Floating Flamingo's Winter Swim Club

2023-04-30

For 50 years or more, there has been a winter swim club operating out of the Continental pool, The Wollongong Whales. This is a men only swim club. Recently, women wanted to join, but they would not allow them to. Therefore, the women decided to start up their own swim club Floating Flamingos.

2022 was the first official year of the Floating Flamingos Winter Swimming Club which was born during the COVID lockdown. It runs from the end of April til the end of August - Literally winter! I suppose this is to prevent it from impeding on Surfclub activities which begin in September and end on ANZAC day.

I think that the founder of the swim club is a member of Wollongong City surflifesaving club (SLSC) so many of the members are from either North Wollongong SLSC and Wollongong City SLSC. Yet, there were still a lot of women from other clubs such as Thirroul SLSC as well as women who are not apart of the surf club.

The schedule is a 50 m handicap swim. This means that the faster you swim, the more disadvantaged you are the next week. I wish I knew this before. Last year, I was invited to join, but I was really busy last year and so I didn't have time to join. This year 2023, I decided to sign up because I wanted a little bit of competition in my life.

At 7 am, I left home to arrive at the continental pools by 7.15 am. After registering, I got ready to swim as I was in heat #3 of >18. I met a few people there, including a lady named Ana. I also saw a few people from NWSLSC and spoke for a while.

After my 50 m dash (My time was 36s), I jumped into the 45 m pool and swam another 400 m. The water temperature was great and the pool quality was amazing (usually after a big storm, it gets really dirty from the sea water). Afterwards, I put on my towl hood and headed home for a shower and breakfast before [[Ashley & Dylan's Wedding]].

Even though it was just a 50 m swim this morning, I am so happy that I have joined this swimming club. I need a bit of competition in my life and this made me feel so happy: especially being in this community of women who support each other.

For week 2, on the 7th of May, I was early to the continental pools. I arrived by 7 am. As I was parking, I ran into Bruce - a life member from North Wollongong Surf Lifesaving Club (NWSLSC). He complimented me on how well I have been going on the #paddleboard racing mal. It was nice to hear from him, as when he was younger, he was a champion surf boat rower.

When I walked into the continental pools, I spoke with the lifeguards for a bit and then said hello to some of the women from NWSLSC. I met a few other ladies. My race was at the end - heat 16 of 18. As I swam 36s last week, I had a handicap of 13s - meaning that I jumped in 13s after the first swimmer - I was at a massive disadvantage. I still managed to come second in the race, despite the massive handicap that everyone had. The total time was 47.18 s. This means that I swam 50m in 34.18s!

I really enjoyed that race. It did feel like a challenge to try and win that race, and while I didn't win, I did beat my time from last week which I am very happy with. After the heats, they ran semi and finals. The winner from each heat got to do a second race to win a cooler bag - club merchandise. Unfortunately I didn't get to compete as I came second. Img caption. Just before the heats begun.

2023-05-14

This morning, around 4am, I awoke to heavy rain and storms. I was hoping that it would be cancelled because I was sore from training yesterday at the gym. I didn't see any facebook post, so I rolled out of bed at 6.55 am, made a coffee and then headed to the Continental pool. It was raining a lot when I arrived, but I still struggled to find a parking - that is how busy Wollongong is in the morning.

I walked into the pool at 7.20 am, purchased a swimming cap (club merch) and then stood with Mija and Amy from the surf club. Due to the rain, we were squashed under the sheltered area. It wasn't too bad because there were lots of people to talk to.

The heats started at 7.40 am. My race wasn't until heat 14 (of 16), but the heats rolled over very fast and my race was over by 8.15 am. Once again, I didn't come first because my handicap was 12s. I came second, but this time I was in a heat with faster girls. One had a handicap of 7s, while the others had 13 and 14s (so I was one of the slower swimmers). My time was around the same as last week (maybe a few ms faster).

After the heats, I raced in a fun relay and then headed home. It was all over by 9 am.

2023-05-21

Today I woke up to high winds. I thought that the surf would be crazy due to the wind, yet I had planned to meet Pat at North beach after the swim, for a surf. When I drove past the beach, it was really flat (as you can see in the image). Pat was not motivated to drive down for these flat conditions, even though I thought it was great for me to learn with. Since I did not rack my surf board to my roof (as I was planning to borrow Pat's board), I gave up on the surfing idea. Biggest mistake because I was so keen.

Down at the Continental pools, it was really cold, despite the sun shining on us. I was in heat 12 of 16, so I waited with Janina and talked a bit about the surf club presentation that we attended last night.

My swim wasn't as fast as last week - clocking 35.85 s, but I really wasn't feeling my best this week. After my swim, I entered a second relay swim and then headed home. Img caption. Views of North Wollongong beach from the continental pool.

2023-05-28

It was a lovely Sunday morning down at the Continental Pools. I arrived slightly later and really struggled to find a car-park on Cliff Road. I ended up parking towards North Wollongong, adjacent from Lucia's restaurant and walked 5 mins to get to the pool. Once I arrived, I signed my name off for the swim and mentally prepared to get into the pool.

I warmed up before the swim to acclimatise to the water - it was 17 °C. When I got in, my chest immediately started hurting. After about 200 metres, I felt warmer. However, once I got out of the pool for the race, I was really cold and shivering. I was full of regret before jumping in and thought the warm-up was a mistake. It was good that I warmed up though because when I dived in for the 50 m dash, I felt warm in the water - there was no headache or burning chest. I ended up swimming 34.75 s.

I did not register for the relay this week, so after the swim, I warmed down and then put my oodie on and headed home for a warm shower and some breakfast.

Img caption. Sunday morning swim-club, 28th May, Heat 1.

2023-06-04

On Tuesday, I fell off the paddle board and hit my shoulder really hard on the sand bank at North Gong beach. As a result, I did not feel that I was in good shape to swim this morning. Thus, I slept in til 8 am this morning.

For the next two weeks, I will be missing swim-club as I am heading to the USA on Tuesday until 23 June. Check out USA 2023.

2023-07-17

Still my shoulder is not in good shape. It took a very long time for the soreness to go away. It still aches when I sleep and when I do certain movements. Today, I got my Xray back and the doctor says that there may be some form of a fracture in my scapula bone. She requested that I get a CT scan.