21/02/2021 Lessons in the ripples

It was almost a Thirsty Merc kind of day:

Take me back to the sweet times
The hot nights
Everything is gonna be alright
In the summertime

Humidity was heading into the liquid air 90s, there was southerly with enough of a swell to give you a ride back into the beach if you avoided the sand bar.

It’s a tussle between the rain and the sun for control of the day. By midday it looks like blue sky and sunshine are the winners.

Buzz of activity on Manly – fishing, volleyball, surfing, running, yoga. Perfect Sunday for a swim.

Question on everybody’s mind (after I asked them) was “Where did you learn to swim?”

 Above: Clare learned to swim at a young age at the Forbes Carlile pool in Ryde. Lisa’s swimming group ended up in the local paper after the youngsters were evacuated from their Beaver swimming club in VIC after a explosion involving chlorine which resulted in children foaming at the mouth. Thankfully she has found calm in the chlorine-free waters of the ocean.

Above: Annora’s first swimming lessons as a young girl were in a pool in Brunssum, Netherlands while Paul learned to swim in Bankstown.

Above: Don’s first encounter with swimming lessons as a three year old entailed being strapped into a harness attached to a rope, thrown into a pool and told to swim to his mother. Needless to say the experience would have been traumatising but he is now has a love of water and is a content ocean swimmer. Alan’s first swimming lessons as a young boy were in Cape Town.

Above: Good to see Kierin returning to the waves after putting his back out. He learned to swim at Queenscliff pool as a young lad and was almost lost after slipping off a rock into the murky depths of Manly Dam while adults were in deep conversation next to him. He did not want to say anything as he quietly slid to the bottom of the lake as he was told “not to interrupt adults when they are talking”. Glad you are still with us Kierin!

Above: Lainey’s first swimming experiences as a girl were at a pool north of Birmingham were the chlorine hung thick in the air and there was a stern sign stating NO PETTING.A world away from the wonderful marine life of Cabbage Tree Bay.

Above:

Water temp 22.6

Swimmers (dispersed throughout the day): 72 by 11.30am

134 by 1.11pm

Relative humidity: 90% (at 7am)

Wind: S SSE

Above: Ted earned his breaststroke swimming certificate at the Diploma Ab Pool in Utrecht, Netherlands before progressing to crawl and ocean swimming in Australia. Marty and Sean learned to swim at South Curly Ocean pool described by Marty as the “Man from Snowy River” of beaches.

Above: Greg reckons that the tough baptism he had as a child held was a good preparation for his swimming lessons.

If I did not get to chat this morning – we’d love to hear your memories about where you learned to swim, so pop a note in our feedback.

We’re blessed to have 35 days without a new case of Covid in NSW but some parts of the world are doing it really tough.

Remember those battling in other regions as you enjoy the beauty of our ocean.

Safe safe and healthy and remember it ain’t over till it’s over.

Oosty

___________________________________________________________________

Covid has brought with it many changes for everyone all around the world and B&B is no exception.

Whilst we have lots to be extremely grateful for in Australia and within B&B, a number of our swimmers have been personally affected and are experiencing challenging times. 

In response to this it was suggested that some swimmers might like to support their fellow swimmers, by utilising their skills where they could.  

As such, within our daily attendance software we have included a ‘profession section’.  Swimmers can now, should they choose, list their profession and location within their profile on our website.  This then allows anybody within our B&B community to: ‘Check with B&B First’ when looking for a resource / tradesperson to use. 

If you would like to participate in this, please go to our B&B daily attendance website: webapp.boldandbeautifulmanly.com.au