Growing up in Australia I was introduced to swimming at a very early age (I can recall going to swimming lessons at the age of 3 or so), and the high school I attended ensured that virtually every student had passed at least a couple of life saving certifications by the time they graduated, so it is fair to say that I’ve always felt comfortable in the water. I was never a competitive swimmer though, and the longest I’d every swam was a kilometer (of breaststroke!) in a vacation swimming class around the age of 11 or 12.

When I started swimming for fitness at the age of 41 I was thus a very ordinary (which is to say “poor” in Australian slang) swimmer and hence the tag for this blog.

One of the things that I love about open water swimming though, is that us “ordinary” folk can get an opportunity to accomplish some fairly extraordinary feats with enough perseverance. It is the achievements of my fellow ordinary swimmers who inspire me to push my own boundaries and reach for goals that I would otherwise not have even thought about.