Paraplegic swimmer completes Robben Island crossing

Alwyn Uys, a 30-year-old paraplegic athlete, took on the daunting 8km swim from Robben Island to Bloubergstrand on Friday, battling the currents to successfully complete the “Robben Island crossing”.

Other categories of people with disabilities have completed the crossing before, such as quadriplegic athlete Pieter du Preez who did so in 2017.

And on Friday, Uys joined the group as the first paraplegic athlete in the world to do so, by his knowledge.

Uys’ boat departed from Oceana Power Boat Club at approximately 06:00 on his way to start the 7 687m swim from Robben Island, an hour later.

Keith Jansen, his swimming trainer, told News24 the weather conditions started out “better than expected”. The swim would ultimately take three hours and three minutes.

“You really need favourable conditions to do a swim like this,” said Uys.

“We were looking for a nice flat day, with very little wind and warm water, plus with him being disabled, [we wanted] not too much swell at the end,” said Derrick Frazer, the owner of Big Bay Events, who skippered the boat that led Uys.

Uys and Frazer had scheduled for the swim to take place in December 2019, but could not proceed due to poor weather conditions.

One year later, the long-anticipated swim was completed.

“As we started out, I knew [that] the day wasn’t going to remain the way that it is, I could see the ocean is getting a bit choppy, so I had nerves about that,” said Uys.

His training pattern, resting routine and mental health played a fundamental role in the successful completion of the swim, said Jansen.

“The current was definitely quite strong for at least half of the way and also quite a big swell which really threw me off balance, which made it difficult for me because I don’t use my legs to kick at all so keeping my core and my body straight in the water is really a challenge,” Uys explained.

The weather conditions took a turn towards the end, which made it increasingly challenging for him.

“As I went along I realised ‘OK towards the end, it’s not going to be easy’,” he said.

A strong “side-on” current was one of the challenges that contributed to the difficulties in completing the swim, said Frazer.

Jansen agreed that the currents made for an incredibly difficult finish.

A strategic 15 to 20 second stop was to be taken every 30 minutes or 1.5km for Uys to hydrate, however, he missed the last two “feeds”.

Jansen told News24 the strength of the current resulted in Uys losing approximately 80m with every stop.

Uys felt he could not afford to lose ground and wanted to focus on finishing.

“For the last kilometre we swam parallel to the beach because we had to fight the current to end where we wanted to be,” he said.

The team aimed to end at Eden on the Bay, in Big Bay near the lighthouse tower.

“It was very tough to get in there, but he fought it through,” said Frazer.

Uys described the last part of the swim as by far the most difficult.

“It really was a moment of digging deep,” he added.

Despite the physical and mental challenges faced throughout the swim, Uys said he drew strength from his Christian faith.

“Everything that Alwyn prayed for was almost given to him and we were so excited,” said Jansen. “He did exceptionally well and I’m really proud of him.”

According to Uys, a full Iron Man event in Port Elizabeth is on the horizon, “whenever that may be”, he laughed.

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