Need to discover ways to swim within the sea? Chennai now has instructors who specialize in open water swimming

Minutes earlier than getting dropped off mid-ocean at Kovalam (Covelong) for our first open water swimming lesson, Murthy Megavan, the founding father of Murthy Surf Faculty, tells me that I’m to strap on my life jacket and wait at a spot 100 metres from the shore, marked solely by random bobbing waves.

“Simply calm down and discuss to Syed,” he says, asking one in all his instructors lounging on a surfboard, to accompany me.

So I observe directions, talking to Syed about job losses, the post-COVID financial system, and why I selected to do journalism, someplace round 20-feet above the ocean mattress. I’m feigning calm. There’s a gentle drizzle. However the solar is eliminating the lack-lustre gray clouds that enveloped the sky earlier that morning, threatening to cancel my lesson.

In lower than 5 minutes, we’re displaced by the waves so we swim again to the spot, ready for Murthy. Syed says that the life jacket tends to make it slightly troublesome to swim. With out it, he says I might be free.

Quickly, Murthy arrives on a kayak, pulls my life jacket away, and throws a shiny yellow buoy over my shoulder and peppers his directions with reassurances. “There isn’t any place else on the planet the place one can float as simply. It’s due to the salinity of the seawater,” he says.

I shuttle for a minute between the freestyle, breaststroke and the canine paddle. My chin is above water for many of it. The waves carry me forth. When a giant wave hits, I duck. For smaller ones, I attempt to rise above.

Earlier than I do know it, I’m making my approach throughout the excessive seas of Chennai, for the primary time. It’s true. There isn’t any place on the planet the place one can float as simply. As I step again on land , I’m each thrilled and relaxed. Murthy says that individuals who swim within the open waters chase this precise feeling.

Regardless of cities in Tamil Nadu having an expansive shoreline studded with stunning seashores, solely a handful discover water sports activities. Most of the energetic open water swimmers come from Karnataka and Goa. Murthy says that folks in Tamil Nadu have feared the water for too lengthy, forgetting its magnificence.

Though browsing and kayaking have grown in recognition, different water sports activities are but to see an uptick. Nevertheless, for the reason that COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted, there was a small but regular rise within the variety of swimmers trying to transcend the 4 edges of the pool, leaping into quarries, lakes and the massive blue sea.

With sufficient security measures, these lovers need to enhance their health whereas additionally getting a entrance row seat to the various wonders of Nature.

Driving the tide

“Open water swimming might be one of the best ways to grasp the ocean,” says Murthy. The fisherman-turned-surf teacher says that swimmers who’ve skilled in swimming swimming pools include no prior expertise within the sea.

With some primary classes together with an in depth understanding of the situation, the rookies return with plentiful information together with the workings of tides, the swell, currents and wave breaks. One ought to have the ability to neatly assess their swim circumstances together with the climate to make sure that they’re protected, he says. “It’s the first mark of swimmer,” he states.

Throughout our lesson, he speaks concerning the rocks on both aspect of Kovalam’s cove. He additionally explains navigate the areas the place the waves break and what to do when swimmers discover themselves caught in a rip tide — a present created from the shoreline previous the road the place waves break. It causes sturdy tidal stream, disallowing even skilled swimmers to flee. “You shouldn’t swim in the other way in direction of the shore when caught in a rip present. Simply transfer left or proper and you have to be high quality. Panic causes extra points than the ocean.”

Chennai’s in style seashores like Marina, Besant Nagar and Thiruvanmiyur, are typically not thought of protected for swimming. Murthy says that for the reason that seashores wouldn’t have a curve, one touches chest-level water inside a matter of 10 to 20 metres. “This doesn’t assist for these trying to swim,” he says.

He provides that Kovalam and Mahabalipuram are comparatively safer because the depth is normally extra gradual. There are additionally a number of surfers, lifeguards and fishermen on boats who can rapidly rescue swimmers in misery. In the meanwhile, one doesn’t require permission to enter the ocean for a swim. It nonetheless, helps to alert the lifeguard or be affiliated to a swim or surf faculty as instructors might be looking out.

Sharath Mukundan, a certified Nationwide Institute of Sports activities (NIS) coach, says that after you get previous the waves, the ocean normally turns into an enormous, calm swimming pool. One solely wants to recollect to breathe and accumulate oneself. He provides that the ocean is ideal for these trying to be taught extra about marine life. In Chennai, one can typically spot jellyfish, dolphins and whale sharks in the course of the season. They’re innocent and delightful if we maintain a distance, he says.

Sharath runs a swim academy, Wild Swim, in ECR and takes a handful of scholars — 5 to seven in quantity — as soon as each month to Kovalam to attempt their hand at open water swimming. “We spend period of time assessing the waves and understanding the tides. It’s not harmful if you understand the approach,” he says.

PT Gajalakshmi, a scientific psychologist who was a part of one in all Sharath’s workshops says that after her expertise, she tends to advocate open water swimming to her purchasers. “Every so often, I really feel the necessity to attempt new issues. Being within the water seems like you might be being held by it. It additionally seems like a large achievement. There aren’t any worries within the sea,” she says, including that she was assured proper from her first outing.

A near-drowning incident at an area seashore, propelled swimmer S Shobika to overcome her worry of the water. Now, the 28-year-old says that she is freed from trepidation plans to swim within the sea often.

Nishanth Ravichandran, who carried out AquaFest 2023, amongst Chennai’s first open water swimming competitions on Could 7, says that 200 folks participated this 12 months with over 1/third from Tamil Nadu. Individuals from the State are concentrated in Thoothukudi, Madurai and Chennai. “Round 70 of the individuals who took half have been younger college students with particular wants from Chennai,” he says.

Individuals participating in numerous iterations of the triathlon and ironman challenges additionally like to swim within the sea. Whereas there may be solely a handful who often prepare within the ocean, Chennai’s seashores see many from Bengaluru, Mumbai, Goa and Mangalore visiting the East coast for his or her coaching in the course of the season which is between June and September.

“Swimming within the ocean gives phenomenal endurance. It’s exhilarating to finish a 5 kilometre swim into the ocean and again,” Nishanth says.

In addition to the a number of well being advantages, Sharath says that each time he swims amidst Nature, he comes again brimming with concepts. “The ocean actually dumbs the ego down. You realise that something can occur so that you try, with each swim, to navigate the world higher,” he says.

I’m not but certain whether or not I can navigate my world higher. This solely means one factor. It’s time for my second lesson.