Boksburg Aquatic Saint completes Robben Island swim

Boksburg Aquatic Saints swimmer Shane Ramsey recently completed the challenging Robben Island swim in Cape Town.

The swimmer completed the near 8km swim in just over two hours – a time that left him impressed with his showing.

“I did not know what to expect,” he said of the event.

“I trained as best as I could at Homestead Dam during the lockdown, often the temperatures were below 10 degrees, but by September it had warmed up. I hoped that my times were good enough during training and when the event arrived, the furthest I had swum was what I thought was a 5.5km swim,” he explained.

“I was training to be able to swim in the icy waters of the Atlantic Ocean and also be able to complete the distance. When we arrived in Cape Town, the water temperature was 11.5 degrees and on the day of the swim, it was around 12 degrees. The organisers arranged and made me wear a wetsuit as the water was still too cold. At that stage, my goal was to finish; I completed the swim in two hours and 15 minutes, which is quite a good time.”

The Robben Island swim is swum from Robben Island to Big Bay, Blouberg Strand and is a distance of 7.5km. The event is organised by Big Bay events and sees a total of 10 swimmers participate in it each month. Ramsey had entered the November event but did the October one instead to accommodate his school exams.

“I am very happy to have finished and I am proud of my time swam, but I plan to go back in the winter of 2021 to swim again,” vowed the Grade Seven St Dunstan’s learner, before describing the experience.

“The most difficult part of the swim was when I entered Big Bay. I swam between the rocks and could see the beach and then I was caught in a rip current. No matter how hard I swam, it continued to drag me backwards. This drained me totally and was the only time I seriously considered putting my hand up, asking to be pulled in. I think it was all my friends and family supporting and watching me that kept me going.”

Explaining to the Advertiser how he caught interest in extreme swimming events, the Boksburg Saint commented: “I’ve swum the Midmar Mile and the Sun City Swim before but these were one mile (1.6km) events. My first real open water swim was the Cradle Moon Challenge of November 2019, it was 3km. After this swim, I felt so good that I also swam the 1km event that followed. Here I won the u-14 category and received a prize. I enjoyed it and went on to swim the Capital K at Midmar, two Eastern Gauteng Aquatics (EGA) open water events as well as the Platinum Mile at Buffelspoort Dam and won or placed in my category for these.

“From these swims, I qualified to swim in the National Championships held in Jeffreys Bay and was selected as part of the EGA team. There I swam the 3km event and placed fourth in the u-14 category. I also swam the relay as part of the EGA team and then in June 2020 I was selected to the South African National Open Water junior squad. This is a very big honour and I am very proud to be part of the squad.”

Also Read: Kian produces a stroke of class at SA Short Course