While most of their friends were still in the comfort of their warm beds, seven keen teenagers were in the waters of Boundary Bay at 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday preparing for one of the biggest swims of their lives.
This weekend, Naomi Cole (17) Isabel Rapier (15), Yinan Zhu (15), Kelly Qi (12), Caitlyn Fowler (12), Calvin Slinn (17) and Jeremy Slinn (14) will culminate months of open water training with the “2020 Ocean Challenge” that will see them swim from Crescent Beach in South Surrey to the Boundary Bay boat launch near the Canada/U.S. border. The 12.2 kilometre trek should take between three to five hours, depending on their age and ability.
“People have been asking me if I am excited to be going back to school or that it’s been pushed back and I tell them all that I’m thinking about is this Sunday,” laughed Cole, who is going into Grade 12 at South Delta Secondary and came up with the idea of Ocean Challenge. “I don’t know if I’m nervous about it, but definitely excited.”
All the participants are members of the Winksill Dolphins Swim Club and typically compete at the national and provincial levels. When the Winskill Aquatic Centre was closed back in mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these dedicated athletes needed to fill a significant void in their lives. Some of them have competed in open water events and that’s how the idea of swimming in Boundary Bay started.
By early April, they bravely entered the chilly waters in wet suits and began getting comfortable with their new environment. They have steadily built up their endurance while under the watchful eye of dedicated and supportive parents who are overseeing the swims in kayaks and on paddle boards. The Dolphins swim club is not involved at all.
“May was really hard for them because there was a lot of jelly fish and we are talking about a lot,” smiled parent Helen Wiacek. “There were a few stings and a little fear but they just kept going. One of the dads on paddleboard were looking out for them. There have been logs too and patches of seaweed they had to avoid.
“On Mother’s Day around 7 a.m. out past the (one mile marker) there was a pod of grey whales that we could see and hear them spouting.”
Since the opening of the Ladner outdoor pool in July, training has been split between the two locations with the swimmers at Boundary Bay every other day. High tide is essential to make those sessions possible, which has led to a lot of early morning outings.
They have been comfortably swimming as far as four kilometres out and back consecutive times so the shore-to-shore distance shouldn’t be a problem. However, they will be entering unknown water when they depart from Crescent Beach.
The kids have got advice on open water swimming from where they can during the pandemic including a coach from a club based in Vancouver.
“I attended an online open water conference and a coach came down to see us a couple of times who has swam Georgia Strait and the English Channel so that was very cool,” added Rapier, who has also done her own version of Ironman training over a seven-day period near her Tsawwassen home.
The swimmers will be returning to their regular training at Winskill later this month, but this may not be only chapter of the Ocean Challenge.
“Who knows if there’s not COVID-19 maybe we can come back here and make it an even bigger event,” added Wiacek.
