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Kevin Murphy has swum the 34 kilometers between England and France 34 times since his grand obsession with open-water swimming’s blue-riband event began in 1968.

“Obsession and a little bit of eccentricity,” the squat 61-year-old Londoner said with a chuckle about the hold that the cold, grey waters of the English Channel have over him.

Murphy was in Sydney in February to try the shallower end of a sport that is growing like topsy around the world.

Recognition came in 2008 when a 10-km open-water event debuted at the Beijing Olympics. World swimming body Federation Internationale de Natation now awards titles in the five-, 10- and 25-km distances.

Neither obsession nor eccentricity is in play when the water is warm and blue, and the distance just a kilometer or two. The attraction of striking out into the ocean on a sparkling Sydney morning in the company of fellow enthusiasts is easy to grasp.

“It’s a sport that has just grown spontaneously, largely through surf clubs needing to raise funds,” said Paul Ellercamp, who runs Australia’s Oceanswims Web site. Ten years ago there were 17 swims in and around Sydney; now there are over 100.

In February, the 2.7-km Big Swim from Palm Beach to Whale Beach on Sydney’s north shore drew a whopping 1,831 competitors. A week later, at the Cole Classic on nearby Manly Beach, there were 4,500 registrations from people aged 9-90.

For most open-water swimmers — including King of the Channel Kevin Murphy — the weekend outing in salty waves is a reward for weekdays ploughing up and down a noisy, chlorinated pool.

It’s like a run in the park for a dog shut up in the backyard Monday to Friday, or a blast into the countryside for a cyclist who has sweated all week on an exercise bicycle in the garage.

“There’s no regulatory authority, which is one of the beauties of the sport because every swim is different,” Ellercamp said. When Murphy swam the North Bondi Classic, race officials laughingly admitted that their one km course was closer to 1.5 km. Currents and tides and choppy water — as well as variable distances — mean race records hold little value.

A couple of Olympic Games and most pool swimmers go into retirement. Ocean swimmers, in contrast, have longer sporting lives. The discipline holds its spell well into retirement because it’s easy on the body.

John Kelso, 80, can finish a two-km course in under 40 minutes. Fellow Sydney swimmer Spot Anderson, 44, finished fourth in the massive Cole Classic field.

What some say they like about the sport is its leveling effect. You may have a Porsche in the car park but, lined up on the beach in your swimsuit, rubber hat and goggles, you are just another competitor.

“I think the one thing is that a lot of people who swim reasonably, without being a chance or anything, just like the idea of doing it in the ocean,” said Kelso, who swims five days a week at his local pool and wins in his age category in almost every event.

Lindy Woodrow, 55, is unlikely to be among the prizes but trains daily and goes to coaching clinics to improve her times. “The hardest part is getting up the beach at the finish,” she said after the Big Swim. “The scary part is always the waves knocking you down when you’re getting out. But I never worry about the distance.”

Murphy joked that the hardest part of his Sydney swim at Bondi Beach was water warmer than some indoor pools. When he swam Scotland’s Loch Lomond in 1988, the water was just 8 degrees. The only competitor able to stand the cold, he finished the race alone.

Yet despite frigid waters and the attendant need for expensive wet suits, Britain has joined Europe and taken to open-water swimming. From a single event in Lake Windermere in the Lake District in 2008, the Great Swim is now a four-event series around the country that last year drew 6,700 participants.

Despite the thousands of events around the world, the English Channel retains its allure. For India’s Meenakshi Pahuja, who almost made it in 2008, just the training to fulfill a childhood dream required the fortitude of a Kevin Murphy. “What I had was an 18-meter-long swimming pool where I went round and round,” she said. “I am very proud to be the first swimmer from Delhi to make the attempt.” 



DPA