The open water season commenced at Mentone in the most swimmable state in the country. To qualify this I mean lovely water temp, no deadly jellyfish, no sea lice and no great whites.

Our first competition day out needed some crucial decisions considered eg. distance (2.5k or 1k), wetsuit (on or off) and the all important lunch destination. The lunch destination was annual haunt but other 2 would take some soul searching.

On the day the weather could not have been kinder and the water conditions were a joy. There was a pleasant swim carnival atmosphere and the usual conversational buzz filled the air. On that note, like bees to a meadow of pollen and nectar we all made our way to the starting point.

The walk to the 2.5km start gives everyone a good a chance to suss out the course and oddly it always seems a long way. There were no false starts this time and the motto “you snooze you lose” could not be truer especially if you took your time getting to the deep water start markers.

Those watching swimmers sprinting to the finishing line saw some amusing stumbling in the uneven shallows and a few even planting their face in the sand. It was a great feeling having you Beluga buddies cheering you through the finish line. Never the less, the standout finish for the Belugas saw Owen Leggett secure an impressive first place in 35mins 47secs. Out of the 18 Belugas we had 8 finish in the top 10 of their age group. Great effort and well done to you all.

This sets a very challenging scene to keep the great personal results coming, not to mention any friendly competitive rivalry. All this gives us more encouragement to get back into the pool to keep working on that all desirable prefect freestyle stroke.

Roll on swim season!