RIC: Open Sea Training

With the waves disorientating my already poor sense of direction, the overwhelming taste of salt in my mouth and the uncertainties that lurk under me, I zig-zagged my way towards the buoy located a couple hundred meters from shore.

Welcome then to Raleigh Round Island Challenge's inaugural open sea training, where us 'alligators' go out to sea to see what it's like when we leave the pool to face the real deal in May.

Well, it started at half-past six in the morning, while still wishing to stay within the confines of my bed, my fellow mates and I left Kuala Lumpur for the seas of Port Dickson, still contemplating upon the unknowns that lies in the sea.

Beautiful day to get out there!

It was a great day to be out there though. Rays of sunlight warmed us up as we set our eyes upon a relatively calm sea, which gave us a slight morale boost knowing that we will be swimming under the perfect conditions that day. After a session of Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) to get us in the right mindset, we deployed the safety kayaks and went for it!

Group 1 having their warm-up session

Having to cope with the new surroundings with limited visibility was always going to be difficult, but the struggle to ignore the dangers and risks of swimming in the sea so disappeared as I soon found a rhythm to my stroke that helped to clear my thoughts and focus on reaching the buoy which marks the u-turn point. As open sea swimming was new to quite a few of us, I was not the only one who experienced this sensation as the training went on.

So a dozen laps later, with the adrenaline still surging round our systems, we settled to pin-point the problems we faced, which we will work on back in the pool. All in all it is a great opportunity for us not only to get a feel of open-sea swimming but also to bond as a team. Well, the next open-sea training will definitely be more hardcore to get in shape for our 56-kilometer swim round Perhentian Island. 

Till then, we alligators will swim on!