I’ve had a lifelong relationship with the sea. My late father, Solly, played waterpolo for South Africa at the Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952 and was also a champion swimmer. My 1st swimming interprovincial was for Western Province at age 7 and I had a junior and senior provincial swimming and waterpolo career until I discovered long distance swimming in 1980.
I was the first person to swim from Cape Town around Robben Island and back. I spent almost 11 hours in the water, covering another grueling 30-kilometre swim in shark, jellyfish and bluebottle infested waters, not to mention the constant threat of hypothermia as the water off Cape Town can drop as low as a chilly five degrees. I trained really hard for that swim – averaging about 30 kilometres per week of swim training. Speed was never an issue. The aim was to get from point A to point B – that was the challenge. For some inexplicable reason, my left shoulder stopped working properly at about the sixth hour. I had to find a stroke action that worked, without causing me to leap out of the water with pain, until I finished. There is a phenomenon where the body changes shape slightly after many hours in the sea and that happened to me on this crossing, but I was back to old myself after about 24 hours. My most difficult swim to date has to be the English Channel in 1996. It took me a year to prepare for the race.
I met my wife of 30 years, Michelle, one week before my 1st ever swim to Robben Island on Clifton beach in 1981. As one does, I sat on her towel and bragged that I was training to swim to Robben Island shortly. Only after about 10 years of marriage did Michelle reveal that she told her friends “I’m not sure about this Yach boy, I think he is delusional. He thinks he is going to swim to Robben Island!”. In those days it was unheard of, aberrant behavior.
One of the main reasons I love living in Cape Town, from a swimming perspective, is the fantastic venues and facilities that are available to all of us. The Sea Point Pavilion is my favourite and arguably the most beautiful (and now lovingly restored by the City) public facility in the world. We’re spoilt for choice in the province! Clifton and Three Anchor Bay are also spectacular training venues and St James and Kalk Bay tidal pools are well-kept Cape Town secrets, as is the Silvermine reservoir - a great training alternative, totally in nature!
