In response to the largely unknown phenomena of open water swimming, the first-ever Global Open Water Swimming Conference will be held on June 5th in Long Beach, California. World open water swimming champions, English Channel world record holders, top professional marathon swimmers from the 1950’s, 1960’s, 1970’s, 1980’s, 1990’s and this century in addition some of history’s most decorated Olympic and triathlon coaches and personalities will share their experiences, insights and recommendations on how to prepare optimally, train intelligently and race well in the open water.
Many of the world’s most experienced race directors from 14 countries on five continents will also share their visions of the future of open water swimming, one of the world’s fastest growing sports with an estimated 16 million enthusiasts and over 3,000 events held around the world.
Doug Woodring of the Sheko Challenge and The Clean Half Extreme Relay will participate in the Conference as one of the most innovative race directors in the world. Among his creative additions to the sport, Mr. Woodring introduced the carbon-neutral option of escort boats to the sport of open water swimming. “Instead of using motorized watercraft to escort swimmers during marathon swims, The Clean Half offers swimmers the ability to use outrigger canoes on their swims. This carbon-neutral option effectively eliminates the carbon footprint that swimmers have traditionally left in open water relays where boats have used much fuel to escort swimmers in the ocean. We have seen races from Asia to the American Great Lakes adopt this carbon-neutral option as our sport becomes more ecologically aware of the importance of maintaining and improving the health of our oceans.”
“Doug is truly a breath of fresh air in our sport. His innovations has helped inspire race directors around the world to consider carbon-neutral options and creative race layouts while providing a safe and memorable experience for athletes of all ages, abilities and backgrounds,” said Steven Munatones, a former world marathon swimming champion and well-respected commentator on the sport. “Open water swimmers are engulfed in the marine environment and we are beginning to understand how activities on the terra firma directly affect our activities in the marine environment. Doug’s leadership is very much appreciated by swimmers and race directors from the 153 countries where open water swims are held.”
The Conference is part of the USA Swimming National Open Water Swimming Championship weekend, offers presentations on open water racing tactics, techniques, innovative training methodologies and trends in the sport – and a post-race video analysis of the national championship 10K race where FINA World Cup and world championship medalists from America, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Mexico and Canada will take part.
In addition to Mr. Woodring’s representation of Asia, USA Triathlon, U.S. Masters Swimming, USA Swimming, British Swimming, Brazilian Swimming Federation, Cayman Islands Amateur Swimming Association, Mexican Swimming Federation, South Africa, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Bangladesh, Asian Swimming Federation, FINA’s Sports Medicine Committee, FINA’s Coaches Commission, FINA’s Technical Open Water Swimming Committee, Swimming Canada, World Open Water Swimming Association, International Open Water Swimming Association, Trinidad & Tobago, U.S. Navy SEALs, Catalina Channel Swimming Federation, International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame and the Special Olympics will be represented.
USA Triathlon will also provide Continuing Education Units to certified triathlon coaches and race directors who participate.
Price of US$175 (or US$35 for junior high school students, US$45 for high school students or US$55 for college undergraduate and post-graduates) includes:
- admission to all presentations, panel discussions, networking sessions and the awards ceremonies
- an Open Water Swimming Almanac that includes information like The Top 100 Open Water Swims in the World, the Open Water Swimming
- Dictionary, Rules of Open Water Swimming, America's Top 50 Open Water Swims, Amazing Open Water Swimming Websites, Great Open Water Swimming Books and Movies, Cool Open Water Swimming Products and Technology, Open Water Swimming Clubs, Teams and Organizations, and New Open Water Swimming Events around the World.
- participation in any or all five pre-race clinics that will be held on May 22nd, May 29th, May 23rd, May 30th and June 5th in Southern California
- special gifts from StingMate® and TRI-SWIM
- an Italian dinner
For more information, visit www.pacificopenwater.com.
From SCMP – June 3, 2008
Long time no sea - Charmaine Carvalho
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For a community of islanders, Hongkongers do relatively little open-water swimming. There is a mere handful of days each year when full-time athletes and amateurs leave the confines of the pool to race across local waters. But as competitive ocean swimming makes its debut as an Olympic event this year, devotees hope that the buzz will spark greater interest in the sport.
"Hong Kong should be a centre for open-water swimming, given the great beaches and scenery and warm water almost all year round," says technology entrepreneur Douglas Woodring, a co-founder of this weekend's Shek O Challenge, a 2.2km swim from Big Wave Bay to Back Beach that began four years ago.
There are four to six races organised annually by groups such as the Hong Kong Amateur Swimming Association. They typically attract a field of about 200 participants of various ages and skill levels.
Alexander Chung Kwok-leung, who holds three local records for long-distance swimming, reckons Hong Kong doesn't have a qualifier in the open-water race at this year's Olympics because the sport is not developed here.
"We don't have a coach with experience in this event," he says. "Besides, local swimmers tend to focus on shorter distances. Many quit when they hit their late teens, which is when people begin to come into their own in the open-water event."
The small number of open-water races surprises a recently arrived enthusiast, investment consultant Calum Mckinlay. "The day after I landed here six months ago, I participated in an open-water race but I expected there to be more," he says.
Mckinlay compares kicking out in the waves to going for a walk in the hills. "It's the most natural thing you can do," says the 44-year-old. "For me, it's a reaction to modern living, where you're taken away from nature and become less healthy."
His love of swimming was rekindled four years ago while living in Sydney, where there's an open-water swimming event at a different beach almost every Sunday in the summer. Mckinlay got to grips with the often rough starts of open-water swimming and became hooked on the sport.
Open-water races tend to be more social events than competitions, he says. "You turn up at a beach with a few hundred people and end up chatting with them before and there's usually a party after. Inevitably you meet other sporty and environmentally concerned folk."
Participants in international events such as the Maui Channel race in Hawaii can find themselves swimming among whales and manta rays, but encounters with marine life can be a mixed blessing. Although shark attacks haven't been known to occur during a race (Woodring attributes this to the noise they generate), competitors have emerged from some events with painful jellyfish stings.
Chung, 24, recalls running into masses of jellyfish in a swim across the Bosphorus Straits last year. "Luckily they weren't poisonous," he says. "I wanted to stay and play but had to get on with the race."
The first Asian to complete the 6.7km swim, Chung came second in the event. A timely tip from a fellow competitor to steer clear of the coast and change direction at a landmark saved him from being swept off course by the strong current, he says.
The experience taught him the importance of studying local currents, tide and wind direction before a swim in unfamiliar waters.
"If you're a pool swimmer, wherever you go, the conditions are pretty much the same. But I've swum in rivers, lakes and the [Persian] Gulf. You may not know the route and so it's like an adventure.
"The first time I swam long distance in open water, I didn't know how to pace myself," he says. "There are no lanes to see who's around you and you have no idea where you are. You have to build a sense of direction."
That comes with experience, Chung says.
One of his proudest moments was placing third in the Asian Open Water Championship in Qatar in 2002. "Nobody expected a swimmer from Hong Kong to place and most attention was on the mainland swimmers so I managed to break through the crowd," he says.
In the past few decades, poor water quality has been a deterrent to swimming in the sea, but enthusiasts say open-water competitions will help raise awareness of the need to clean up the waters around Hong Kong.
"That's what these swims are about in some ways - they highlight the fact that the water should be clean enough for swimming, because Hong Kong is a very wealthy city," says Mckinlay.
"The Thames in London was really dirty and they managed to clean that up."
The government must speed up treatment of sewage going into the harbour, although water quality is improving, Woodring says.
Ian Polson, an open-water competitor since the mid-1970s, agrees. The 63-year-old barrister swims at Repulse Bay throughout the year. "The water's very clean, it's convenient for me to get to and it's just pleasant," he says.
Hong Kong waters may not hold the same pleasures as Hawaii, where he could almost see the bottom of the ocean during an hour-long swim for an Iron Man competition, but Polson says conditions in Victoria Harbour are looking up.
Having participated in the annual Cross-Harbour Race before it was stopped in 1978, he hopes the event can be revived. "The year I did the swim it was really bad - there was diesel and dead fish floating on the surface - but it's much better now," Polson says. "There's no hygienic reason why they can't do it. It's just that they need to stop the boats powering through the harbour during the swim."
Despite fears of shark attacks after a spate of fatalities in the early 1990s, Woodring says the threat is overstated. "There aren't big enough fish in Hong Kong waters for sharks to eat anymore," he says. "I'd be more scared of plastic bags, although we organise our races at times when the water is cleanest." A former competitive swimmer, the 42-year-old generally organises races for people who love to swim and are just looking for an excuse to jump into the ocean, so distances tend to be shorter than the standard 10km in international events.
An especially convivial race is the Clean Half, a 15km relay from Stanley to Deep Water Bay, in October. It's the only open-water relay swim in Asia and Woodring hopes to attract regional teams this year.
"We had people in [the Clean Half] last year who never thought they could make it - they felt as if they had climbed Everest," Woodring says. The event attracted diverse participants, from triathletes to weekend swimmers with ages ranging from six to 70.
Meanwhile, Woodring is focused on building a regional open-water circuit. "People will travel to a place if they know there's a race there, but we need better communication between organisers in different countries in Asia," he says. "It's great for tourism, as just one race can bring in a few million dollars in revenue if a handful of overseas teams participate."
The Shek O Challenge and the Clean Half will soon be listed on an international website among the world's top 50 open-water races and that will only be good for Hong Kong, he says.
"I love the beauty of swimming here," says Woodring. "We don't promote that much - the fact that it's like New York and Hawaii fused together."
