Tomorrow should be fun. I’ll be volunteering at the Ford Tempe Ironman to provide safety for the swimming portion. I did the earlier event in April - 2600+ swimmers can create quite a spectacle.
I was checking the list - the oldest is 76 and there appears to be a minimum age of 18. Beside the US, there appear to be at least 25 other countries represented including 5 or 6 from my wife’s home country of Brazil. I didn’t count all the states - the obvious missing state so far is ND.
I decided to take the folding kayak. During the last event, I had to assist at least two people. With my relative inexperience, they might have flipped me in the Impex so it makes sense to use the Long Haul this time also.
The only downside side is getting up at 0345 but you know, as long as I have something exciting to do, I don’t mind the early hours!
Have fun…
every time a swimmer comes up to hold on to your boat do a roll.
Paul
Hope the weather was …
…warmer than here! has been cool ( 20’s at night ), but not too cold to paddle in the day…still no rain here.
Chris
I’ve done…
I’ve done 4 or so of the Escape from Alcatraz and Alcatraz Challenge swims, plus a couple of others. Always fun. It seems like the start of the swim is where you get the most swimmers needing assistance.
Instruct them to hold on to your bow.
yep…
I always offer them the bow. I only had to help two today but I thought for a minute, I was going to have to get between two swimmers who were yelling at each other. I would have simply driven the kayak between them if they decided to throw down - and then taken their timing chips. Luckily, one moved on after I yelled at them and the other just threaded water to allow a little more gap.
I had a blast - the oldest woman was 71 and I watched her get out of the water at the 2 hour mark. The oldest man was 79 but I didn’t see him finish the swim part - wasn’t in that area too long.
I missed your question.
no question
Didn’t realize I posted this in the wrong forum but thanks for bringing the lack of a question - you do a great job moderating this place.