It's hard to believe that this 2011 open-water swimming season is already more than a month old, and that another major holiday weekend -- the Fourth of July -- has come and gone since the season "officially" opened Memorial Day Weekend! It seems like only yesterday since – after the winter’s long, chlorinated confinement – I first tentatively edged myself into the still-chilly water of West Neck Beach, fully encased in a long-sleeved wetsuit, and struggled to make my way as far as the
yellow sign, let alone the Sailboat (which I finally reached for the first time several weeks ago – broken ribs now well-healed, thank you very much!). The intervening
First Annual Huntington-Cold Spring Harbor 1 & 2 Mile Swim at West Neck Beach, which took place on Sunday, June 26th, is undoubtedly responsible for much of this sense of being caught in an accelerated time-warp, as I and many of the other West Neck Pod members were busily engaged in helping to plan the event, which consumed much of our time and energy for the last several weeks and months. Those efforts paid off with a wonderfully successful first-time event in which 181 swimmers participated, and which introduced dozens of newcomers to the Cold Spring Harbor/West Neck Beach venue and to the Pod of open-water swimmers that habitually plies its waters! Many of the competitors came back to swim with us this Fourth of July weekend, some more than once, and the Pod is now enhanced by new members
Sharon and Jason and David and Karen and Cristina and others whose names I didn’t get...
Jennifer Rocke, a marathon swimmer from Colorado who was on Long Island to visit relatives and found us on the internet through"The Water-Blog," swam with us Friday morning and again on the 4th of July, partaking in a casual "Sailboat chat" with the rest of the Pod before heading back to start her journey home (with a new, bright yellow "To the Sailboat and Beyond -- West Neck Pod" swim cap in her bag!). Jennifer, who swam the English Channel in a relay, and is training for a relay swim across Lake Tahoe ("only 11 miles"!), says she’ll be back next year – when she plans to swim in the
Second Annual Huntington-Cold Spring Harbor swim!
Bob Miller’s Huntington Tri-Masters Swimmers also joined us on Saturday for their first open-water swim of the season, and will be back next Saturday morning for another stint in the Salt.
More and more newcomers – experienced open-water swimmers as well as "newbies" – have recently been seeking out opportunities to swim in the group open-water environment offered by the West Neck Pod, and more and more open-water prodigals have been returning to the Salt (
Sal Romanello and Lynn Perzetsty, to name a few!). The Pod itself has grown from a handful of swimmers a few years ago to a cohesive community of several dozen swimmers (with an e-mail list of more than 80 names) – and this extraordinary growth coincides with an explosion of interest in open-water swimming in the larger athletic community.
Joye Brown and I, who were fortunate to be able to attend portions of the
2011 Global Open Water Swimming Conference in NYC in June, met scores of open-water swimmers from around the world who are passionate about open-water swimming and about sharing their passion – and their knowledge – with others. (Read more about the conference on Steven Munatones’ blog,
http://dailynewsofopenwaterswimming.com/.) More and more people are taking to the open water – and falling in love with it, as I did so many years ago, and do again every time I swim!
I envision that by the time the
next major holiday weekend rolls around (Labor Day weekend), the swimmers of the West Neck Pod will be as thick as moon jellies in the harbor – and that when we set out on our group swims, we’ll hear what Carole Wickham described when she lifeguarded for the June 26th 1 & 2 Mile Swim:
"As the largest wave of swimmers approached, I heard a sound that was like a flock of swans flying low over the water, beating the surface with their wings...I could hear the swimmers coming before I could see them...It was an amazing sound....
Hope you all had a wonderful and safe 4th of July weekend....See you in the Salt!
(Follow this link for more pictures of the 4th of July Weekend at West Neck Beach: https://picasaweb.google.com/101213847005616295077/FourthOfJulyWeekend2011?authuser=0&feat=directlink)
Just five weeks after a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery for breast cancer, West Neck Pod member Bonnie Millen returned to the Salt today for the first time since her surgery! Showing the indomitable spirit she has evinced since her devastating diagnosis (particularly poignant since Bonnie’s mother died of breast cancer at the age of 49) and throughout her amazingly swift recuperation from this major surgery, Bonnie swam all the way to the southern buoy! There she posed in triumph, as Pod members celebrated and enthusiastically welcomed her back to the Salt. No doubt Bonnie’s remarkable healing had something to do with those vegetarian meals lovingly cooked up and delivered every night for a month after Bonnie’s surgery by members of the West Neck Pod’s "Support BRA" – Bonnie’s Recovery Assistants! The BRA stands ready to continue to support Bonnie and her partner Tim when the final pathology reports come in and Bonnie’s treatment protocol is finalized. In the meantime, Bonnie’s glad to be back in the Swim, as her e-mail to the Pod, delicately captioned "Boobs to the Buoy," reflects: "Swimmers: Wonderful to see you all in the Salt on my return to OWS! Thank you Joye for watching my back, swimming at my manatee-like pace, even with flippers. Anyone interested in a leisurely Tuesday morning swim, say at 7:30 or 8 a.m.? Next goal, Boobs to the Boat -- Bonnie"
