So I’m writing about the swim last weekend today… a bit late, but there were some cool pics too, so I wanted to get them out too. Funny thing is, as I’m writing this today I’m amazed how much things have changed since last Saturday.
Last Saturday the air temp was only about 14C/57F, kinda chilly… and the water temp was 14C/58F too! Both were okay, but not hot by any stretch… but today it feels like we are in the heart of summer suddenly!
It certainly feels hot today, about 25C… the 89% humidity makes a big difference too! I was just down at the water and using the ever-reliable “Rob’s hand in 6 inches of water test”, I’d say the water must be in the mid-60’sF!!! And I was curious how reliable my hand as a thermometer was, so I just checked the water temp map and my hand was bang on!!! It shows it at 67F/19C!!! 
Woo hoo… no wetsuits tomorrow, baby!!!
Anyway… back to last weekend. The weekend prior the water was “chilly”… it was 50F/10C… okay I’ll cut you some slack if you wore a wetsuit in that (I did)… then it warmed up 8F degrees in a week to 58F… pretty good… but it’s looking like it is up another 9F degees this week! Still we had 31 hardy swimmers out, and guess what… everyone was cool with that… or rather everyone was “okay” with that temp! Nobody came shrieking out, in fact we doddled in the the water, took a few pics and were quite fine… even those that thought they’d be cold.
Nice to see a few newbies out too. Some totally new to open water swimming… that’s pretty cool that we motivated you to get you out to discover the joys of open water swimming for the first time. But we also had a few people who were new LOSTies… but
not exactly new to swimming… Craig Ross, a swim coach and former Varsity swimmer with Brock University… great to have you out Craig! Then we had Sheila Hewerdine Treleaven out too… she’s a pretty decent swimmer too… swam NCAA at Texas Christian Univ, Pan American Championships and even holds 4 Masters World Records… she even won the Toronto Island Lake Swim last year!!! Wow… great to have you out too Sheila! But Craig and Sheila picked a tough week to come out and look like superstars… because we had a true superstar out… Greg Streppel.
So who is Greg Streppel, you ask? Well he is one of the greatest open water swimmers in the history of the sport, is all!!! Click on his name above and it will take you to his Openwaterpedia page, but a quick summary is: in the 1990’s he won just about everything on the pro circuit in open water swimming, he won gold at the World Swimming Championship… in the 25 km swim!!! He won gold at Pan Pacific Championships… twice. He won 11 FINA World Cup marathon swimming races in Argentina, Mexico, and Italy. In fact, between ’92 – ’95 he won every World Cup race he entered… and 13 of 16 in his career. He’s been called the greatest open water swimmer… ever. And in case you were discounting the fact that open water swimming was in its infancy then… he was also a good pool swimmer too. Oh wait… he still is… at the age 46, a couple of months ago he swam a 16:56 for 1500 short course meters swim at the 2014 Canadian Masters swimming championships. Not too shabby.
Just goes to show you… you never know who you’ll bump into at a LOST swim! Great to have Craig, Sheila and Greg as new LOSTies!!! And all the new “mere mortal” LOSTies too!
So come on out tomorrow and enjoy the sun, sand and surf! (okay, no sand, but it sounds better that way!). And introduce yourself to other LOSTies… some pretty interesting people out there bobbing around in the waves!
Cheers,
Rob