Drone pic, Palm Beach Start

27 kms. from Palm Beach to Shelly Beach: Swimming all the way!

This past Saturday, April 17 Laura, a Mollymook ocean swimmer, completed this ultra-marathon swim. Despite the choppy conditions at the start of the race, and the fact she had to swim against a southerly swell, plus had a small shark swimming about 20 metres away, for about 15 minutes, and that was only 2 hours into the swim. Regardless, she was able to draw inspiration from her supporters and get herself over the line faster than expected, finishing fourth overall after being pipped for third.

“It was just euphoric, honestly I just had the best time out there, I never felt tired or fatigued, I just had so much adrenaline going through me,” she said.

“It was such a close race swimming for third position for most of the way. We were basically sprinting for third position for the last kilometre or two.”

Laura was continuously getting donations throughout the race, and by the end she had exceeded her goal of $10,000. At the time of publication, the amount of donations was sitting at just under $11,000.

She is also grateful to the many Mollymook swimmers who have helped, supported and encouraged her over the past few months. And the emails she received post race were so encouraging. All were past on to Laura who I think is still on a high. Also there will be an article in tomorrow’s local Times newspaper. A heartfelt thanks from Laura to all who helped make this a reality.

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Sue and Chris compete in the Bicheno Ocean Swim

Sue and Chris provide this update on their travels through Tasmania. “First of all, what a wonderful achievement by Laura yesterday!! She is amazing and we are very proud of her for continuing with determination to accomplish this goal following so many setbacks and disappointments. How wonderful!

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Mollymook Ocean Swim is scheduled for May 16, 2021

Breaking News

The Mollymook Surf Club President, Mr Rodney Austin OAM advise today that a group of younger surf club members are taking on the responsibility for the organisation of the 2021 Mollymook Ocean Swim. The event is being organised to take place on Sunday May 16, 2021

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Simone Brayne Mollymook, GOLD Medal in the 35 to 39 Female Masters Surf Race

20 years on and Simone shows it is not to late to comeback

NSW Surf Titles continued over this weekend for the 2021 Masters surf and beach events.

Mollymook competitor Simone Brayne (nee Everett) a former brilliant junior swimmer and one of the original Mollymook Ocean swimmers who competed back in the 2001-2004 period, swims 20 odd years later, for the first time in Masters events, the 35 to 39 year female category.

She was brilliant, winning GOLD in the surf race, SILVER in the surf tube and BRONZE in the board race. It was an exceptional performance, if not for a little fatigue it would have been gold in all 3 events. 

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The 2021 Broulee Ocean Swim

Held this past Sunday March 7, 2021 Mollymook Ocean Swimmers were represented by a small contingent of swimmers.

Kim provided this following report: Quote “The course location was changed due to the dangerous swell that persisted over the weekend, so rather than swimming the normal course that has its finishing leg in front of the surf club, we ended up swimming in beautiful flat water at Broulee Bay.

Kate came 9th in her 50 to 60 age group in a time of  27:21. A Top 10 finish. Yay! 

Greg came 3rd in his over 60 age group in a time of  24:27.

I (Kim) came 11th in my 40 to 50 age group in a time of  28:12.

Kim added, I thought of Jan as I swam into a tree sized bit of seaweed – trunk and all! I nearly stopped swimming because I heard her voice in my head telling me we’d arrived at the tree ” unquote.

Sue Feigler a regular swimmer at the annual Mollymook Ocean Swims also swam finishing 5th in the over 60 age group in a time of 26:37. Sue’s daughter Danielle who has swam with the Mollymook mid-week swimmers also swam winning her 30 to 40 age group in the time of 22:16

Broulee had a wonderful turn up for the swim with a total of 358 contestants in the various age groups, again demonstrating the popularity of ocean swimming.

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The Mollymook Ocean Swimmers are the feature Article.

Virginia waxes eloquent in her beautifully written article on the Mollymook Ocean Swimmers and as could only be expected, Dean Dampney provides his professional touch with some classic photography.

The magazine will be available from March 1 at most of the coffee shops in Milton and Ulladulla, also at Bannisters Pavilion, Mollymook bottle shop etc. Alternatively for our out of town ocean swimmers, you can access it on the ‘White Wash’ web site via the following link:  www.whitewashmagazine.com.au  

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The pioneer Ocean swimmer at Mollymook in 1999, now at Charleville Qld.

John Sarich (Smeeth) who pioneered the original ocean swimmers at Mollymook is now retired in the outback town, Charleville Qld. John provides this update: “After several year’s hiatus, I’m rekindling my love for swimming. All the rivers up here are a series of permanent waterholes and only flow after good rain. The Ward River (pictured) is 25k west of Charleville. It is a great spot for open water swimming and I have it all to myself during the week. Had a mate take some pics and video so I could check my stroke. Its Looking good so its all about fitness now. I wear fins because the water is black underneath the surface, have a look at the water coming off my hand in one of the pics. Also wear fins in case I throw my arm over a snake. These days I’m always swimming on my own. I do miss the ocean, but am loving my life. Take care, guys, catch up soon. Ciao. John” (A couple of more pics below)

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Tathra Ocean Swimming

The daily routine for this gregarious group at Tathra is to begin each day with an ocean swim, usually out to the Tathra wharf and return, providing there isn’t a big swell. They begin at 8.00 am each day (I learnt not a minute before nor a minute after) with numbers varying from say 4 to as high as 30 during the holiday periods when swimmers on holidays join in from Sydney and elsewhere. The locals swim daily throughout the year with the coldest water temperature’s getting down toward 13c in the winter with the odd occasion, reaching a low of 12.5c Besides enjoying an invigorating swim to commence each day, they are also a very social group who adjourn to the aptly named ‘Gap’ café for coffee at the conclusion of their morning swim. I was made very welcome, I showed them a copy of our Mollymook swimmers book which they were very impressed with. One of the ladies (Rachel) asked “did I know Ian and Leonie?”. Yes, I responded. She went onto mention that she was also from Lockhart.

On Tuesday the water temp. was reportedly 18c, a little low for this time of the year due to the recent strong Nor-easterly winds/currents.  

They swim to the wharf and return although on Thursday they took me through to the other side of the wharf. The swim is spectacular as you weave in between the rocky outcrops staying reasonable close to the steep shoreline cliffs. The sea life is quite diverse. I swam over this massive ‘Bull Ray’, I was momentarily in wonderment, ‘what was it’? We also saw a variety of sea life, so pretty! On another occasion one swimmer stopped me, waved and yelled out “did you see it”? It was another giant ray, she called out.

I could imagine how pretty and enjoyable it would be diving in these crystal clear waters with a snorkel and flippers.

The following pics, map out the spectacular journey swim as you weave in and through the various rock formations.

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January 28, 2021 it was announced that West Australian ocean swimmer, Stephen Junk had been inducted into the Australian Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame. (Credit, Facebook pic)

Listed above are the inducted Ocean Swimmers in the Australian Marathon Swimming ‘Hall of Fame’.

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