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Bloodscan Jeffreys Bay Swim Challenge Along Perfect Wave

Like thousands of new swims around the world that attract pioneering open water swimmers, a handful of hardy open water swimmers are heading to Jeffreys Bay in South Africa for the first time.

Jeffreys Bay, home of Supertubes, one of the best surf breaks in the world, is the venue for 20 swimmers who will attempt a 4 km swim from Kitchen Windows, long the coast down to Supertubes and then onto Lower Point today.

Besides the cold water, the swimmers will have to negotiate the white water and rocks when finishing the swim at Lower Point, the venue for the Bloodscan Surf Challenge. “We are excited to include the Bloodscan Jeffreys Bay Swim Challenge as part of the event and to see how the swimmers deal with the ocean conditions in Jeffreys Bay,” said event sponsor Lewis Khoury.

Open water swimmers are part of the ocean community and hosting a swim as part of the surf contest is a perfect fit.”

Ralph West, JC Van Wyk, Greg Tucker and Brenton Williams were part of the team that set a new world record of 350 km for a continual open water relay swim in March, and Rebecca Newman, the Eastern Province 25 km champion, took part in the Bloodscan Jeffreys Bay Swim Challenge. Williams (shown above) who is one of the few swimmers to have swum the Jeffreys Bay coastline, described the swim, “It is demanding because swimmers will have to come in over rocks to finish and will also have to time the sets to avoid getting caught in white water. It will be a unique swim as we will be starting at Kitchen Window surf break, then swimming past Magnatubes, Boneyards and Supetubes to finally end at the Point. Swimming past some world class surf breaks will be something special.”

If the swimmers hug the coast too closely, they risk being caught by waves at the surf breaks. “There will be experienced surfers paddling with the swimmers to help negotiate the various surf breaks,” said Williams who will do the swim butterfly.
The swim started at Main Beach while spectators walked and watched the swimmers along the entire course, especially at Whale Watch lookout at Tubes on the final part of the swim where they will finish at the home of the perfect wave.

Copyright © 2012 by Open Water Source

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