Embrace the big chill and silence the noise of the world: The challenge of open-water swimming

The late great Theodore Yach, the Cape Town open-water sea swimmer, who notched up 109 Robben Island crossings before his untimely death, always advised aspirant sea swimmers that there was no such thing as an easy Robben Island swim.

He would go on to say that the only path to success was to embrace the icy Atlantic. His famous words were “invite the cold in and allow it to lubricate your shoulders and sharpen your mind”.

The Robben Island crossing has become a yardstick for the growing number of South African sea swimmers who challenge the icy swim. Internationally, the 7.4km swim to Blouberg is respected as a tough, treacherous, short and cold swim. It commands respect from the swimming community globally.

Way back in the early 1980s when I first swam “the Island”, the popular exercise landscape was vastly different to the present. Running and cycling events were the rage but, 30-odd years later, that exercise generation has embraced open-water sea swimming. Today, Cape Town has numerous sea and lagoon swims on the calendar and the city boasts three major sea crossings, the 7.4km Robben Island crossing, the 8km around Cape Point swim and the mammoth 34km across False Bay, which matches the English Channel in difficulty and distance.

Besides the cold, sea conditions on swim day need to be close to perfect for a distance sea swim to succeed and in Cape Town, conditions can quickly change. Mother Nature has to be in a generous mood for the challenge to succeed.

The Cape Long Distance Swimming Association has been formed to officiate and record each attempt following the English Channel Swimming Association rules: a pair of goggles, a single swimming cap and a regular costume. In the 1980s the association would record a dozen swims in the year. Today that figure is about 30 a month!

Swimming in the sea in the 1980s was not popular and all training was restricted to the municipal swimming pools. The effect of the 1975 movie Jaws, and the 1976 Clifton Fourth Beach shark attack on the athletes’ psyches, cannot be denied. The shark fishermen of False Bay had regular publicity for the Great White sharks they hunted. It was a different time. 

Robben Island swimmers were more comfortable in the warm pools, which meant that they presented themselves on swim day with very little cold water training and experience.

Over the years, a lot of local research into hypothermia has been undertaken by Capetonians Dr Otto Thaning, a local heart surgeon and English Channel swimmer, and Lewis Pugh, the eco-warrior and human polar bear, whose findings show that there is no alternative to acclimatisation. Regular practise in the icy sea offers the best preparation.

Capetonians Eddy Cassar and Gary Laing on their recent swim from Robben Island to Blouberg. (Photo: Supplied)