A Crackerjack Day At Forster

Another "real" oceanswim just a week after Caves Beach. Christmas might have come late this year but its been well worth the wait!

Forster was great, and I reckon Mr OS.c is too right when he says that we are just heading into best time of year for oceanswimming. The water was warm, not to windy, just enough swell to both give you a help along, but also just enough to reflect off the rocks and make things a little bumpy, and a little wave at the end to pose on regardless of your placing; as I shamelessly did. There were a few sightings of small to medium, probably Grey Nurse Sharks goin about their business, as well as other assorted marine life adding to the colour and repartee of the event.

The short course event was held wholly within Forster Main Beach with the start having been moved from the adjacent Pebbly Beach to the finish line at Forster. I'm not sure for what reason exactly, but it just may have been that the seasonally unusual early Nor'easter was making things a bit bumpy early in the morning and the organisers may not have wanted to stress out any novices that we giving it a go perhaps for the first time; which I reckon is fair enough. However we still got our monies worth. It was definitely longer than 1km, more like a metric mile (1500m) as the times will attest. While on the subject of value, I'd like to applaud the extremely reasonable entry fees: $10 for the shorty and $30 for the biggy. At those prices there was plenty of punters doin both races, yours truly included.

By the time the biggy got under way, the Nor'easter had dissipated and conditions were ideal. The water was clear and calm with a little wave breaking at start at One Mile beach. The distance of 3.8km was a good test of stamina for me, the longest ocean swim I've done so far; and I'm sure everyone who did it will agree with me that it was well worth it. The only downer on the day was the barbie got wound up early so we had to seek apre swim sustenance elsewhere, and the water was bit murky from Bennett's head to Forster and pretty weedy at the finish line. I'll leave it to the organisers to decide which one of those problems they will try to tackle for next year's race, if there is one? See the latest Oceanswims.com newsletter at:

http://www.customercommunity.com.au/communities/newsletter.asp?Issue_id=1126

Do the new SLSA rules mean that this gonna be the last event of this distance at Forster? I bloody well hope not! I know this might sound trite, but get another f...ing insurer!

Davo.