This document provides a first-person account of the author's experience participating in the Rottnest Channel Swim, a 19.7 km open-water swim between Rottnest Island and mainland Australia. Some key lessons and reflections from the author's first attempt include: the actual distance may be longer due to currents; adequate training of at least 25 km per week is recommended in the final months; finding an experienced crew is important; and regular feeding every 30 minutes is important during the long swim. The swim requires physical endurance as well as strong mental focus to endure the challenging conditions over many hours.

1. Rottnest Channel Swim – Lessons and
Reflections of a First Timer
By Michael Teys, 2013
So you have the ocean swimming bug and someone suggests you do Rotto1. Why
not? It’s only 19 .7 km - on a good day.
First lesson, you will swim twenty point something allowing for navigation deviations
and currents. What’s another 1 or 2 k when you’ve swum 19! This race is heavily
weather affected and in a cruel blow, Mother Nature usually makes the last half the
hardest.
Second lesson, long distance ocean racing is not just about the swim. Here are the
other things I learnt on my first attempt.
Registering
Registrations open in the first week of November. They are only open for weeks so
don’t miss this. 237 did the solo in 2013, about 180 made it.
Another 2000 or so will annoy the crap out of you doing duos and foursomes. They
are mainly young and good looking and seem to be having fun. There is a tradition
for the teams that one leg by each swimmer has to be swum nude. All of this frivolity
goes on while us middle aged soloists slug it out, breathing in their boat exhaust
fumes proving to ourselves that life has not yet passed us by.
All soloists are guaranteed a starting place as long as you meet the minimum criteria
of having swum 10 km in 4:15. There are a number of qualifying races for this on the
swims website. If you can’t make this, speak to the organizers about an equivalent
swim certified by you and an observer in a statutory declaration. That’s what I did.
Finding a Crew
The hardest part, except the swim, is finding a crew. You will need your own boat
with a skipper and a spotter, and a kayaker or two. Better to have two kayakers
because a lot of them, my fellow Carl excluded, are weak bastards and get seasick.
An experienced crew who have done the course before are prized. They will make
the course in the shortest possible distance given the prevailing weather conditions.
They will also handle the chaos of the start and, to a lesser extent, the finish in a way
1
www.rottnestchannelswim.com.au (with thanks to the organising authority and the surf lifesavers for a
very well run event and for keeping us safe)
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2. that causes you minimum stress allowing you to put your head down and swim. My
skipper Brodie, and spotter Laurie, did a superb job.
In ocean swimming, as in life, money solves most problems. The going rate for an
experienced crew in 2013 was $1,500. We pay $500 - $1,000 a day for a crew in
Sydney proving there is indeed a two-speed economy in Australia. Perth’s an
expensive town.
Accommodation
If you want to party after, and it’s one hell of a party, book early for a spot on the
island. Failing that, book early for a seat on the ferry home because they will sell out
on the day.
Most of the boaties will want to return to Perth quickly after the race because getting
a berth at the island is hard and they are sick of swimmers by mid-afternoon.
Sleeping on the beach is not for the middle aged and those little quokkas, while cute
as hell, apparently make loud unpleasant noises when they mate.
First timers should not stay at Cottlesloe Beach, where the race starts. The
temptation in the days ahead of the race will be to look out at the horizon to see
Rotto faintly in the distance and regret what seems surely to be a bad life decision.
Freemantle is the best option. It’s 15 mins away by car, a bit cheaper and not
everyone there will be a swimmer.
The Little Creatures Brewery / Pub is the unofficial spiritual home and meeting
palace of swimmers in Freo (everything in WA unofficially ends in ‘O’ and every town
officially ends in ‘up’ said to be Aboriginal for drinking place). If you call Rotto, Rotty,
as we would ‘over east’, you will be laughed at and vilified.
Have the fries at Little Creatures, they are best thing you will ever taste and you can
pass it off as carbo-loading.
Training
Start training at least 6 months out and do not believe anyone who tells you that you
can over-train. This is an evil myth spread by very good swimmers blessed with great
natural technique and endurance and freaks who have made the crossing at least 5
times.
I did about 15 kms a week on average for the last two months and should have done
at least 25 km a week as recommended by the organizers. As a result, I had nothing
left in the tank for the last 5 km on the day.
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3. Some will prefer open water training and others will join a squad for regular pool
sessions. I now detest pool swimming so chose the open water path but the pool /
squad swimmers get the better results. For me, and a lot of swimmers who spent a
fair amount of time in our teens following the black line, a swim in the ocean is a far
more enjoyable training regime than returning to that line, chlorine hair, tumble turns
and bruised inner elbows from clipping the lane rope. Not to mention the delusional
and / or dyslexic swimmers who either can’t read the signs that say ‘fast freestyle
only’ or think they are in that category (the same people encourage their children to
audition for Australian Idol and the like.)
If training in the open water, try to find a course in the last 2 months that allows you
to feed at 30-minute intervals. This takes some getting used too and left until race
day, as I did, will result in violent vomiting at the 10 km mark, again, as I did. There is
quite an art to vomiting Thursday’s spaghetti marinara while treading water in the
middle of a channel on a Saturday.
On the subject of feeding, also learn in the weeks before the race to feed while not
hanging off your kayak. You will be disqualified if you do and it’s harder than you
think.
Mates
Train with good mates. My crew is the ‘Frosty Nuts’. We are an informal sub set of
the Bold and Beautiful2 of Manly who swim 365 days a year from Manly to Shelly
Beach and back.
The Frosties are dedicated to long distance oceans swims and swim year round on
the northern beaches, Sydney without wet suits; we are mostly men (obviously) and
we exist informally for the pure joy of ocean swimming.
On my Rotto swim, in no particular order, I took with me the determination of Miles,
the power of Todd, the technique of Sabine, the equanimity of Gaetan, the drive of
Alex, the passion of James (Rotto soloist), the tenacity of Ben (Rotto soloist), the
dedication of Cae (Rotto soloist 2013, who swam an amazing sub 7), the
nonchalance of Iain (English Channel Soloist), the thinking of Collie (English Channel
Soloist), and the exuberance of Rob (Rotto soloist).
I was also inspired by fellow Bold and Beautiful swimmers; the record of Michael (5
Rotto solo crossings – his fifth in 2013 in just under 10 hrs), the founder of B and B,
Jules (6 Rotto solo crossings), the persistence of Brendan (Rotto solo crosser) and
the spirit of Robin (a valiant 18 k Rotto attempt).
2
www.boldandbeautifulmanly.com.au
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4. Travelling
Arrive no earlier than the Thursday and leave no earlier than Monday. I got this much
right.
Arrive any earlier and you have too long to get nervous. You will watch the horizon
and become addicted to the weather watch websites. The local press will be full of
commentary about swells and currents and big white things that apparently hang off
the start and finish lines of this race and bite. Skippers, God bless them, will text you
often about the current predictions and warn of cancellations and seasickness. This
is just their perverse way of having fun.
Arrive too late and you will not have enough time to get nervous. A certain amount of
nervous energy is needed to do your best. As my young friend and now fellow soloist
Rob, said the day before our crossing, ‘I’m pumped and ready – it’s not everyday that
you get to tear life a new arsehole’.
Pre Race Prep
It’s advisable to have someone with you on land in the morning that is not swimming.
They think for you from 4 am when you wake allowing you to panic.
I didn’t have anyone with me. I went to get my goggles from my bag with 20 minutes
to the starters gun and realized I had left them in my hotel room. At that moment I
would gladly have traded my beloved first born for my favorite pair of never – leaked
– once – in the last two months - goggles. (Sorry Ellen but it’s true). Fortunately,
trusted Frosty Nut, Alex was on hand about to kayak for his sister El and was good
enough to lend me one of the 7 spare pairs this experienced team had on them.
They didn’t leak once after the first adjustment at the 1 km mark. El nailed her swim
in better than 1 hour off her previous crossing despite an unexplained u-turn back to
Perth at one stage when Alex momentarily returned to their boat for supplies.
Those who have never done a 20 km swim should follow the lead of the experienced
swimmers and grease up like a pig at a county fair. You will chafe where you thought
your body parts would never meet. By the way, bring some disposable rubber gloves
for the application or you will smear your goggles and swim to Africa as a
consequence.
If you are a media tart, write something funny on your chest. This year’s winner was
‘don’t eat me, eat him (side arrow)’. This wit predictably made the news that night
and the paper the next day.
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5. Starting Tactics
There are two types of crews: those who hang to the left (Southerlies) and those who
hang to the right (Northerlies). Northerlies are an anti-social group who detest crowds
and to avoid them will run the risk of being pushed North off course for a quiet and
calmer start. I am from the South.
Southerlies tend to the left of the starting gate. They hold putting up with a bit of a
crush at the 500-metre mark to find your paddler and the 1.5 km mark to find your
boat is a fair price to pay for the trajectory that will apparently get you to the finish
line without swimming an extra metre. But this doesn’t take account of currents. Best
laid plans come astray on the way to Rotto, I swam 20.8 km on the day.
The women and seeded men start just before dawn at 5.45. Some 25-year-old part
male / part fish will be in this group and win the race in 4 hours something. If you are
in the first wave you might want to wear non-tinted glasses to help you hook up with
your crew. The remaining male soloists leave at 6 right on sunrise. Visibility is pretty
good for this wave.
There are no vessels allowed in the starting lane, which is the first 500 mts of the
course. After that, you have to find your paddlers who will be lurking like the
proverbial ‘dogs bark’ to the left or the right depending on your inclination.
Paddlers like to wear funny hats. They think this makes them more visible to you as
you steam roller your way over your training mates with whom you have been
exchanging nervous niceties at the starting line. The paddler’s funny hats actually
serve no useful purpose at all other than to amuse the paddlers. They’re a peculiar
lot but very important to your mental health for the next half a dozen or so hours.
Finding you quickly is their moment to shine so best to indulge them about the hat
thing.
You have exactly 1 km then to find your stink boat. After that you won’t be let past
the iconic tall ship. As you want to settle into your rhythm, the last thing you need is
the coast guard called out to find your peeps. At this point there is little you can do as
a swimmer but surrender to the eye of the paddler with the funny hat and get on with
the business at hand.
Now the only tactic left to be concerned with is this – ‘Right arm over, left arm over.
Repeat’.
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6. Feeding
Much pre-race conversation and Facebook / blogging time is devoted to the issue of
feeding.
All agree that regular feeds, perhaps each half hour, are good and that the early
feeds, when you don’t think you need them, are the most important.
Simpletons like me use water each thirty minutes alternating with a banana and a gel
with added caffeine. Have your paddler tie the bottle and the gel / banana to a rope
and throw it at you every half hour. This will amuse them, which is necessary mid
race because the funny hats will have blown off and the nude team swimmers are yet
to catch the soloists. The rope also makes it easier for the paddlers to retrieve the
bottles at the end of the feed so you can push on quickly. Feeds are for feeding, not
resting. Stop too long and getting started again hurts like hell.
There are gels and gels. Find the flavor and brand you like and stick with it. I thought
it would be a good idea on race day to reward myself at the half way mark with some
raspberry concoction I had never tried before. All I achieved was much burly likely to
attract those sea creatures that must not be named.
The more refined will take vegemite sandwiches, muffins, peaches and tea. I say it’s
not a picnic guys, leave the fairy bread and sausage rolls for the after party.
Mind Games
The race is of course more about the mind than the body. Everyone will have his or
her own games and tricks to pass the time.
Some will think a lot about their stroke. In preparing for this swim, I learnt to swim
from the hips and use my lats, so this occupied about 2 minutes of the day. I bore
easily.
You can sing a song but there are risks with this. The last song you heard in car
before hitting the start line might have been an Abba tune that will have you wishing
for a Voldermort fish attack to end the pain.
A lot swim for charity or for someone in his or her life that needs some support facing
one of life’s challenges. There were some wonderful stories – one-legged men, Dads
swimming for kids with leukemia and an 80-year-old doing his ninth, but definitely his
last crossing!
I dedicated my race to my son Patrick who sits his HSC this year. While thankfully
not life threatening, it is a challenge for him nevertheless. I wanted him to know that
any big task in life is just a series of little things done well. A trek like Kokoda, which
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7. we have both done, is a series of little steps one after the other for 8 days. A swim
might be one stroke after the other for 7 or 8 hours, and life is one thing after the
other for as long as we are blessed to be here.
In all our endeavors, the good times come and go as surely as the bad. Life is a
series of memories. We endure the bad times and cherish the good times to live a
happy and fulfilling life. That’s why I swam Rotto in 2013. Find your reason and you
are half way there…… Well that’s not true, but it will make it more meaningful.
Rotto is a challenging swim but it is not a beautiful swim. My mind game was to
pretend I was doing any one of the many beautiful swims I get to do any day I like in
my hometown, Sydney. The first 1.5 km was the daily Bold and Beautiful dash to
Shelly Beach and back. The next 3 km was the BnB ‘bolder-dash’ to Queenscliffe.
The middle bit was the Frosties iconic beaches swim from Manly to Bondi across the
heads of Sydney’s harbor. The final leg was our 5.30 am Freshie express. I am
fortunate to have done all these swims in my first year of ocean swimming, some
multiple times and to have done them with some remarkable people who have
become good friends. This was my way of breaking down the race to manageable
bits. The trick is to forget you are doing them back to back!
Whatever mind games you play; there will be times when you want to give up. These
are the moments when you have to convince yourself not to make that decision while
you are feeling crap. There’s a life lesson is this alone.
Sometimes, no matter how hard we try, we fall short of our self-imposed goals. We
might not beat our friendly rival, we might not make the time we want, we might not
meet the cut off and be pulled out by an official just doing his or her job. But this just
keeps us keen and striving for the very best we can be.
The Finish
It’s not for me to spoil your finish. Your finish is your private moment, just as mine is
mine, but when someone says, ‘Are you going to do Rotto?’ you really should3.
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I completed my 2013 crossing in 7 hrs. 6 mins and 27 seconds, a few hours later I decided to compete
again in 2014 for a sub 7-hour time. You can follow me on twitter @MichaelTeys and contact me by
email on Michael@teyslaweyers.com.au
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