42 ‘ticked’ Bold & Beautiful swimmers.
First day of winter and the first day of our winter badge challenge !!! 🙂
Super rough, messy and choppy today. The waves were breaking all the way out to New Zealand and the New Zealand rock fisherman were at Manly…
An interesting new fashion on display this morning too, modelled by David Adams 😉
Michel Le Vieux, Gavin Skinstad, Jan Beacham, Ron Wilson and John Newcomb actually swam out and over to Shelly, then Boy Michel swam solo all the way back. To quote Gavin “it was s*#!. To quote boy Michel “it was up stream to Shelly and rapids on the way back.”
Jade Harkness made it all the way out past the point did before she did a u-turn and Nick TB Dowson gave it a good shot but nearly lost his goggles twice so turned back.
The rest of us were very sensible and enjoyed playing in the white water with a tea bag 🙂
Some of the girls walked up to Queensie first, there is proof, they are beautifully captured enjoying themselves on Saltmotion this morning, check it out here: www.saltmotion.com !!
Hopefully today’s photos give you some idea of what it was like. Tim Ettle took a great little video from the point which will be up for you all to see later 🙂
We had some international swimmers that were keen to start their badge on the first day, Celso Grati from lane Cove and Catrin Jonsson from North Ryde 🙂
Then… post coffee we saw Murray from Sprout Daily photographing a yellow bellied sea snake which had been washed up. Michael Christie came to the rescue and walked him back to the water as can been seen by the photos below 🙂 But then we noticed it was injured, so it has been taken to a salt water tank to see if he can be
helped. I’m sure photos will appear on Sprout
Daily today too, check it out here: daily.sproutdaily.com
Vicki Harbutt just sent through this info on our new friend from Wiki:
“The Yellowbelly Sea Snake or Pelagic Sea Snake (Pelamis platurus) is a species of sea snake found in tropical oceanic waters around the world. It is the only member of the genus Pelamis.”
To qualify for your winter badge you need to swim a minimum of 20 times between 1st June and 31st August, the only catch is you must have at least one swim in seven different weeks over this time.
You don’t want to miss out when it comes to badge ceremony time in September, so make sure you join in the fun and start your winter swimming now 🙂
Now for our sensational software which has been superbly designed and programmed by one of our swimmers, Magnus Butlin !
To check out who and how many people have started their swims for the winter badge already click here
To view the graph of B&B attendance over the last two weeks click here
Michael Christie diligently updates this for us each day, so please make sure you tick or cross within the box next to your name each day that you swim, thank you !! The sheet updates everyday with only the swimmers who have ticked within the last three weeks, so if your name has fallen off, please just write it neatly in one of the empty boxes at the end of the bottom sheet and you will reappear the next day, just like magic 🙂
Water Temperature 20.1 degrees.
Air Temperature 17 degrees.
Sunrise 6.51am.
Sunset 4.55pm.
High Tide: 7.46am.
Low Tide: 1.24pm.
Michael Christie and Vicki Harbutt checking out the conditions at the point.
David Adams looking… ??? 😉
13 comments
Gaétan
01/06/2011 at 10:02 am
Well done guys! Mitch told me it was the biggest mess he’s been through!
Jules the stats looks great hey! Very cool! Magnus you’re a genius!!!
Rob
01/06/2011 at 10:18 am
Hi Guys, what are the expected conditions for tomorrow? trying to decide if it’s worth venturing down! hopefully it’s due to calm down a little? thanks Rob
Gaétan
01/06/2011 at 10:30 am
same 🙂
http://magicseaweed.com/North-South-Steyne-Surf-Report/2937/
Catrin
01/06/2011 at 10:46 am
the sharks are cute but sea snakes…….???? does this particular type of snake bite???
ps. playtime in the waves was awesome and a great workout too, surely worth a winter swim tick on any given day 😉
Nick
01/06/2011 at 12:42 pm
Im jealous of the outside the wetsuit budgie smuggler look. Might have to buy a wetsuit , just so i can match this fabulous fashion trend!!
Im with you David!!
Michael [EX CI]
01/06/2011 at 1:04 pm
They’re cute too!! They are generally very calm and can be handled ,if you are gentle, without problems.
Although they have extremely toxic venom, they have small mouths and teeth and really could not bite you if they wanted to. The only caution would be to avoid envenomation on a finger web!! Not very likely really.
Michel
01/06/2011 at 4:21 pm
Very good 🙂
Julie's parents
01/06/2011 at 5:35 pm
Well done Michael – rather you than me!!!!!!!!
jan
01/06/2011 at 7:32 pm
michel, thanks for your fabulous nannying our there today, couldn’t have done it with our you. loved it though!
Pacific Jules
01/06/2011 at 9:04 pm
Check out this great video of Tim Ettle’s from this morning… Well done to all the hard core swimmers !!!
http://vimeo.com/24505513
Gaétan
01/06/2011 at 10:22 pm
Insane! We actually just went for a walk to Shelly with Mitch, it’s mad, the waves are coming all the way up to the ramp at the surf club and on the promenade!
The pool looks like the world’s biggest jacuzzi!
Pacific Jules
01/06/2011 at 10:34 pm
Very accurate descriptions Gaetan, its much wilder than this morning. We were standing out on our deck this evening watching the waves smashing up against the wall at Half way beach which were creating spray higher than the top floor off the units above the Bower Restaurant, no joke !!
Gaétan
01/06/2011 at 10:58 pm
Michel took a few photos there Julie at the Bower restaurant tonight, they might be good, it was an amazing spectacle!
I htink the sark net has gone, look what was just at the top of the ramp right next to the surf club:
https://picasaweb.google.com/gguilhon/20110601Waves?authkey=Gv1sRgCNCD1KPsjJbtgQE#