22/09/2023
It is a very tragic truth that many of our rivers, lakes and harbours are not safe to swim in. Below is the notification from Fit and Abel that the open water swimming RealSwim Race Series in Canterbury has had to be cancelled this season due to water pollution. Dan is our New Zealand SwimEars ambassador and has been instrumental in spreading the word on the need for Swimmers to protect their ears from cold water, dirt and bacteria. A huge thank you to Dan, Penelope and Team at Fit and Abel for your contribution to Ocean Water Swimming and ocean water safety.
Dear Swimmers,
It is with great sadness we announce the cancellation of open water swim racing (The RealSwim Race Series) in Canterbury this season. After months and MANY (6) meetings with ECAN, they have finally announced they will be continuing to label Corsair Bay as unsafe to swim this summer – and have not at the time of writing shown any interest in working with us to provide a safer alternative. We can’t recall a time period where open water swim racing wasn’t available in Canterbury. We have advocated continuously that is an important part of the safe assimilation of adults into the open water swim environment.
The latest grading results are only just being announced off publicly available data that we used to calculate the same grading months ago – that calculation took us just 30 minutes.
We think it important to understand that the swim gradings are based on a new methodology of the water guidelines – specifically that you, the general public, don’t have the awareness not to swim for at least 24 hours after rainfall. We believe the situation we find ourselves in right now is avoidable if the public and public health was put first.
While there are number of really positive steps now occurring to improve water quality, they are far too slow. For example, last night we were presented with a review of signage around water quality – the same signage that caused issues in December 2022. 9 months on and we are just now finally reviewing signage?
We firmly believe there already should have been more water testing, more information provided to the public to enable them to make safe decisions, and most importantly more focus and assessment on the safest places to swim in the messaging. To date NO safe swim assessment has been undertaken, you are simply being given an assessment of either the long-term water quality grade (5 year average) or the latest water quality test – which could be up to 10 days old! There remains a real risk around water safety this summer based on ECANs approach. They are the driving organisation behind this program, despite trying to farm out responsibility to Te Whatu Ora (health warnings) and CCC (signage).
Please don’t let water quality assessments send you to a location that is less safe for you and your family this summer. If you are an adult with low swim ability, regardless of what ECAN suggests, don’t take your kids to the rivers and estuary this summer, and DO swim only between the flags at the beach. If possible, swim at a no surf beach rather than a wave beach. Get some swim lessons, improve your knowledge around water quality, join a community group and do some clean up or planting, call your local counsellor and ask questions.
Please take care in the water this summer, thank you for your enthusiasm and support of the series over the past nine years that we have had the privilege to run it, and believe us when we say no one is more upset at the cancellation of the swim series than us.
