.

That is — the difference between a limestone derived neoprene such as that made by Yamamoto of Japan and oil (petroleum based) derived neoprene by a multitude of manufacturers, but for example Sheico.

Though not expressly a massive contributor to warmth for higher end (read $$) swim wetsuits, it’s certainly a factor when comparing ‘cheaper’ suits to ‘more expensive suits’, even within a brand.

Oil derived neoprene’s are cheaper, inferior performance-wise and use a different manufacturing process entirely to limestone derived neoprene. But take heart that if a brand is using a Yamamoto limestone neoprene they will shout it from the roof tops! It’s a step change better as a neoprene product. (This is actually the subject for another article, coming soon. A timely one as the question of neoprene production is a hot talking point currently in the surf world).

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Anyway!! What I was trying to get at with the above was the mechanical properties of the two types of neoprene. Limestone neoprene has a smaller cell structure with cells/bubbles of ~0.1-0.2mm diameter; and lower density: ~0.15-0.2 g/cm³, i.e. lightweight, thus reducing drag from weight. It is also warmer for a given thickness. Whereas oil derived neoprene has a cell size of ~0.3-0.5mm diameter which reduces buoyancy (less bubbles per sq/cm, which is sort of counter-intuitive but science), and insulation, thus requiring thicker neoprene for a specific warmth factor compared to limestone neoprene, and also to provide a similar buoyancy. Oil derived neoprene also has a higher density: ~0.25-0.3 g/cm³ than limestone neoprene. i.e. it’s appreciably heavier.

And with that cell size reduction comes better flexibility / malleability / elongation. All the attributes a swim wetsuit needs. Honestly, it’s complicated!

Basically, Ruby Fresh uses the best neoprene there is, at a price that can’t be beaten due to our sales model. AND they are warm. AND fast. AND light weight.

Ruby Fresh Wetsuits

‘Afterdrop’? Wonder what it is? Read our article.

Addendum:

A philosophical note on Artificial Intelligence (AI) from this song, Fire, (Spotify) by C J Bolland, words courtesy of Alan Watts. Give it a listen. Here’s the transcript…

“Prometheus Made Human Beings. The breathe of Athena gave them life.

Zeus refused to allow us to have fire. But also the internal fire of self consciousness and creativity that define fire. Zeus didn’t want us to have it.

Prometheus stole fire.

It’s never been more existentially transformative. My question is this. Do we give it fire.

Do we give these creatures self knowledge, self consciousness. An autonomy that is greater than any other machine has ever had and would be similar to ours?

In other words, shall we be Zeus and deny them fire — because we are afraid of them?

Because they will destroy us.

When I became fascinated by this extraordinary new development, in which you could network computers to a network of networks, which was starting to be called ‘the in-ter-net’.

There was no web. There was no graphical application.

But although we know, through Darwin and science and genes, we were not created by intelligent design, in 100 years time we can guarantee there will be certain inter-junctions, certain genes on this earth that have been intelligently designed, called robots or call them compounds of augmented biology and artificial intelligence, and they will exist. The first person to live to 200 years old has already been born.

The future is enormous.”

That’s your thinking for the weekend… Created by intelligent design… yes/no? Them / us?

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Some backstory…

It all started at the age of two. I used to wake early, around 4 am and my Mum needed to keep me from waking the rest of the household. She would put me in the bath and sit on a chair in the bathroom doing her knitting. As long as she kept the hot water topped up I was happy for hours "swimming" in the bath.

The next phase of my swim journey was learning to swim. Don't tell me you can't learn to swim with floatie arm bands on because I certainly did. My Mum used to tell me the story of how, when she took me and my brother and sister to the pool, I would jump out of the car and jump straight into the pool. So to counteract this she would put my armbands on me before I even left home. Apparently, I was a headstrong child.

I started having lessons at the age of 4 at the local school pool. My brother and sister were already having lessons as they were older, so I was there anyway. One day the swim instructor asked if I wanted to hop in - there was no looking back. I am grateful for the foundation the lessons provided me. They were the stepping stones that allowed me to build my skills and confidence in the water, leading me on a journey that has defined so much of who I am today.

Still aged 4, on holiday in Dunedin, we visited Moana Pool. I was playing in the deep end which was well above my head. Back in those days, the rules were that you could only be in a pool that you could swim the length of. I was summoned to the lifeguard office over the loudspeaker and once there I was asked if I could swim 50m. “Of course,” I replied. I had never swum 50m before in my life but I wasn't going to let that stop me. I asked if I was allowed to do it backstroke (I hadn't mastered the breathing yet) and they said yes. So I proceeded to swim my first ever 50m albeit backstroke. This gave me so much courage and is the first memory I have of overcoming a challenge in swimming.

From that day on, swimming has been all about the challenge. The personal challenge is what swimming is for me. It is my happy place and the place I can challenge myself and learn about myself. Swimming is the place where I am always grounded. While I'm swimming, although I have lots of thoughts, I can just wash them away and not get caught up with one thought. The majority of the time I find I can be very mindful while I swim. I keep an eye on my technique, other people's technique, the view, looking for wildlife, and thinking about how the water feels on my skin.

By the age of 7, I was really getting into swimming and had completed all the levels of lessons, so I was invited to join the local swim club. This led to the start of swim training in a squad. I started competing and because I was smaller than all the other girls, I soon realised that I needed to find a different benchmark than just winning or losing, or I was going to be sorely disappointed in the outcome. 

Mum was great at pushing the importance of achieving personal bests as the way of knowing if I was successful or not. I was an avid reader and I remember reading a swimming autobiography and there was a poem that really resonated with me. I soon learnt it off by heart and it became my mantra that I have used in all areas of my life since. My Dad made it into a poster and it stayed on my bedroom wall for over 10 years.

Somebody said it couldn't be done

So she with a chuckle replied,

That even if it couldn't, she would be one

Who wouldn't say so till she tried.

So she buckled right in with a trace of a grin 

On her face. If she worried she hid it.

She started the thing that couldn't be done.

And what do you know she did it.

My open water swimming began at the age of 11 when I entered the Wharf-to-Wharf swim from Days Bay to Eastbourne in Wellington. I competed in all the local open water swims I could. 

I followed the typical path of competitive swimming and once I stopped at the age of 19 due to shoulder and back injuries, I got into Surf Lifesaving and Masters Swimming. 

Looking back I was very lucky that the town I grew up in, Wainuiomata (Lower Hutt suburb), had a big outdoor pool complex which included a 50m pool. This was the place where I hung out with my family, friends, swim buddies, swim squad and swim club.

Marathon swims

Two of the biggest swimming challenges were my attempts on Lake Wanaka. 

When I embarked on the training to swim Lake Wanaka I had only ever swum 3.8km in open water at one time. I watched others swim long distances and I was in total awe of them.

I wondered if swimming the lake solo was a possibility after doing the relays in 2007 and 2017 but decided it wasn't possible for me because I just wasn't a good enough swimmer.

But, I knew I was better at endurance activities compared to shorter distances. I had already proved to myself that I definitely did better in longer events. I watched Roger North (Wanaka local), who wasn't from a swimming background get so close. Twice! He had ideas about currents etc. that I believe got in the way of his success. I decided if I could control for these as best as possible then maybe I could do it.

Once somebody completes a particular thing, be it a swim or some other physical activity originally deemed ‘not possible’, then I think it becomes a possibility in other people's minds. People know it is possible and therefore they can give it a try. That is the importance of what Roger was trying to do. It opened the possibility.

In 2017 I was diagnosed with hypertension (high blood pressure, dangerously high at diagnosis) and I wasn't able to train too hard until the meds kicked in and my blood pressure stabilised. I was still swimming a lot but just at a lower intensity, which proved to be great base training, as it turned out, when I decided to make an attempt at Lake Wanaka. 

By the end of 2017 my blood pressure had stabilised and I was gutted that I had missed out on the summer events. I decided I wanted a lofty goal to attack. I worked out I had 13 weeks of hard training left if I wanted to attempt it at the end of summer. So I set the date as the end of March 2018 and I got straight into training. I thought the end of March was still going to be warm enough but that was a big mistake. Unfortunately the water was only 8°C at the head of the lake at the Makarora end where I started and it only warmed up to 15°C during the day. So that attempt didn’t work out! Thankfully, my second attempt on January 18th 2019 was successful. I became the first person to successfully swim the length of Lake Wanaka.

Serious

Back in 2018, on my first attempt at Lake Wanaka, I didn't even contemplate the thought of doing it without a wetsuit. When we did the relays of the lake in 2007 and 2017 we all wore wetsuits. The goal of the relays and then both my attempt, and then completion of being the first person to swim Lake Wanaka, was to raise money for a charity I had set up to provide subsidised counselling for children and their families in the Upper Clutha region. 

I think the concept of swimming the lake without a wetsuit probably came about once the lake started showing signs of warming during 2021-2023. Two Australian women attempted to swim it without wetsuits in 2020 but pulled out within a couple of hours due to the cold. 

The first person to swim Lake Wanaka with no wetsuit was another Wanaka local Camille Gullick on the 16th Feb 2023, and then two weeks later, Rebecca Hollingsworth did again but in a faster time. 

There was meant to be a ‘no wetsuit’ attempt on it this last season (2023/24) by Jackson Arlidge but the attempt didn’t go ahead as it was too cold. (Cameron Stanley was the first male, and current fastest time holder, to complete the Lake on 13th Feb 2020, but with a wetsuit.)

The reason more people don't do it in a wetsuit is because wetsuits are not allowed under Marathon Swimming Rules. But still it’s an amazing achievement.

Apart from the cold water, especially the water coming from the Makarora River at the start point, there is no reason why more people couldn't complete the lake without a wetsuit. The distance is only just more than Lake Taupo which has had a huge number of people swim it. The faster someone swims, the shorter amount of time they are in the cold water and hence more likely to complete the swim, obviously. 

But the main factor for me was definitely determination. 

Physically it hurts to swim that distance, but what kept me going was the sense of purpose I felt with raising money and the sense of community I had around me. 

Swimming is such a solitary sport when you're out there in a huge body of water and it's only you that can do it. I was never one for team sports because I worry that either I'm not pulling my weight, or I'm critical that others aren't pulling theirs. Growing up in competitive swimming I had a mantra that "you can't control what others do, you can only control what you do". I couldn't determine how fast the other swimmers would swim, but I could control how fast I swam or whether I pushed off streamlined or whatever else was in my control.

However, with all my long distance swims I have had great support crews. Without those wonderful people I could not have completed the swims. I'm not talking about the physical things they did, such as getting my feeds ready and giving them to me (although that was vital), I'm talking about the psychological part they played. They knew just what to say, even if it wasn't necessarily what I wanted to hear. 

The support from the community was also very important and my support crew would always update me with messages or the total we had raised so far which would spur me on. The swim was bigger than just me. It was about raising money for the community and it was them, along with my support crew, that kept me going during the many times I wanted to quit.

Unfortunately in my first attempt in 2018 no amount of determination was going to get me to the finish. It was too cold for me even in a wetsuit. About 8 km from the end my son, Finn, asked me some questions to determine my level of hypothermia and it was deemed by both him and the safety crew that they needed to get me out and to safety. That ended with me in an ambulance and whisked off to Wanaka Medical Centre where I was discharged later that evening once I had warmed up.

I was asked in the following weeks how I felt about the fact that I had failed to reach my goal. I don't believe in failure and see every attempt at striving for something as a lesson and use it as learning. 

I set out with my goal to swim the length of the lake to raise money for the charity. I achieved this as I raised $10,000 on the swim. So I definitely felt I had reached my goal. 

I vowed following this swim that I wasn't trying again due to how hard mentally I had found it. But after a few months I changed my mind and decided to go for it again. I learnt a lot from that first attempt including attempting the swim during the height of summer when the lake would be warmer, not at the end of it.  My second and successful attempt was January 2019 and once again I had an amazing support crew and the community really got behind me again. 

While I was swimming I wrote part of a poem in my head and crazily enough I still remembered it the next day. I wrote it down and added the end parts. It sums up my second attempt.

The Lake {25.01.2019}

Feet touch the sand,
Grounding her in reality.
It’s the beginning of something amazing.
3-2-1 coming, ready or not.

Pushing off, she immerses herself in the inky blackness.
Realisation of what is ahead.
The first few strokes, she becomes aware.
Just accept what is and go with it.

Wind coming in unexpected direction. 
Not concerning her, she can manage it,
This is what she’s trained for.
Her resilience will shine to the fore.

Her teammates sharing her quest,
Camaraderie of fishing connects them.
Appearing to always utter the right words,
Urging her through her darkness.

Surprise of friends joining her in the waves.
Look like dolphins, playing beside her,
In the maelstrom of waves.
Testing her resilience, causing a battle.

She enters a dark hole, searching for sunbeams.
Broken up as they enter the water.
Appearing beneath her like a broken mirror,
Reflecting the light back towards her.

Moving fast now, flying past the beacon,
Joined by her teammates.
Scores of flashing lights and horns tooting.
The triumphant cries on shore.

Well-wishers galore, bright lights dazzling.
Contrasts with the darkness below.
Feet touch the sand,
Grounding her in reality.

Following my successful 2019 Lake Wanaka swim, which was the first time Lake Wanaka had been swum end to end, I took my wetsuit off and have hardly put it on since.  This led to both the ‘ice swimming’, which I have become involved in, and my Lake Dunstan swim.

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Lake Dunstan

Lake Dunstan swim: this was my first attempt at a long swim without a wetsuit and completely under Marathon Swim Rules. The only attire you are allowed is togs, silicon cap, goggles, and ear plugs, and the only outside support is having a boat beside you, and a support crew handing you your food and drink.

I chose Lake Dunstan because I thought it would be warmer than Lake Hawea and it is also not so formidable. I wanted something that I felt was achievable. Difficult but attainable. I also thought it would be more enjoyable and scenic, with swimming close to the cliffs along the Cromwell Gorge.

However I didn't see much when I entered the gorge as I was in a dark headspace and it used all my perseverance (and my crew's) to keep me going. 

The day started out sunny but cool. I was hoping to get away by 8am but also wanted to start once the sun was hitting the lake so it could warm me. I didn't want to start out cold. However by 9am I had to make the call to just get going as I knew the sun wasn't far away. The water was 16 degrees in the river where I entered and by my first feed after 30 minutes, I already had the claw in both hands, and was already questioning how I was going to make it. My swimming also didn't feel strong but after 1 1/2 hours my swimming felt better and the lake was slowly warming up. It warmed up to 19 degrees during the day. 

The first 14km was idyllic until I got to the bridge at Cromwell. However, as I entered the gorge the wind turned on me and came up Southerly. I had vowed in the weeks prior to the swim that I wasn't going to swim it if it was southerly forecast. Unfortunately it was forecast but I made the decision to go ahead because all my support crew were available and I was ready to go. So for the remainder of the swim I was heading into the wind. 

This really messed with my head and I wanted to get out. My crew kept me going telling me if I wanted to get out I could swim to my support crew on the shore, just 1 km away. They joked, soothed, cajoled, and just kept me going. I threw my bottle at the boat and kept swimming. It was a very tough day and I really wouldn't have made it without the support of the crew and the community who were donating money throughout my swim.

My thoughts and feelings

The actual moment I start a long significant swim I have small doubts as to whether I can do it. I am also at the same time quite excited and am thinking of how elated I will feel at the finish. As I am getting in I am always thinking about the cold and wondering how I will handle the temperature. I am itching to get going and just want to get started. I want to see if I can handle this task I have set myself. I am confident I have done the training, although there is a small question of "have I really done enough?" which goes through my head. And then as I take the first few strokes I think "Fuck, what am I doing?" Same every time.

During the swim I concentrate a lot on my stroke rate and technique and also watching my support crew to see if they are conveying anything to me about the swim. I also have negative thoughts/questions come into my head around

"When is the next damn feed?"

"Surely it must be 30 minutes already."

"Am I getting cold?"

"Can I keep going?"

And in Lake Dunstan when the wind came up, "Can I convince my support crew to get me out?"

I try to enjoy the scenery and what I am seeing under the water as much as possible to try and get as much enjoyment out of it as I can. 

I like to have little laughs with my support crew as this helps to boost my mood. 

I like the support boat to be as close as possible because it scares the bejesus out of me to think I'm out there alone. 

When my arms start to get tired I start having small doubts as to whether I can keep going. However, I am fairly confident that I can. 

I had a moment during my first attempt on Lake Wanaka where I doubted if I was even moving forward. I was about 15km into the swim and any landmarks are far away in the distance. Every time I breathed to the side I felt like the mountains were in the exact same place and that I wasn't moving.

When I stopped for a feed I asked my son who was on the kayak beside me, "Am I even moving?" His reply "Are your arms going around? Then you're moving." Finn has always been on my support crew and I wouldn't have it any other way. He was the one who asked me the safety questions when I was becoming hypothermic during my first Lake Wanaka attempt. He relayed back to the safety person on my crew that I was taking a long time to answer and was getting some answers wrong and that’s how it was determined it was time for me to get out.

Approaching Colder Climes

In 2019 after my completed Lake Wanaka swim, I decided to take my wetsuit off and try swimming in just togs. This became my new challenge. Since then I have hardly swum in my wetsuit and have even started ice swimming. This is a huge test of my resilience and perseverance because I don't actually deal with the cold well.

Some of my swim buddies laugh at me as I shiver so much they have to hold my warm drink for me or I spill it all over myself. Despite this I have swum my Ice Mile in 2023 at the Blue Lake in St Bathans and I continue to swim sans wetsuit in the Dunedin Harbour as that is where I am living. The current temperature as I write this is down to 7 degrees.

I limit myself these days to around 10-15 minutes in that temperature as I know I can't handle any longer. I get very bad cold shock and also icecream headache which is the hardest thing to handle when getting into the water. It takes a few minutes before this subsides and then I'm okay. However the whole time I'm swimming the pain in my hands and feet is pretty intense, but it's just another challenge to overcome.

Back to Dunedin and coming up to date

Starting to swim in Dunedin harbour, has been a huge trial in itself. I am very scared of the sea life that might be there so this has been challenging to overcome. I have surprised myself with how I have been managing and I do wonder if it is because I am having to be so mindful of how my body is feeling in the cold water so I don't have so much time to think about what I might be swimming with. I only swim with others. 

For me, open water swimming is about the camaraderie and social connection I get from swimming with other people. Swimming is where I have made almost all my friends, and this isn't surprising seeing I spend so much time doing it. 

In the freshwater lakes I will swim on my own, but only close to the edge so if anything goes wrong I am able to get out. In the harbour I will only swim with other people as I am too scared of the sea life. I still stay close to the edge in the harbour and I'm not far away from being able to just stand up if I need to. 

Strengthening

Life has brought its challenges along with it, as it does for all people. One way I have found to tackle these trials is using swimming as a tool. Challenging myself through swimming and then conquering these challenges, proves to me in other areas of my life that I can also overcome tests that come my way. I'm not consciously thinking this when I am faced with a challenge, it is fairly subconscious. But I believe overcoming the tests in swimming is like strengthening a muscle in my mind ( or soul).

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Oh, what's that, sorry…? You haven't heard of it? 

Here’s @ben.stephens86 from Dunedin, one of the winter swim group ‘The Frozen SeaDogs’ showing, in exemplary fashion, how afterdrop presents. It will make you laugh. {Credit F.Lambrechts}

If you swim for a ‘long’ time in ‘cold’ water, after you get out and have dried off and struggled to get dressed as you have claw hand and maybe cramp in your stomach pulling your socks on, well, shortly after (about 10 to 20 mins), whilst you think you are on your way to warming up and thinking all is good, you can actually start to shiver. Possibly almost uncontrollably. And you will feel even colder. It’s this bodily reaction ‘after’ you are out and dry and dressed, coinciding with a further ‘drop’ in your body temperature. That’s Afterdrop. Ben displays it brilliantly as do many others!

Here’s the official googled type description: ‘Swimming afterdrop is a phenomenon where the body's core temperature continues to drop after a swimmer exits cold water. This occurs because the body’s surface (skin and extremities) is cooler than the core, and once the swimmer leaves the water, blood flow to the skin and extremities increases in a natural physiological effort by the bodies core to warm the skin & extremities, allowing the now cooler blood to return to the core, which can further lower the core temperature.’ Exactly what I said above.

So that’s ‘afterdrop’.

Let's go back to the earlier paragraph. I talked about ‘long’ time and ‘cold’ water. Those two terms are interdependent, subjective by person and totally depend on your practice and acclimatisation to the cold and atmospheric conditions.

I wear a wetsuit. I do that because I own a wetsuit company (lol), but it's still easy to get afterdrop. It just occurs after a longer time in cold water than without a wetsuit. So what is a long time? A ‘long time’ is dependent on body type and water temperature (and to some extent air temperature and if the sun is shining).

Talking personally, in a wetsuit (I don’t wear a thermal cap as I don’t suffer brain freeze and I don’t wear booties as they feel weird), I have a very good understanding via personal experimentation of what I can cope with (time in water / temp of water) to not have any appreciable afterdrop such that I can carry on a normal life post swim, rather than shiver for 1.5 to 2 hours and not be able to do anything!

That's the point for me personally. I really love swimming in cold water, which I classify at sub 11.0°C (51.8F). I like it. I feel good after my swim. However, I change the length of time I swim, depending on the temperature of the water and if it's sunny or not. I then convert time in the water to a distance, as I know my swim pace, so I gauge my ‘cold water swim’ on a distance I will be able to happily swim.

At 11.0°C I am happy for up to 45-50 mins; At 10.5°C (50.9F) I am happy at about 40mins; At 9.5°C (49F) I am happy at about 30-35mins. When I say ‘happy’ I mean, I get out of the lake feeling cold, but I carry on my day as normal. If I go appreciably past these times, at those approx. temperatures, it is going to take me a lot longer to warm as I will have some level of afterdrop. And remember, that’s me (5’10” 81kg) in one of my own design 5/4/3/2/1.5mm thickness Yamamoto neoprene with titanium thermal layer Ruby Fresh wetsuits. If I was doing the same without a wetsuit (which I wouldn’t) I’d be stuffed for half a day afterwards. It takes a long time to warm up when you get that cold. Again, those are my personal rough limits. 

Swimming in Dunedin (with Ben & others) in early June (winter) I swam 26 mins at 7.5°C (45.5F). At these sort of temperatures, every minute counts. I found this semi unpleasant to the point of ‘why?’ It was Type 2 fun. I did have a few shivers after the swim but all cured with 3 pints at the Emerson's Brewery. At Lake Alta (1800m elevation) in the Remarkables mountain range in early May I swam 8 mins / 400m at 5.5C (41.9F). That was cold. Eight minutes was enough! But no afterdrop experienced with only 8 mins in the water, and with a wetsuit. Again, great Type 2 fun.

So, it’s not that I don’t swim in very cold water, I simply don’t want to! Much. Again, personal preference.

However it never ceases to amaze me what the body can deal with. Especially when I’m watching other people!

Let's now take members of the FrozenSeaDogs sea swimmer group, deep down in Dunedin, of which Ben in the video is a member. A number of the group only swim skins. Currently, the sea temperature is about 7.5°C. They swim on average for about 25mins (distance is not really relevant). I know this because I spy on their Strava activities {if you are on Strava, please join our Strava Squad}. It only takes a small temperature difference, up or down, to substantially change the length of time swimming. At 8°C, 30mins is the norm for them. Impressive. At 7°C that diminishes to 15-18mins. The point here is, seemingly tiny temperature changes, less than half a degree, are detectable by the individual and have an effect on time in the water. And those times, at those temperatures, with no wetsuit, result in differing degrees of afterdrop depending on the individual and their body type. Hence the fantastic video of Ben.

There is a ‘why’ - Dopamine. You don’t need to experience afterdrop to experience the Dopamine effect. But that is another article all-together…

Hey, it’s all fascinating stuff!

The idea with this article is to give some actual real life examples of the boundaries around afterdrop on-set rather than another super in-depth explanation of what afterdrop is and how to recover from it. And the effects of Dopamine. There are a heap of articles about all that. 

Here’s a few:

https://www.outdoorswimmingsociety.com/warming-up-after-drop

https://loneswimmer.com/2023/05/28/a-complete-explanation-of-swimming-afterdrop

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11043627

https://www.everydayhealth.com/wellness/possible-health-benefits-to-cold-water-therapy/

That is a nice segue into:

The New Zealand Ice Swimming Championships 10th - 13th July 2024

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It's important for open water swimmers to set SMART goals - specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely.

It's all about having specific targets, like swimming a certain distance in a specific time or working on your stroke skills. By breaking down large goals into smaller, more manageable steps, you can stay on track and monitor your progress more effectively. Keep in mind the importance of consistently reassessing your goals and adapting them as required, depending on your progress and evolving circumstances. By setting goals that are challenging enough yet attainable, you can continue to push yourself and help reach your full potential in your training and racing.

If a part of your goal is transitioning from the pool to the open water, consider incorporating open water swim practices into your training routine to build confidence and get you used to the different conditions. Remember, training does not just happen in the pool. So training for open water swimming also means getting used to being out in actual open water - And possibly a long way from shore, no bottom to see or line to follow, ‘things’ to be encountered. Don’t let any of that freak you out, take it all in and enjoy the moment. Ensure that you practice this too before the goal is upon you.

If you’re new to open water swimming or are looking to transition from the pool to the open water, check out our article ‘Transitioning from the Pool to the Outdoors’ for helpful tips and insights as you dive in.

One effective strategy for setting and achieving your goals is to establish both short-term and long-term objectives. Short-term goals can provide you with immediate targets to focus on, while long-term goals can help you stay motivated and committed to your training over time.

Using different apps such as Strava to track your progress will help you stay accountable and see your improvements over time. Because we all want those Strava achievement ribbons. Join different clubs, find like-minded peers, and challenge your friends in different Group Challenges. This is a great way to stay lightly competitive while hyping your mates up along the way.

A good place to start is to join the Ruby Fresh Strava club. Our goal is to create an open water swimming community where you can read about swimming, share your swims, banter, and take part in challenges.

Thinking about the bigger picture, it’s important for open water swimmers to not only focus on physical goals but also to consider mental and emotional well-being in the process. By taking a holistic approach to goal-setting and incorporating self-care practices, you can ensure that you are in the best possible mindset to achieve success in the sport. The mental game is just as important as the physical game!

This includes prioritizing rest and recovery, practicing mindfulness techniques, and seeking support from coaches, teammates, and professionals when needed. By addressing all aspects of your well-being, you can build resilience and set yourself up for success.

Having a circle of support in goal setting is important because it provides accountability and encouragement. When you have your circle cheering you on and holding you accountable, you are more likely to stay motivated and focused on achieving your goals. Having a support system can also help you navigate challenges and setbacks that may arise along the way. They can offer advice, perspective, and encouragement to help you stay on track and overcome any obstacles.

The Process - Broken Down

1. Write down what you really want, think long term, 5 years even. Define what success looks like for you. Think big. The HAG… The Hairy Audacious Goal.

2. Write down a couple of short-term goals that will help drive you to your long-term goals.

3. Think about who is in your circle of support. I.e. your coach, family and friends, etc. Your circle of support will be going on the journey with you so ensure that you’re picking the right people that can hold you accountable.

4. Create a list of your strengths and weaknesses/work-ons that are required to keep you on track with achieving your goals. Remember that these are not all just physical strengths/work-ons. Be sure to think about things like time management, nutrition, and mental strength. Prioritise your work-ons in order from most important to least important, while considering your goals and what will help you the most.

5. Now you need to create an action plan for each work-on. Break this down into three parts:

   • Outcomes. What does success look like?

   • Actions. What do I need to do to be successful?

   • Measures. How am I going to measure my progress?

6. Share your plan with your circle of support.

7. Regular check-ins/reflection time. Set yourself realistic timeframes for a check-in. Whether this check-in is on your own, or with your circle of support. Ask yourself if you are on track to achieve your goals, what is going well, and what isn’t going so well. Don’t forget to take notes during your reviews!

Goal setting is not just about writing things down and reviewing them once the time has come. It requires you to live and breathe this plan. Embrace and trust the process, be persistent, and learn and grow from any challenges that get thrown your way. The time is now.

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My family relocated to Dunedin in January 2023, so it was important to find a swimming community before we moved. I had been swimming with the Southern Lakes Swimming Club in Queenstown since the start of my open water swimming journey in October 2019. Open water swimming has become a big part of my life and well-being. I was incredibly happy to find the Sunday Swim Squad online and joined them for my first swim in the Otago Harbour at Macandrew Bay in October 2022.

It is a beautiful drive to Macandrew Bay, a suburb of Dunedin on the Otago Peninsula. The public park's small, man-made beach and landscaped areas were completed in the late seventies. I felt anxious going for my first saltwater swim with the Sunday Swim Squad. Chris and Dean, the founding members were welcoming. Lee, my good friend from Queenstown, who at the time lived in Dunedin, also joined us. I experienced a panic attack as we headed out, feeling claustrophobic due to the lack of visibility. I stopped and wanted to turn around but saw Lee keep going. I knew I would never hear the end if I got out. I kept going and after a while started to relax and enjoy the swim.

The Sunday Swim Squad swims for six months of the year, mid-October to mid-April. Sunday mornings usually at Macandrew Bay and Wednesday afternoons at Vauxhall. The group swims to the nearest marker, with Chris or Dean setting the route. The squad goes into hibernation during the cooler months, as some believe the water becomes too cold. 

Determined to swim through winter to prepare for the International Ice Swimming Association Nationals at Blue Lake in Saint Bathans in July 2023, I was very grateful to Brendan, Tane, and Susan for joining me, which naturally led to the creation of the winter division of the Sunday Swim Squad, named the Frozen SeaDogs. During winter 2023, we regularly swam in water temperatures of 8° degrees Celsius (46.4°F), occasionally dropping to 6°C (42.8°F). We used the Macandrew Bay Boating Club facilities to shower and change, rewarding ourselves with coffee at The Duck or Glenfalloch.

During summer we swim at least two kilometres per outing. Depending on the tide we either swim towards Glenfalloch (ebb or outgoing) or Company Bay (flood or incoming). Close to low tide, the current is at its strongest. We have learned to swim close to shore on the way out, into the current, making use of available eddy currents. On our way back we swim in the channel or on the sandbank. It is a lot of fun. On still days the water close to the side can be clear and I find it interesting watching the subaquatic environment. A substantial portion of the harbour is very shallow with a large sand bank in the middle of which parts are exposed at low tide. On the northwest side we have the main channel, dredged for large ships, and on the southeast the secondary channel, perfect for us to swim in.

I regularly swim over stingrays. The surprise is usually mutual, and the stingrays will take off and disappear. I am a slow swimmer. Once, I was last out of the water at a Wednesday night swim hosted by the Dunedin tri-club in Macandrew Bay. There are usually six such events a year. As I was finishing, the lifeguard paddled back with me saying something I pretended to understand, and I made my way on to the beach. Walking out of the water I realised a large sea lion had cleared the tiny beach of humans! The conversation I pretended to understand in the water then made sense. I have not come across a sea lion in the water yet. That day will come. I am planning not to freak out.

We usually swim at Macandrew Bay but we also swim at Vauxhall or Sawyers Bay on the other side of the estuary - where the water is very shallow and usually clear. Sometimes we swim around Pudding Island. Vauxhall is typically the Wednesday night Sunday Swim Squad venue. I also swim there during the month of June on weekdays preparing for the ice swimming event in July. Pudding Island is the venue for the annual swim in March to launch the Wild Dunedin Festival.

Open water winter swimming in Dunedin is growing. We have seen a five-fold increase compared to last year. I met the Harbour Honeys, (a ‘new’ female swim troupe) in the water. During the colder months Macandrew Bay is also a popular spot for followers of ‘The Hof’ – The Wim Hof Method. Many dippers frequent the cool waters. I often wonder why more people do not utilise this incredible resource. We are quick to spend money on ‘gimmicks’ promising well-being, yet we are fortunate to have this wonderful healing resource right here in Dunedin.

If you live in or travel through Dunedin, please come and join us for a swim or a dip. We would love to share this beautiful place, Dunedin, with you – ‘Castle on the Rock’.

Contact details on Facebook - for the Sunday Swim Squad and through which you can contact Francois.

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1. A drone. I swam right over a drone a fair way out off the beaten track in Lake Wanaka. I thought I might just leave it there as it must be proper buggered and it ain’t gonna work, no way, but I also thought I can’t leave it there as its going to pollute my lake. Luckily I had my tow buoy. I disconnected, dived down and grabbed it, folded it up and stuffed it into the drybag compartment and carried on my swim feeling quite chuffed.

Here it is back on shore for the Strava post. After drying it out for a couple of days I popped the battery back in, pushed the on button and it works! Now I need to find someone with a controller to see if it will operate before I buy one. Who’s was it? No doubt a tourists’ looking for a cool angle on #thatwanakatree.

But now, under salvage rights, it’s mine.

Have an idea what I could do with it? Let me know using the button below.

2. If you recognise this in any way then you have some UK skate history in you. As do I.

After many years this worthwhile project has come to fruition. Namely, the book about the magazine. Congrats to all those that had a part in finally getting it to print. It has been a long and hard labour of love but something that will be held and cherished by those of ‘a certain age’.

Back in a previous life I was actually the Co-Editor and Ad Manager of this magazine - ‘Read and Destroy’. RAD as it was known. It was the period of its final death throes, at the same time as I was publishing and editing my own UK snowboard magazine. I feature in a section towards the end of the book. I’m quoted in a few places. It was an odd time. Political in a skate sense. I (and my business partner Stig) felt a great pressure to do the best we possibly could as the then custodians of the bastion of UK skate publications. But, for a variety of reasons and skatepolitics, we couldn’t. All the same, I have always felt an honour and privilege to have held the reins at this magazine for that short but troubled period and, by the interventions of the great universe, my part to tell. Interested? Pre-order your copy here.

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3. Ruby Island. Where else, like, literally where else anywhere is there an island in a lake that demands you go visit with such perfect attributes. Position. Distance to and around. Year around water temperature. Interesting under-water sights and obstacles. I’ll tell you where… No Where! OK, I’m hugely biased. But his leads me into this particular thought point. Why am I here? How am I here? How do I meet significant people? Are we living in a simulation? When you look at your own particular life, do you ever consider how things present themselves? Now, I’m not getting all religious or anything and I don’t want to go down any such routes, but I do often think how things have panned out. It’s not all been rosy by any means, but I would not change a thing, even the hard times. For they also too have had meaning. I am oft times reminded of the feather in Forest Gump.

4. Cold water swimming. I swam in Lake Alta last Saturday with the Queenstown Swim club, the SLSC. Awesome morning. Lake Alta was at 5.5°C Brrrrrrr. I swam for 8 minutes. 387m distance. With a wetsuit. I mean - I make wetsuits, why would I swim without one LOL ! I had cold hands more than anything, and I wish I had done a little more to score 500m, but I didn’t. Hind sight is 20/20. It was a cool morning all in all. Which leads me to the NZ Ice swimming champs 2024. This year in Alexandra, Central Otago. If it’s your thing get your entry in. I will be there in a supporting role. Only.

5. Lastly, as Point Five I want to give a shout out to Matt Barr at Looking Sideways. I am blatantly copying his ‘10 things’ (and more) and it his move into Substack, which I have been looking at for years now, that has given me the inspiration to start my own Substack via my open water swim brand Ruby Fresh. I am still learning. Phew! Its quite hard! If you see this Matt, Thank You.

Join our Strava Squad. Get with the fitness programme

In what seems like an eternity (almost), there is light again at the end of a long time tunnel.

Version 3 of the Ruby Fresh wetsuit range (the Flow & the Echo) is within grasp. They are expected to land in August 2024. This is a long way out from my expected delivery date of October 2023, and I feel even a little cautious printing that, but I do at last have the confidence to put a date in this post.

So what is new?

Quite a lot!

Here’s a bullet point list and I’ll go into depth on many of the points in subsequent scribbles:

• An entirely new model - The Echo. Aimed squarely at already naturally buoyant swimmers who simply don’t need the buoyancy provided by the original Flow model. Those able to read between lines will understand this also opens up a market for the folk swimming in more buoyant water - the sea. But this was not the primary intention. The new Echo model will feature #39 & #38 Yamamoto neoprene, (including the titanium warmth retention membrane). This means on the plus side more durability and a lower RRP, but on the minus side not as flexible through the arms. I’ve been swimming in the Echo a lot the past 4 months. More on the new Echo in a future post.

• Four new female models and one new male model. We have enhanced our ‘Goddess’ sub-range with the inclusion of Womens Large and X-Large Goddess sizes. Combined with our existing Womens Medium Goddess, this sub-range will provide absolute top quality female swim wetsuits for the approx 76kg to 118kg curvy swimmer. In addition we have new Womens Medium Tall and a Womens Large Tall models. The boys get a new Short Stocky model - for the 5’8”ish 95+kg’ish guy.

• Female sizing parameters across nearly all sizes has been updated. Just those little dimensional tweaks that will make the difference. We have 11 male and 11 female sizes across each model - The Flow and The Echo.

• Panel redesign to enhance longevity of the suits at two different points. That’s right, the suits will last longer! One of the panel redesigns incorporates observations on wear characteristics over the past 3 years and uses an interesting technology. I will get granular on this in a future post.

• In combination with the above point, a new panel design allows that section of the suit which deteriorates first to be replaced, again, adding to the overall life of the wetsuit.

• We should have swim socks and a thermal cap design just in time for the colder southern hemisphere months.

• A new ‘find your size’ on-line tool to, we believe*, provide 95% surety of fit. This is a pretty big deal considering our direct to consumer sales model. This should possibly even be the top bullet point! {* because its still in final beta}

• We have a new logo (as seen above) and new suit graphics and a fresh female Aqua Blue colour way. The logo will roll out in different forms as the new V3 suits arrive.

• We have a new X channel.

• We have a new Strava Club. Come join! Share your swims. Check the stats… and receive exclusive rewards.

• We have this Substack channel, which you are reading this on. It’s our ‘magazine’.

Once we have a definitive delivery time on V3 we will be opening pre-orders on the web site.

Watch out for further news on the details of the new suits and products over the following weeks.

There’s a favourite swim which I do about two, maybe 3 times a year. I do it in the morning when the lake is quiet rather than the afternoon when it's busier with boaties and waterskiers. Because when doing this swim route you end up right out in the middle of Roys Bay.

I ‘discovered’ the route maybe 5 or 6 years ago, but to be honest I can no longer remember if I found it myself, superimposing into my mind's eye, whilst swimming, from the image (see the header image) we use on the website of the Ruby Island Swim or someone else showed me, I know not who. Or it was a hive mind adventure one morning. But whatever…

As the season gets under way, the Sunday morning swims with the club get a little longer each week. We go out to ‘the rock’ about a 1km straight line from the watersports clubhouse building at Stoney Creek. 

Out we go, past the first westerly red marker buoy of the swimmers buoy line on our right. Shortly afterwards we pass the famous #thatwanakatree on our distant left with the teeming hordes of tourists taking Instagram and Facebook pictures for ‘I’ve made it to here’ posting. This is always a point of debate among many of us on an entirely different tangent to this particular story - why do people come JUST to take a picture of the tree and then leave? And they clog the car park goddammit! Literally a thousand people a day get ‘that’ shot. Let’s cut the poor innocent tree down, some say… but as I said, I digress.

Sometimes, between the shore and the first red witches hat (as we call those red marker buoys), we may swim over an eel. And they can be big, and they can catch you by surprise, a moving shadow on the lake floor, off the periphery of vision. Shock! It garners a certain primitive revulsion, like hating snakes or spiders. But after you’ve seen a few of them and the shock of the shock no longer shocks, you notice how serenely they move through the watery matrix. They certainly have no concern for you swimming above them.

Up, and onwards up the line of yellow five knot marker buoys we go. These yellow buoys positioned 200m off shore, mark the extent within which powered watercraft must keep their speed down to 5 knots. Hence the swimmers have a good space to feel comparatively safe, notwithstanding the odd wayward rowing skiff coming at you at times, because they can’t see you as all the rowers face backwards. i.e. they are not looking where they are going! Someone should invent a mechanical mechanism for these boats whereby they can face forwards but still make all the movements of rowing backwards. That's a million dollar idea right there (but probably been done already and found to be rubbish).

Up and further up the yellow 5 knot line we go, pulling left in the last 300m over the tumbled and discarded underwater rock field that signals you are not so very far away from ‘the rock’. A destination in its very own right. “How far did you swim today” “Me? Oh I swam to The Rock”, such is its stature of boastful accomplishment.

And from here, after either de-rigueur touching or swimming around the rock (preferably both), you swim back to the club house, usually hugging the shore line a little closer, because of which you are more obvious to walking passers-by on the lake-side track, making them a little envious I’m sure. You can feel it.

But alternatively, rather than swimming back ‘as standard’ from the rock, from this point is where the Yellow Path (or the Yellow Edge, or the yellow brick (underwater) road) begins. It’s course is the edge of the shallow shelf you see at the top right of the header image.

From ‘The Rock’ swim out towards the middle of the lake towards the Yacht Club's large orange turn buoy No. 2. It's about 150 meters to the buoy. As you start swimming out you are still over the perfectly visible lake floor, even though it is perhaps 12 to 15 meters below, swimming over the smooth sandy rippled lake bed. Perhaps 2/3rds of the way to the buoy you swim over the drop off, where the shallow becomes the deep. It's tempting to simply turn right at this point and follow the drop off, but the draw of buoy No.2 is strong. Like The Force. Plus it's a few meters more on the weekly Strava goal! 

Anyway, after the buoy has been snagged, a diagonal route west, back towards land soon brings you once again to the juncture of the ‘drop off’, but now from the other direction, and thus The Yellow Edge.

You divert left-wards and swim along the rounded contour between the flat shallower rippled lake bed to your right and the greeny blue darkness of the deep lake to your left. The Drop Off.

Navigating along this edge is very entertaining. There’s a lot going on, actually. Non swimmers may not get this, like, how can there be anything at all going on whilst swimming. But that would be to belittle the experience. OK, it's more subtle, the experience is not streaming at you at speed like driving a car around your favourite winding road section or slamming down a hill on your bike. It’s not exhilarating in that manner, but nonetheless you are captivated as you swim along the apex of the rounded transition between shallow and deep. 

Soon enough, you encounter a yellow or ochre tinged, for what you would naturally want to call - ‘moss’. Underwater yellow coloured moss. That's how I see it and understand it. Moss. And to be honest, it's easy to not notice. Easy to dismiss. To not realise it is, in fact, a unique underwater natural phenomenon. It exists only along the top edge of the domed boundary, on the ‘shallow’ side of the drop off. It’s not on the steeper sloping side that drops into the deep. The ‘moss’ peters out the further it moves into the shallow plateau. It only exists on the very edge between deep and shallow. It demarcates the boundary. A zone of its own. It’s a veritable underwater yellow trail to follow along. You are now Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. Where will it lead? What will you find?

As you swim along this yellow edge, you will note the yellow comes and goes. The ‘moss’ leaves, then it reappears in your underwater distance. You simply need to follow. Follow the yellow brick road to good things. You are on the lookout for small things, you may see a trout, you will see freshwater mussels, their white/brown ridged line looking like scattered quartz pebbles, thinking what are those rocks doing here, but realising in the same instant it’s not a rock but a living moving mussel. You will see the faint tracks they leave in the sand on the shallow left side. Tracks you didn’t see before, but now you are looking for small things, things you wouldn't normally see but now you do. And that's what you do all the way along the line. You see things you would not normally see or would just dismiss. Sunken branches. Light reflections. And you are route finding. And you are looking at the above water horizon as you breathe, the jaggy mountains, the green, the Central Otago brown, the blue sky, perhaps there's still snow on the tops. And you are counting breaths. You are moving forward. You are doing it all.

The yellow line is not straight, it winds to the left and pushes to the right, taking you at times further into the middle of the lake and further into no man's land and away from the safety of the shore. But at the same time you know you simply need to keep following along the rusty trajectory ahead and to its eventual end, as it culminates blending into the southern shore line at a section where the underwater Lagarosiphon weed has become prolific. There is a tendency here to hang right following the more pronounced line of weed, a mental draw of a shorter route to and along the east-west swimmers buoy line, now becoming visible on your right side breath and back to your start point, but no, you must resist this urge and keep your swim adventure boldness to the fore, and hang left. Persevere. Some subtle route finding is required to glean the true line of the drop off as it now tends in a more easterly direction, finally sweeping a big radius as the lakefront takes precedence. By now you are approaching one of the southern lake edge yellow buoys and thus you are within 200m meters of the shore. A feeling of safe ground washes over. “Phew! I’m safe”. From here you swim the swimmers buoy line back to the Watersports Centre - your start point, or perhaps swim straight on to the ‘new carpark’ a possible alternate start/finish terminus. 

The full circuit is about 3.2km which is a comparatively long’ish swim, but the beauty is you really don’t notice the distance. It's so entertaining. You are not on a time frame here, it's not about speeding through. You are a swim tourist, taking in the sights above and below. Enjoying the journey.

You may desire a safety tow buoy, but at the least, just make sure you have clear goggles, otherwise you’ll see nothing …

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1. Pool Training and Conditioning is a Must!

Swimming in open water is more challenging than in a pool. A higher level of fitness and swimming ability are required due to the absence of lane markings, the existence of currents, and the vast body of water. Make sure to build your pool endurance up before setting out in the open water. Using the pool for open…

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On the Ruby Fresh website we stock a product called Rocket Fuel.

Why are we stocking Rocket Fuel - a product made to clear the airways - on the Ruby Fresh Open Water Swimming website you may be asking yourself?

In what possible way is this product applicable to swimming?

Many lakes in New Zealand are now afflicted with ‘lake snow’ or Lindavia Intermedia to give it its official name. It’s a diatom. Clumps of these diatoms, combined with other algae which grows on it so it turns green, are suspended in the water column and look like harmless pretty snowflakes hence the nice innocuous sounding name. It arrived in Lake Wanaka about 2004, from the Washington region of the USA, so about 20 years ago, give or take. The organism only lives in very clean waters (oh the irony). Out of the water the clumps resemble a goopy strandy mucusy globule and hence its other not so flattering name of ‘lake snot’. It sticks to fishing lines whilst trawling for trout. Sticks to swimmers on their eyebrows and cheeks, chests or anywhere some wispy body hair can grab it after a decent swim, say over a 2km is when it becomes noticeable. It gets sucked up into the domestic water intakes around the lake and ultimately clogs the filters of domestic appliances. It's an ongoing (and expensive) engineering problem for the council. It's a real nuisance but is not harmful when drunk and ingested. It has no taste. 

The Ruby Swim

So what's the problem? Over the summer months or at least with the lake temperature at around 14°C and upward, it seems to affect the sinus of some swimmers after a long swim. Not everybody is susceptible but after a say, 1.5km swim or longer, and, after a period of time has past, post swim - up to 8 or 10 hours later, the sinus and hence the nose gets all bunged up. It’s so bad for some people it is on the verge of making going for a beautiful calm enjoyable swim in the lake really not worth it. The downside of the bunged up sinus is worse than the upside of the swim. It certainly makes you stop to consider. But it isn’t a problem when the water is colder - from about 13°C and below.

This has not really been talked about much. We are making a connection that one of the outcomes of lake snow being you get all stuffed up in the sinus after swimming during the summer in lake snow / lindavia rich water. 

Is it the lake snow (the diatoms) causing the blocked sinus, as in the chemical composition of the Lindavia diatom; is it the other algae stuck to the diatom the cause of the issue; or is it the size of the combined particulate? Do the thousands (or millions and billions) of approx 25µm (micrometer) diameter diatoms simply love the warm recesses of the honeycomb sinus regions in the cheek bone and mandibles and feed and grow over the hours after the swim and bung you up? Or is there a type of immune reaction by the body in the honeycomb sinus to the tiny particulates (diatoms/algae) which start a reaction to combat the intruders with the same bunged up outcome? These are all possible ideas floating around my mind. 

Presumably (on my part) the coldness of the water over the colder months stops the diatom/algae doing what it does and that's why it's not an issue swimming in colder waters - over the winter and the shoulder season swim periods. But I’m fully surmising here…

Swimming in other lakes, such as the glacier tinged blue ones, which apparently don't have Lindavia diatoms but do contain silica, also causes the issue. So maybe it's a ‘size of particle’ issue? The silica particulate causes the sinus reaction and issues in such lakes… ?

And I have not always had a problem with it. It seems to have become a problem in the last 6 - 7 years. About the same period where we, the swimmers of Lake Wanaka, have been noticing visual clarity changes. So you can see there are quite a few variables here. Comments on this are very welcome…

Whatever… 

The point of all this is the outcome is the same - blocked sinus! And it is unpleasant. And to fix it many options have already been tried including nose clips!

Rocket Fuel from Savvy Touch does not stop the cause of the sinus blockage. That is a bit of an unknown, as you have read and I'm still working out the parameters. But Rocket Fuel sure fixes the effect and for me that is something not so very far away from magic. 

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Further Reading:

https://www.doc.govt.nz/news/media-releases/2021-media-releases/lake-snow-a-threat-this-summer/

https://www.orc.govt.nz/managing-our-environment/pest-hub/aquatic/lake-snow

https://diatoms.org/species/lindavia_intermedia

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1. Why this, why now

This first paragraph is entirely for my benefit. I don’t even care if you or anyone else reads it. This is where I get going. Where I can tell myself why I’m here, on this page. I was never a writer. I failed English Language and English Literature at O Level. But I do love stories. And I like telling them because from the story builds engagement on a theme or an interest, and from that, community is built. I’ve known that for 35 years. But starting this substack and starting this first post has taken me 18months. I’ve dabbled on Tumblr, I have a Medium account which I liked the concept of but never really did anything on it. Which is very odd as between 1991 and 2004 I probably wrote upwards of 40,000 words a month in the action sports magazines I published. I love writing. I love telling the story. I love creating the scenes. So why can’t I start my first Substack post? Well this is it. And I have to say it’s like pulling teeth.

My name is Eddie Spearing. Edward to some. I have started many things, some of them ‘big’ but my main internal problem is finishing things. I do make things. I really like to make things. Products. skateboards, motorbikes, cars, events, organisations. I like the spark of creation and then, possibly more importantly, the spreading flame that emanates around these products or movements. As a skateboarder since way back in ‘74 I’m fiercely independent. I don’t mind pain. It trains the mind to accept. Skateboarding provided that. I will not be told what to think. I have to find out for my self. Many won’t understand that. It’s a skaters mentality.

I think that’s enough of that.

The Ruby Fresh OWS is my attempt at ‘writing as marketing’ for my own brand of swimming wetsuits - Ruby Fresh. It’s a blog by another name now that ‘substack’ has become a verb. It will be an on-line magazine of open water swimming (at least, thats the goal)

Here I will detail and tell the story of what Ruby Fresh means to me. Because it’s more than simply a wetsuit brand. When content has been written The OWS will look like the front page of a newspaper (until the design changes), with the articles and imagery of a magazine. Like this one. I miss magazines. I don’t ever buy them any more. I pretend to buy and read them but I never even open their pages at times. I just like holding them. And smelling them. I suppose I buy them to support the cause because it is a noble cause indeed, each issue filled with the blood, sweat and often tears of the contributors and staff. I remember that well.

2. Be specific

I’m not going to just talk about my own brand RubyFresh. It’s not about that at all. It’s more than that. Its about the community of people who swim in open water. Specifically fresh water, but equally too, salt water. Did you know fresh water in Spanish is know as ‘agua dulce’? Literally ‘sweet water’. It always makes me smile when I hear a Spaniard say it. I have visions of swimming through molten candyfloss. I will of course talk about the trials and tribulations of what it takes to make my wetsuits, of beginning a swim wet suit brand from scratch. I will talk about actually going swimming. The feelings it brings. Places I go. Places other people go. Other people’s feelings. Other people will contribute. What the Universe provides at just the right time in the correct context. Because that’s what the universe does…

Twice a month. That’s my current commitment. We’ll see how that can improve. It’s possible to have this substack as ‘paid’ readership. Obviously I will need to get some content in here first(!), but I’d rather this was a free platform and if you felt inclined, donations will be accepted to be spent on who knows what? Probably to help carry on the work of Touchstone. I won’t be turning that ‘paid’ thing on for a while. ‘All in the fullness of time’.

3. I am a 60 year old man

I find this the hardest part of all. I am 60. 60!! Even writing it is extremely hard to look at after the text has materialised on the screen/page. I can not believe it. I will try to, at some point, talk about what this means to me. About losing youth, about holding onto ‘youth’. What the whole thing means. What a 60 year old man should or shouldn’t do. It will go deep.

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