6/12/14 – Veni, Vidi, Vici

Today there were 220 swimmers of which 18 were newbies. The water temp was 20.1 and the conditions were grey, overcast and steamy with a bit of a swell but nothing compared to the big waves faced earlier in the week.

Veni vidi vici – it’s a famous saying by a conquering Roman commander, probably Julius Caesar.

I came

I saw

I conquered

It might sound arrogant. “I saw it and wanted it and took it for the Republic” he might have been saying, and the conquering probably meant devastation, decimation and slavery for the vanquished. Today I have a story about my B&B journey and how I came, saw and conquered but there is zero arrogance in the events or the telling. Just wonder, awe, encouragement, excitement, unbridled joy and enormous gratitude.

This is a photo taken from the blog of 26 April this year and in the circle, watching from Shelly, was me.  I had just heard about the Pink Caps and had a morning walk to have a look at it. So, I came, and I saw.

 

At first all I saw was the most amazing and inspirational group of elite athletes who undertook this incredible feat which was way outside my ability and I was slightly in awe of them for what they had done in swimming from Manly and out through the waves and all the way across the bay to Shelly. They happily chatted in the water, just like our swimmers of this morning and then almost as one sprang forward and raced back to Manly.

 

I walked around as they swam, watching the swarm of pink caps retrace their passage and arrived back near The Point around the same time as them. Then I observed so many of them so effortlessly and impressively bodysurfing and seemingly nonchalantly catching a lift on the breaking waves in to the shore and then streaming up the ramp to the showers. Today the same prowess was on display and the same routine underway.

 

 

I had just moved to the vicinity and wondered if – should I go back to the pool and dedicate myself to training – I would be able to try just part of this amazing feat by say the end of 3 months. I decided to set myself that goal. I highly doubted I would manage it but figured that in having a go I would get some regular exercise and be healthier for it. So I decided I would go to the lovely Manly swim centre, swim laps and do my best to improve my fitness to the point that by the end of July hopefully I could swim from Shelly to the steps at half way. In today’s conditions those steps were almost devoid of Pink Cappers. However I think this pic following might, for me, be a quintessential B&B image. Pauline finishes an early swim and meets Lyndall on her way in, they stop for a chat and in the background the main group released by the Lets Go surge towards Shelly. I really love this pic. The group, or your own splinter group? here for exercise or to socialise? the main route or one of many options ? the surf or a calmer entry? but one thing that is a given -Pink Caps.

 

Back to my yarn. So I went to the pool, swam 50 metres and was gasping so hard by the end of it that I thought I might exhale the sum contents of my chest cavity. Over ~10 days I built up to the point where I could do two laps ie 100m at a go without needing a rest but needing a big rest at the end of the second lap to recover my breath, tame my galloping heart and calm myself. My goal looked a long way off and impossible.  Then one day a weird thing happened. I was swimming slowly and at the end of the second lap decided to turn again and go for a third, just to see if I could. I was in the end lane so knew I could grab the wall if need be.  I did the 3^rd, then the 4^th, then the 5^th…. then the 10th lap “Eureka !!! I have got it” I exclaimed to myself, just like Archimedes in his bath. I had discovered that by taking it slow and steady I could keep going and could now do ten laps at a time. After doing this a few times I mentioned it to The Gun and that’s how, with his encouragement, my first successful swim from Shelly to the steps happened in a third of the time that I had set myself in my goal. Its also how I stupidly went swimming in a big swell and frightened myself to the bone marrow. Then I went to the B&B Trivia night, both as I described last week.

OK I thought. I am going to see if I can’t stretch my goal and work up to joining the B&B and trying for a half-way to Shelly return swim by the end of my three months. That’s when I went down to the half way steps one day and somehow slipped on a rock because it was a super low tide and there were extra rocks than I was used to and they were moss covered. My legs flew up from under me and because I hadn’t expected it at all and the moss was SO slippery I didn’t even try and break my fall.  I landed smack bang, or perhaps more correctly ‘smash bang’, on the back of my head bang on the oyster covered rocks and the rest of me in the water. Fortunately passers-by had seen me fall and came to my rescue, called an ambulance and I got taken to Manly hospital. There, because I was suspected of possible spinal injury, I had to lie flat on my back with my open wound pressing on and bleeding all over the pillow !!! That HURT for a quite a long time!  Woah – this trying to be a B&Ber was proving harrowing !!!!  After xrays and the good news on that, many stitches were inserted to close the multiple lacerations on my scalp. I was told no swimming for a week, due to the risk of infection. Well I hadn’t really needed that excuse. There was NO WAY I was in a hurry to try again. But another weird thing happened. I think because it seemed so bleak. I just thought I don’t want this to defeat me. It doesn’t matter if I don’t get there and achieve my new goal but I won’t be satisfied unless I have genuinely tried. That’s how with a bit more practice I came down on 12 May, received my pink cap from Ian and had a go.  I walked around to half way and ran into musical Greg who I didn’t know at all. He swam near me the whole way and constantly checked on me – over…. and back!!!  I had made it!!!  Thanks Greg.

My next challenge was to do the first half of the swim ie from Manly to Cabbage Tree Bay and back.  I tried it many times and always chickened out. I was scared off by the waves a few times and others I got through the waves but just didn’t have the courage to strike out into the unknown in that open water so would swim the measly hundred metres or so out to the rocks and then scamper back ashore scared.   That is until one day I happened upon two lovely sisters walking back from Shelly. One of them, Charlie, turned out to be a B&B member. She and Christie offered to swim me around The Point to half way, which they did. Over the next few weeks they repeatedly swam with me around The Point or from Manly to Shelly or half way back to Manly etc until I had my fear under control and realised there was apparently no loch ness monster or like nasty lurking under Cabbage Tree Bay. A few more simple stroke and breathing tips they passed on made it even more manageable. Thank you so much Charlie and Christie ! All the wonderful things the B&B has meant for me may not have been experienced if not for you two and your generosity with both your time and advice.

 

That’s when I made my next big discovery. Its by having a go that you get there and instead of worrying that you aren’t good enough, by having a go you get good enough. The rest, as they say, is history. But its not just a trite cliché. Its an enormous component of and turning point in my own personal history.  Over the ensuing days then weeks I came down and swam with the B&B and found all the other benefits I have been raving about in my last seven blogs. The day of the winter badge ceremony I was as hyper as the Energizer Bunny.  Just a few short months previously it was completely unthinkable that I would ever even attempt ¼ of the B&B swim and here I was being awarded for having swum through winter and most of it without a wetsuit!

The reason I have shared my embarrassing story including cringeworthy details of how hopeless a swimmer I was, how petrified and unused to the sea and how completely ignorant of the ocean, tides, swells, winds etc etc I was and the 100% foolhardy things I did in my uninformed stupidity is that for me, the achievement of those winter badges was another person’s Everest. Since then I have also achieved a Bolderdash, another huge feat for me in so many ways. To swim 3km in the ocean is something that would have been totally inconceivable for the previous 5 decades of my life. I feel so very bold and brave for having made that dash.  I had come and seen and succeeded.  But I didn’t just master the task ie the swim. I came, I saw and I had CONQUERED my fear, my hesitations, numerous anxieties, my lack of knowledge, my shyness, my inability at swimming and unaccustom with the seawater and ocean conditions etc. And I felt 20 feet tall! Which is about 4 times what I really am as I am a shortster.  There was none of Caesar’s arrogance for me. I felt unbridled exhilaration, joy and enormous gratitude. If we were on the Titanic I would have been up there on the prow hollering with Leonardo and probably hollering louder.

It hadn’t been a fast victory as Veni Vidi Vici often implies but it had indisputably been a victory.

So, the whole reason I have had a go at blogging these past few weeks is to have presented a very different side to the B&B than those outside it might expect. Most of you who read the blog are probably very good swimmers. I haven’t necessarily been writing for you but for a friend, relative, acquaintance or colleague of yours instead, some of them might have been reading the blog wondering, just wondering, if they could ever have a go. I haven’t focussed on the cool gang or the beautiful clique or the good swimmers or the ‘it’ story so much. I wanted to present Team Omega – the slowies in Zed class at the back of the pack and describe the ENORMOUS fun we have on and after our swims. Also the great things we all see, experience and share each swim. I wanted to introduce some of the truly special people I have met and I am sorry that I have left far too many out as I could have featured many more.

In the tapestry of my life the threads that depict the B&B are some of the most colourful and striking and not just because they are hot pink but because what they depict is so remarkable – so wholesome, worthwhile and life-changing.  My life is so much the better for having donned my pink cap. I have learned lessons in the waters of Cabbage Tree Bay that I know with total certainty will help me navigate the rest of my life so much better and I have had so many growth and enjoyable experiences and so much fun.  Somewhere along the way, as well as ticking off badges and smashing unthinkabale personal aspirations and B&B milestones I have also picked up a number of quirky skills. How is it that I can now recognise people across the waves and behind their goggles and pink cap just from a smile or take in a mouthful of both water and breath and expel the water and use the breath, where once I would have spluttered in absolute panic. No one taught me these but I have realised lately they are there. I have not laughed as much in the previous decade as I have in the last six months. That’s why I have shared my journey and all I have loved about the Pink Caps.  My blogs have been for me a celebration of all that is so wonderful about the B&B. I have written them in homage and gratitude to The Gun for introducing me to the idea of trying it and for encouraging and supporting me as I did. Also to Christie, Charlie and all the Pink Cappers who have helped so much with tips, fun, laughter, coffees and especially forgiveness for all the times I zig-zagged in to them or held them up at Shelly as they waited for me, the slowest of the Zedders, to finally arrive, especially in the coldest, most freezing depths of winter!

So many Pink Cappers say it’s the best way to start the day and their life is SO much the better for having participated in, experienced and enjoyed all the B&B has to offer. I agree. So I have just one question for you.  Do you have anyone in your life, especially someone who thinks they could never do it, or is a bit defeated or beaten down by life right now? Who could benefit from donning a Pink Cap? Because the greatest gift that you could give them may just be the gift The Gun gave me ie the encouragement and support to put on a Pink Cap and have a go. All you have to do is get them down to B&B Central by 7 am. When there they will find the most incredible, diverse, energetic, happy, and supportive mob who will help them stretch their boundaries and then blossom all from just having a go. They will probably also make a few, new friends.

Whilst I am shy you can tell them my story and introduce them to me if you want. Then I or the Zen Zedder or DWSS or Queen Veena, LSA (when here) or many others of Team Omega or even some of our stars like Fifi can help them and swim with them from: Shelly and out for a bit and back; Shelly to the steps and walk back; Stairs to Shelly and walk back; out through the waves and back , around The Point and to half way and walk back; or around the Point and back through the surf; or whatever steps they want to take, and as many times as they need to take them, to build their confidence to have a go. 

The following pics show just a fraction of the people who came down this morning and had a go:

It was quite an auspicious day for many and for all. Vanessa is today better known as The Bride.

 

But as this isn’t a Tarantino there is no carnage, just smiles all around and after the swim she is joined by the Groom, David, his two sons, Matthew and Jordan – who were two of our newbies – today and Fiona who minded the dog. Not Billy who is happy today too but after two feature pics last week decided to keep a low profile this morning as he thinks there might be a few other pics taken today. Wise.

 

Bruce and Michael victorious from their 6.00 am start

 

Changing of the guard – Jeff, back from 6.30, gives Kelly, on her way in at 7am, a cold wet greeting.

 

Todays obligatory fish pic. With all the rain of late the walk way to Shelly in part resembles a water garden. There is just so much about this swim, the place, the people etc that is Beautiful.

 

Tomorow is clean up Sunday but Peter got an early start in at Shelly this morning. Great effort Peter.

 

There were very many vedi today

 

It being the first Saturday in summer today makes it the first chance to gain your 2014 6km badge by swimming from base to Shelly, The Point, then Queenscliff, around to Freshwater and then back (6km). You can try this any Saturday in summer. The swim starts with the usual 7am swim and then veers off once you return to The Point.  The longer 10km badge swim is available next Saturday (13.12.14) but then not again until February. John Bond needs a few volunteers to help him support next Saturdays 10km swim. Contact him at the swim or comment below.

This morning a number of bold B&Bers attained their 2014 summer 6km badge. From Shelly, as the masses departed on the second leg, the pool at Freshie looked a long, long way away to me.

 

At The Point on the way back from the 7 am swim there is a parting of the ways. Some head west for the showers, some north for the 6km and some south for a double. Just a fraction of all the Pink Capped adventures undertaken this morning.

 

Gayle and now Ian have both achieved their 500km badges – well done. Also today a number, including Lainey, Shelly, Ted and The Gun successfully achieve their 6km badges.  Congratulations to all of them for an awesome achievement. I could never in my wildest dreams imagine doing that….oh wait. I’ve said that before somewhere haven’t I? and then, with the help of my trusty pink cap and the B&B, smashed such a lofty goal out of the park. Maybe, just maybe if I train hard, am consistent and dedicated……mmm. I might have a new goal for myself. That and to learn how to body surf and catch a wave in on my way back to Manly one morning.

I am taking a leaf from Simon’s playbook and finalising the blog from Manly Wine. I might as well do something for the hour I will wait for my coffee!  From my perch I can see the B&Bers gathering at The Benches.

 

Here is Leo. He is from Brazil via The Netherlands and along the way he became a teacher in both Iyengar and Vinyasa yoga. In an image to inspire Rodin he contemplates a yoga essay he is completing to get his certification to teach here.

 

Then he blows a kiss to his mama Marisa. When are you coming to visit us and have a swim with us Marisa? there are many who are much older than you in our group and you will be warmly welcomed. Maybe for Leo’s brithday next year ? or hopefully before. You are already part of our pink capped family and you will love Australia, Manly and the swim.

In absentia: There has been a rightful fuss made of those who have achieved their 1000km badge recently. This one is for Richard who has quietly clocked his up and all those who did their 1000 just before Lainey’s special day and the birth of the ‘ritual’.While there has been a little cluster of achievements of this significant milestone of late there are still only 30 of us who have clocked up this incredible achievement on the Pacific Challenge. Thats only about a third of one percent of all who have donned a pink cap. Special! Impressive! Outstanding! Bold and a Beautiful thing.

 

Strange shights of the B&B #472. How did that pink towel or blanket get all the way up that tree?

 

At the showers the queues continue to grow but near the club they are now even more tantalising with the smell of the bbq cooking.

 

Back on land the camaraderie spills out between us all. No matter how hard it was to get out of bed, how bad the traffic, hangover or fatigue was, or how loud the first gasp when the freshnes of the water hit us on our way in, after our swim we all feel better, happier and at least just a little bit victorious for having conquered the obstacles and swum with the B&B.

This candid snap of Dylan and Owen with their Dad Andrew was taken yesterday. I love it. These three have joined us quite often of late and are accomplished swimmers but this pic captures a tender moment and the bond between them which is no doubt boosted by doing the swim together. Fatigue, achievement, affection, a shared experience and so much more. The swim is a very bonding activity for many of us.

 

By the time we are warm & dry and the endorphins are augmented with warm coffee its smiles, congratulations and camaraderie all around.

Voila! Its Virgine from France. She is definitely both bold and beautiful and just recently achieved her 500kms. Felicitations Virgine!

 

Veena is a queen of Team Omega and is quite happy swimming at the leisurely end of the pack.  Along with DWSS she is a great supporter of the slower swimmers.

 

Don’t Forget: The Christmas party next Tuesday (see below) Julie also sent around an email about a bbq at Shelly on the morning of Christmas Day. This reminds me of one of my all time favourite Aussie comedy routines. It was from Carl Barron who was mocking the Aussie (there it is) tendency to shorten a word and add an ‘ee’ sound. Like calling a bbq early on Xmas Day a Chrissy Brekky Barbie. Then if you were going to eat some chocolate biscuits there they would be Chrissy Brekky Barbie Choccie Bickies. So I will bring the Montes on Xmas morning when some of us celebrate at Shelly after the swim!

 

Signing off, with a huge shoutout and thank you to Christie, Charlie and all the Pink Caps who have made the last 6 months so special, memorable and fun and an especially big thank you to The Gun. And to all of you … don’t forget my question. Do you have someone in your life for whom you could play the part of The Gun and introduce them to the best: free fun, fulsome exercise, fear-blitzing feats and fun-loving folk ? Because if you do I am sure they will thank you for helping them to see the world through pinker (ie rosier) coloured lenses and finding it all the more beautiful and themselves a little bolder and braver.

“Veni, Vidi, Vici!”  ZZZZab x                [Blog# 8/8 ie over and out.]

 

STATS:

Swimmers: 220

Newbies: 18

Water temp:20.1 degrees

Brides, Grooms, wedding parties: 1 of each. Dogs: lots again. Badges: galore and 500/1000km milestones toppling like the statues of bygone dictators.

Disclaimer/Acknowledgement/Apology: Being a poor photographer I’d like to acknowledge that some pics in this blog came from former blogs and therefore to say Thanks to those bloggers or their photographers if applicable. I would also like to apologise to those who were disappointed by the lateness and length of my blogs. You dont have to read anymore for at least a year. Over & Out.  Phew!

BOTTOM OF THE BLOG:

 

The B & B Christmas Party is on Tuesday 9th December at 6.30 pm in the Moonshine Bar (2nd Floor) at the Steyne Hotel. All swimmers and partners/friends are welcome. The theme this year is simply “Christmas“. So come dressed in your finest Christmas paraphernalia. There is no need to be shy, as we will have the whole bar to ourselves. The Steyne will provide finger food and pizza, with drinks at bar prices. Lots of fun and dancing guaranteed, with music by our own band “The Troubadors“, who have generously agreed to perform free of charge for us on the night. The cost is $10 per head, with all proceeds going to the running costs of the B&B. Our charity partner, the Royal Far West Children’s Home, will also be running a monster raffle on the night, so please come prepared to support them. Bookings are essential. Book HERE now! Don’t miss this fun event, numbers are limited.

On sale NOW!!

The B&B Calendar is the perfect item for the ‘hard to buy for’ person in your life. You can pick one up at the swim from Ian (cash only), or online – Click here – with an option to have it posted or collected from Ian.

Summer Swims

It is that time again! John Bond, has announced the date for the first summer 10K swim challenge is Saturday 13 December 2014. The next one isnt until February. He needs a few volunteers to help as support crew next Saturday please comment below or contact him if you can help. The 6km swims started today and run each Saturday in Summer. They usually follow on from the 7 am Shelly swim with a gathering then northward haul from The Point.

Staying safe

Remember that there are no badges for scaring yourself silly! While it is great to extend your boundaries, it is important to know your limits. Do read these excellent tips on staying safe in the surf. To read, or even download, click here.