01/06/14 – Winter Wonderland

It’s the official start of winter and 152 swimmers celebrated the beginning of the new season in style – or alternatively, in onesies.

 

 

 

 

Today also marks the official kick off to the Bold and Beautiful winter badge season!

You know you want one!  There are 14 weeks in the winter season.  To qualify for the prized Cold & Bold Badge you simply need to swim 20 times within the season ensuring you have swum in a minimum of 7 different weeks.  So, attempting to do it all in the first few weeks does not count.

This year’s badge design is still work in progress but reliable sources from inside the B&B management team have leaked early design favourites for 2014:

 

Come spring, everyone in Manly who’s someone will wear one of these bad boys proudly on their hoodies. So make sure you don’t miss out!

Back to this morning..

On my first winter morning walk down to the beach I bumped into my neighbour Petra who skillfully colour coordinated a purple beanie and hoodie with a pair of blue/white flippers and accessorized with a vintage tea mug. What an entrance!

 

The splinter group commonly known as ‘The Teachers’ shaved their armpits to raise money for charity.

 

John K., mistaking me for the waiter, ordered two hot skinny soy lattes with sugar. For himself and Rob I assume..

 

Which brings us to couples.. I love seeing couples coming down for the swim together.

 

Forget about roses and jewlery. Few things are more romantic than sharing a 6am alarm and walking down to the beach for a swim in the ocean. The secret of a long and happy marriage.

 

 

Now, love means different things to different people. On the other end of the spectrum we have the playboys – such as Rusty ‘The Octopus’ Mort. Sharon bearing the brunt of it this morning..

 

And then I have this photo, which is begging to be captioned by someone..

 

Thankfully, Elizabeth came to the rescuse, reminding everyone it was 7am and time stop the silliness. There was an ocean waiting to be conquered..

 

So off we went..

 

 

For a moment I thought I spotted Lesley in the corner of my eye, walking the wrong way..

 

 

The swell had picked up over night. Good reason to brush up on your knowledge around water safety – see surf safety section and link at the bottom of the blog.

 

At Shelly, there was only one topic. On the way over The Spaniard spotted a 4 inch jelly. Everyone gathered and watched him, spellbound, as told us of his encounter.

 

In other news, Alex, shown in wetsuit below, had kindly helped transporting the blog camera from the point to Shelly. The camera took numerous photos and a 20 sec video whilst stuffed down his wetsuit. The footage is extremely clear and I decided to dedicate a separate blog to publishing the material..

 

On the way back, to make it interesting, I decided to ask Corinne to transport the blog camera back in her wetsuit. Producing another 35 seconds of crystal clear footage which will be published at a later stage.

Below a photo of Corinne and Gareth under the rainbow.

 

And here are the usual Shelly census shots. If you can’t find yourself, you didnt swim.

 

 

 

 

And we had some impressive kids joining us today, making it all the way across to Shelly in what were rather challenging conditions. Well done kids! You rock!

This is Lucie, 12..

 

And this one was so fast I didn’t even catch her name properly..

 

Say hi to Mary..

 

..she’s kindly providing the only underwater photo for today:

 

She also provided this exclusive photo of Bella blatently flirting with Rusty.

 

And please say hi to Ian..

 

.. who lives in a fantasy world whe he’s ahead of me in the Pacific Challenge.

 

What I love most about Ian is how he is able to concede his defeat graciously.

 

Back at the club, there was more of the same.. posing for the blog.  ‘Me! Me! Me! I never make it onto the blog!’

 

Marc and Tim overjoyed, having it finally made onto the covetted Sunday blog..

 

Leigh brought Luca and Lexi down. Well done kids! No easy swim today!

 

 

 

Rob had itchy buttocks today.. he told me.

 

And if you thought that was disturbing, try this for size..

 

Now, we haven’t had enough shower scenes in the blog lately. Let’s fix that..

 

This fine group moved here all the way from South Australia they told me. And while they do miss Adelaide at times, they tell me that joining the Bold & Beautiful family has made them feel right at home here in Manly..

 

I’m running out of space, but Chris told me in no uncertain terms that he expects to feature on the blog today. I’m a bit scared of Chris, so here you go mate..

 

At the coffee tables, the usual crowd..

 

 

 

 

Brad is one of the few unlucky swimmers who managed to catch a glimpse of Thursday’s disturbing Dreamboat photo. Here he is, painstaikingly describing the photo to fellow swimmers.

 

On my way home, I bumped into happy Judy.. which made my day.

 

 

 

Bottom of the Blog – the very useful stuff

Monthly Dinner – Bluewater Cafe, Tuesday 10th June at 6.30 pm

This month’s guest speaker, Chris Miller, is a freelance cameraman who worked on the TV program Getaway for 20 years. Chris has traveled to many exotic locations where he has filmed both above and below the water. Chris will talk about his experiences swimming with Whale Sharks in Western Australia and cage diving with Great White Sharks in South Australia.

The cost will be only $20 a head and includes shared entrees, a selection of main to choose (incl a vegetarian option) and corkage (for byo wine only) and a little thank you for the staff.
All beers (including four pines beers !), wine and deserts an optional extra at the special price of only $5 each !!
BOOKINGS ARE ESSENTIAL, so book here now!!

 

Winter Badge season kicks off 1 June (TODAY!)

You know you want one!  There are 14 weeks in the winter season.  To qualify for the prized Cold & Bold Badge you simply need to swim 20 times within the season ensuring you have swum in a minimum of 7 different weeks.  So, attempting to do it all in the first few weeks does not count!!

Also on Sunday 8th June (next week now due to Food and Wine Festival this week), to mark the  winter swims, we will be hosting our own Biggest Morning Tea after the swim at the benches.  Funds from this morning tea will go to cancer research ‘cause you never know if you or someone you love will one day be a beneficiary of this work.

Karmea Fitness Open Day

Sarah Anne, your Pacific Jules swim coach, is holding a FREE open day at her multisport hub on North Head.  Come along and try out a wide variety of classes, meet the inspiring Karmea team and family, and find out how Karmea can support you to live a healthier life and reach your sporting goals. The entire day will be packed with classes, talks, workshops and everything will be free of charge,

Open day schedule is now open for bookings Click here

If you’ve not made it to the Karmea hub yet this is the perfect opportunity for you to come in and try out classes for free. If you are a hub regular then come along and take part in one of the classes you’ve never experienced but have been dying to do.

The Biggest Morning Tea ever

Help B&B regular Miguel Maestre (aka the Crazy Bull) fight cancer this May and June, and make this year’s Biggest Morning Tea the biggest ever!  Please share his video or maybe even organise one with as many friends as possible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yqn8zLeMJZk&list=UUoqsI4BQjKoFanMQOy5VEIw

 

B&B i-Log

Really if you haven’t been using the B&B i-Log then you must be new!!  Almost 75% of swimmers are now using the B&B i-Log. Log your swim ANYTIME of day using this really efficient and easy way to ensure your swim is recorded in the daily attendance and on the Pacific Challenge. To get started, send an email to Ian Forster ugoboyo@gmail.com (This is not a link so please copy and paste into your email). He will check that your email address is activated on the attendance register then send you info on how to get started.

Staying safe

We have had seen the return of some serious waves and rips these days!  Were you prepared? 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.

Stats:

Swimmers 152

Water Temp 20.5

Sunrise 6.51am

Sunset 4.54pm

 

Signing off

Lips – today with arch nemesis Ian P (just to rub it in)

 

 

Have a great Sunday!!!