Tag: lifesaving

fitness · swimming

Facing an old fear and getting back in the big waves

Sam B1 Comment

In December 2007, just over 17 years ago,  I hurt myself pretty badly while on sabbatical in Australia. The whole family, including Jeff’s sister Susan who was visiting, were staying at a colleague’s cottage in Milton and enjoying a day at Mollymook Beach. Everyone, kids and adults, were playing and splashing in the waves. A fun day.

Suddenly, a very big wave appeared out of nowhere. It basically picked me up and threw me on the beach. I can’t describe it any other way. I couldn’t have done anything to make it end differently.

I passed out when I landed and I was in so much pain I was certain I’d broken my hip. Family took me to the emergency room. Nothing was broken, as it turned out. It was all soft tissue injury. It took me weeks to recover. For a few years after, my back wasn’t the same and I kept having back injuries. Needless to say, I’ve taken waves much more seriously ever since.

At the time it was all overshadowed by a much more dramatic event that happened that same weekend–Jeff’s more serious health issue,  a spider bite that caused his arm to swell up dramatically. Oh,  Australia.

Unlike me he was admitted to emerg and then ICU (yes, same hospital that I’d been to earlier in the day) and then spent days in hospital on IV antibiotics recovering, testing out the limits of our university travel insurance.

Okay, we’re both fine now. Maybe he’s more nervous about spiders. I’m definitely more nervous about playing in the surf. I’ve been in the ocean since, maybe once or twice, but only when it’s been calm.

Here’s where on the Australian coast it all went down.

Staying out of the surf has been easy in southwestern Ontario. I haven’t had to think about it really.  There are lots of lakes but no nearby oceans. I’ve visited the ocean in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia but it’s so cold there I’ve had zero temptation to get in.

I did love watching the surfers at Lawrencetown beach in Nova Scotia where some people actually surf year round. Brrrr!

Now here I am in Dunedin, New Zealand, living in the neighbourhood of St. Clair, one block from the beach. St. Clair beach is a good beach for surfing, lots of big waves. I love watching the beach. On a good day there’s dozens of surfers, My favourite is watching the kids and teens doing their surf lifesaving training in the evening. They wear wetsuits and confidently swim out through the waves. Sometimes they take boards and race back. I’m impressed!

Between the big waves and the cold water though–not to mention the shark warning bell!–I haven’t been that tempted to go in myself. Yes, to the hot salt water swimming pool but no to the ocean. But last weekend we had family from Australia visit, my cousin Greg and his wife, Jo. And we had an extra warm day. Also, the waves weren’t that big, and lifeguards were on duty between the flags. All the stars had lined up just right, and I happily went back into the waves.

Shark bell!
The salt water pool

Here we are! Yes, the waves knocked me off my feet once or twice. You can see from our faces below that we look plenty happy though. I think I’ve gotten over my fear of waves. Thanks all!

Thanks Greg for the photo. I’m in the middle, Jo on the left and Sarah on the right. (I’m going to nag Jo into writing about CrossFit sometime I hope.)

Jo, Sam,  and Sarah
St. Clair beach
The pool in the distance

fitness · swimming · training

Bettina has a new swim team – finally!

bettinathenomad2 Comments

I owe my passion for swimming to my mother. She never learned how to swim as a child (though she did when she was in her late 40s and became quite an avid swimmer), so made sure I learned at the tender age of about five. I was terrified of water getting in my ears. When it came to having to jump in, I always stood at the back of the queue hoping that my turn would never come. But I did learn, and eventually the water in my ears didn’t bother me any more.

SwimKitBettina
Bettina’s kit – swim suit, goggles, cap and pull buoy.

Then, in primary school, my mum realised I had rather poor posture, so she stuck me in the local swimming club to make sure I got back strengthening exercise. Since then, on and off, I’ve been swimming regularly. I was a competitive swimmer until I was about 14 (though I was never super fast), which was when our coach quit. In the small town I grew up in, they didn’t find a new person to replace him, and that was when I made my first contact with lifesaving, because we had the option to join a local team, and some of us did. I took my first lifeguard qualification when I was 15 and even “worked” at a local open air pool one summer. Our payment was a season ticket in exchange for the hours we put in, and a bit of pocket money. I was hooked. I loved the idea of combining sports with something socially meaningful.

At 17, I moved to the UK. My school had an intense social service programme, and one option was lifeguarding. I qualified as a beach lifeguard. We spent an amazing August patrolling a beach – who knew Wales could be so sunny! After high school, I didn’t join a team for many years. At university, I swam with the university life saving club a few times, but somehow never managed to requalify. I kept on swimming more or less regularly though.

LifesavingCertBettina
Bettina’s lifesaving certificate.

Fast forward about 15 years – one day I was doing my laps at the local open air pool when I noticed a bunch of people in swim caps of the German Lifesaving Association (sorry, no English website) in the lane next to me. Something clicked – I suddenly wished I was with them and part of a team again. They really looked like they were having fun. I approached the coach and asked if I could do a trial session. I loved it! I requalified as a lifeguard and over time even swam a couple of competitions with my team.

If you’re now wondering what a lifesaving competition looks like, let me tell you that it is very, very cool and direct you to the following video of the 2014 world championships:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDbO5ZrnHDA&w=560&h=315%5D

Then, just over a year ago, I moved to a different city. I tried the local lifesaving club once and it wasn’t a good fit for me. They do fantastic work with swimming classes and lifesaving training for kids, but the adults hardly swim (how much swimming a team will do depends a lot on their local focus and demographic). So I was on my own again.

Then we bought a car. And a colleague had told me that her daughter swam with the lifesaving club in a neighbouring town – with my own four wheels, this was suddenly within reach. On Tuesday, I decided to give it a shot – and it was brilliant! They train in a primary school pool, so it’s tiny (16m lanes are a fun thing when trying to calculate distances), but the team is exactly my jam! It’s a gender and age group mix I like, they seem very nice, and they swim decent distances. On Tuesday we did 3,500m and on Friday, 2,600m – there were lots of drills in the Friday session.

I couldn’t be more happy I gave this a shot. Before I went, I’d been worried I wouldn’t be able to keep up – I’m not all that fast and thought they might be super hard core. In true impostor syndrome fashion, I can really get up in my head about things like this. But it was perfect! So I have a new team and will be training with them about twice a week. Watch this space for more!