There comes an inflection point in every channel crossing and marathon swim when a swimmer
When the water temperature dropped from 23°C to 15°C and the flat water turned angry in the Tsugaru Channel about 12 km from his finish in Hokkaido, Andreas Waschburger (38, Germany, MSF bio here, IISA bio here, @andreaswaschburger) met his inflection point in northern Japan.
Waschburger was on his fifth of seven channel crossings of the Oceans Seven – and he suddenly met his inflection point.
The water was cold, the conditions had turned very rough with suddenly fierce winds, and he had swallowed a jellyfish that caused vomiting. He was beyond cold, even though he was the two-time King of the Ice and was an ice swimming veteran. Whitecaps had replaced the unusual tranquility of the Tsugaru Channel and were everywhere to be seen. Waves were slamming into him on every arm stroke, occasionally he was dip diving under randomly dispersed ocean swells. He was vomiting as he turned his head to breath with a sickly brown fluid, but he kept churning over his arms.
Waschburger definitively did not want to continue. He swam with an angry grimace on his face. He was upset with the instructions he was receiving from his escort boat. He was unhappy that his record attempt had slipped through his fingers. He told his wife and crew chief Jasmin Waschburger to watch him closely because he was cold and he feared that he might go under. With a swimsuit and swim cap on, Steven Munatones was ready to jump in, if it became necessary.
His best friend Rouven Pagliarini knew that this was a time for Waschburger to step up and show his true character. “This is where the old Andreas will meet the new Andreas,” said his long-time buddy.
Waschburger needed to soldier on and keep swimming. Cameraman Janis Scheuermann had seen Waschburger swim across the Molokai Channel with a broken nose, but this was different. This was not only an intense level of physical discomfort, but Mother Nature was also playing with his mindset. The situation was dire: Waschburger was showing uncharacteric signs of quitting, even though he was still moving fast enough in the 15°C water.
Captain Hashimoto and Captain Akimoto had experienced a similar scene time and time again when swimmers suddenly faced the wrath of the channel when the Tsugaru Current suddenly becomes unleashed with a combination of the colder waters off the shores of Hokkaido and the stiff winds that blow from Siberia across the Sea of Japan to raise havoc in the Tsugaru Channel.
Now was the time for Waschburger to dig deep and find a way to keep swimming. It would have been so easy to quit and climb in the boat. He felt cold down to his bones and had no idea how long it would take him to finish. “How much further? How much longer will I be in the water?,” he repeatedly asked his wife. The shores of Hokkaido always look so close to both the crew members and Waschburger who has uncharacteristically picking up his head to frequently look at his destination.
But no one on board could tell Waschburger an accurate answer.
The combination of the unpredictable Tsugaru Current and winds generated strong eddies that has swirled channel swimmers in northern Japan for decades. Crew member Masayuki Moriya of Oceans Navi has seen first-hand the same scene play itself out over 120 times on successful crossings – and many more unsuccessful crossings over the last 13 years.
Waschburger was facing his inflection point: get out or carry on?
Which was it going to be?
No one on his escort boat knew what the answer would be, but all they could do was cheer him on and guide him as safely and quickly to Hokkaido as possible.
His complaints continued. His frustration showed. He was miserable and cold.
The time was now. He expressed his desire to give up. Today would not be his day and his dreams of the Oceans Seven would be dashed – or at least put off from another year.
But, as the legions of channel swimmers have long showed, he did not get out. He kept swimming and, somehow, he was able to channel that anger to forward progress.
Waschburger never quite broke through the strength of the Tsugaru Current, but he kept chipping away at it, stroke after stroke. He was not making much progress, as he was accustomed to doing with his Olympian strength and speed. But he was making some progress. 2 kilometers per hour near the end. And it was enough, just enough to reach the Hokkaido shores in 8 hours 43 minutes.
His Oceans Seven dream would continue with the Catalina Channel in California and the North Channel between Scotland and Northern Ireland coming up within the following month.
When he finally was able to slowly climb back on Captain Hashimoto’s boat, he did not have a smile, but a look of frustration and that distant stare that comes with hypothermia and a comprehensive state of fatigue.
But he was smiling a few hours later and was rightly proud of his ability to go deep and push on when he met his inflection point in the Tsugaru Channel.
Similar to fellow Olympian Rob Woodhouse (Australia, 59, MSF bio here) 24 hours before when Woodhouse stoically faced his own inflection point and completed the Oceans Seven with an 11 hour 50 minute slog across the Tsugaru Channel, Wachburger has risen to the challenge and remains on track to break the Fastest Cumulative Time for the Oceans Seven of Andy Donaldson (Scotland, 34, MSF bio here, @andy.swimming) in 63 hours 21 minutes.
Five down. Two to go.
Earlier in his crossing, Waschburger had become comfortable in much calmer, signficantly warmer waters closer to Aomori. But it was the cold, rough waters nearer Hokkaido where he overcame.
Photos courtesy of Rouven Pagliarini.
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