Xmas Swimming Hours and Our Pat

Xmas Swimming Hours

Firstly, a very Merry Christmas to all our club members. Wishing you all a relaxing time and happy holidays.

Here are the swimming times of the Christmas/New Year period:

Normal swimming Monday 23rd (tonight). There will be no swimming on Wednesday 25th December - in case you hadn't heard it is Christmas day and you really should have something else to do. Go to the beach if you really want a swim. There will be 'normal' swimming on Sunday 29th and Monday 30th. Some of our members swim more normally than others so take that as you like. On Wednesday January 1st we have 3 lanes from 5.45 pm to 6.45 pm for those who are sufficiently recovered from the night before. Sunday January 5th and onwards we are back to normal. In a nutshell....

Monday 23rd - Yes
Wednesday 25th - Seriously? Of course not!
Sunday 29th - Yes
Monday 30th - Yes
Wednesday 1st - Yes, 3 lanes from 5.45 to 6.45
Sunday 5th and onwards - back to normal

Famous Pat

If you were swimming in the Russell to Paihia swim on the 7th December you would have noticed Pat wearing a different coloured cap from everyone else and it had the number 3 on it. The cap was to really make him stand out and the 3 was because he was part of a very distinctive family; 3 generations of his family were taking part in the swims that day. Pat's daughter Helen and her twin sons were swimming along with Pat.

As many of you know, Pat's daughter Helen is a reporter for TV One so TV One were up there recording this auspicious event. The New Zealand Herald also took up the story and featured an article and here it is in full so you can read it for yourself. Pat, you are a superstar!

South City Do It Again!!!!

This weekend saw round 2 of the State Ocean Swim Series, the Bay of Islands Classic, which is a 3.3 km swim from Russell to Paihia. This is also the longest swim of the series and is the only one that is more than 3 km.

The weather looked fairly ideal at breakfast time but as swimmers boarded the ferry to cross to Russell the wind started to pick up and faces started to fall. On Russell village green swimmers started putting on their wetsuits if they hadn't already done so and it was not a moment too soon as the rain started to come down and the marker buoys on the course began to have a mind of their own. The waiting crowd began to feel a little anxious over being able to sight the course and threatened to storm the beach (slight exaggeration) but Scott Rice took control with a gentle 'shush' and then it was down to the start line. Right on cue the weather cleared just in time for the start hooter. In spite of the earlier squalls the weather remained calm throughout the swim and the water was only mildly choppy - very good swimming conditions indeed. The sun even came out in time for the finish.

Predictably, South City Masters covered themselves in glory with 4 swimmers on the podium - Dawn and Avy both won their divisions (again!) and Liz and Pat came second in theirs. A big shout out to the 4 of them - doing the club, and themselves, proud. Out of the 12 swimmers that went to Paihia, 10 members finished in the top 10 of their age division, an amazing result.

A mention should also be made that Richard and Rachel both made the podium in their age groups in spite of being only in togs. Unsurprisingly, they both won their respective non-wetsuit divisions.