Welcoming in a New Swim Season
SEPTEMBER 15, 2022 ISSUE

Hi Everyone,

Spring is the time of the year when I really start to lock down my swimming goals for summer. Not only is it one of my favourite times of the year, with lighter mornings and the bitter cold of winter subsiding, it’s a great time to reset. The warmer weather pushes me investigate and commit to summer swimming goals, showing me what 2022/23 will look like for me in the water.

I’m definitely coming from behind after a nasty bout of COVID which has further impeded my already winter enhanced, half baked approach to training. I definitely need to spring clean my attitude to swim training and get myself into gear for summer. I’m sure I’m not alone. It has been tricky couple of years, where motivation has often been in short supply. If you need a hand sorting through your swimming goal options for the coming season, be sure to reach out to Paul, Diana or me.

To help inspire you, take a look at Michael McKelvie’s fantastic results in the Bosphorous Cross Continental event in Turkey. Competing with swimmers from across the planet in this highly popular swim, where registrations close months in advance, Michael highlights the impact training can have. Huge congratulations to you Michael, on such an awesome swim.

I’m very excited to share with you the launch of our very own Different Strokes Swimming app. Run on MindBody software, this app promises to provide you with a better customer experience when scheduling and purchasing sessions. There’s no need for you to change log in details from those you use at our account on MindBody, all you have to do is download the app and log in. You will find more details further down in the newsletter.

For those who’ve dreamed of trying ocean swimming, but haven’t been sure where, or how, to start, I’m delighted to share with you our Bath2Beach Challenge. This challenge offers an opportunity to build on your in pool swimming, stepping up to the next level, open water. We will take you on a 16 week journey from the pool to the ocean, culminating in an ocean race in February. All the details are below. Please don’t hesitate in getting in touch if you have any questions at all.

Finally, we’ve also got an update on our 2022/23 prices, a great story about a man who swims to work every day (what a joy that would be), and details of the first ocean swim of the season. Plenty to read!

As always, yours in swimming,

Kari Baynes
Director

Photo: SwimFitters on a beautiful sunny Saturday at Prince Alfred Park Pool. PC: Kari Baynes

We have an App!

We’ve launched our app!

We’re so excited to bring you our new app that will allow you to make and manage bookings, purchase packs and auto pay contracts, and keep your details and preferences up to date. It’s a dedicated platform that gives you all the flexibility and control that you need to stay on track with your swimming journey, and is available on iOS and Android. Below we’ve added a how-to video to help you make the most of the app, but if you have any other questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

App users will receive exclusive offers and deals as well as being the first to know when new sessions or masterclasses are added, and we’ll be able to notify users of session cancellations in real-time. We encourage you to leave push notifications on to make sure that you get any announcements we make through this channel.

Members of our closed Facebook groups got to see this launch first last week, so if you want exclusive sneak-peeks too head on over to Sydney Swimmers: Members Only and request to join. See you there!

As always, your experience is so important to us, and we want to involve you guys as much as possible every step of the way with this app launch. If you have any feedback, questions, concerns or improvements that you’d like to suggest please let us know. Send an email to us here and let us know what you think!

Download Now

Here’s a quick how-to video guide for using our new DSS app.

Bath2Beach Challenge

Calling all would-be ocean swimmers who want a challenge this summer!

We’re launching an awesome 16-week challenge program which will take you from basic lap swimming all the way to the ocean. The program will include both regular specialised in-pool training and open water sessions to help get you ready for a full blown ocean swim in February 2023!

You’ll get to join a team of people all keen to push themselves further, meet new people and get out into the ocean together. We’re asking for expressions of interest to join this challenge so we can finalise numbers. If you’re keen let us know by hitting the button below!

Some of you have already spoken with Kari and expressed interest, so if you have don’t worry about letting us know again – we’ve got your name down already!

Note: the prerequisite for joining this challenge is that you must be able to comfortably swim 100m freestyle non-stop in a 50m pool and tread water confidently.

Bath2Beach EOI

News from Turkey: Michael McKelvie’s Swim Results

A few weeks ago, we interviewed Michael McKelvie ahead of his big swim in the Bosphorous Cross Continental event. Now, we have some exciting results to share with you all!

Michael finished 12th out of 127 in his age group, an incredible achievement in such a popular international swim! Overall, he finished 220th out of 1,503 men, and 271st out of 2,241 swimmers in total. Looks like all his training has paid off!

A huge congratulations to Michael for such a great result. It’s always awesome to hear from you all about your swimming achievements, so make sure to keep us posted!

First Swim: Narrabeen Beach Challenge

The swim that’s scheduled to kick off the coming swim season this year is the classic Narrabeen Beach Challenge in Sydney’s Northern Beaches. This swim runs a champagne glass-shaped course that comes in to 1.8km. It’s a great first swim for people looking to try out ocean swimming events, but can still offer a challenge to seasoned swimmers.

The final details for this swim are yet to be released, so keep your eyes peeled for any announcements or changes. Head to the oceanswims website to stay up to date.

Let us know if you’re planning to join this or any other local swims in the upcoming season!

New Season Fees & Pricing

As you know, from August 15th we have introduced a small fee increase across most of our pricing options (except for private lessons). The new fees and pricing for Different Strokes Swimming squads and SwimFit sessions are as follows:

For more detail on Masterclass, Open Water Training and squad/SwimFit pricing, you can head to our new app or to MindBody and view all pricing options.

Buy Now

The Man who Swims to Work

How do you get to work every day? For many it’s a drive, bus or train in to the office. Others might be lucky enough to be able to walk or cycle over, and there are still plenty of people working from home. Brent Hobbs has been swimming to work lately, estimating that it takes around 30 minutes to complete the 1.8km journey. Carrying his laptop and a change of clothes in a waterproof bag, he gets to start and end the day with a beautiful swim- does it get much better than that?

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