The Big Swim in Whale Beach, Sydney, Australia | Swimming

The first swim was held back in 1974 with just 38 intrepid members of Whale Beach Surf Club competing. Sharks were the big concern in those days and local scuba divers patrolled the bottom in an effort to ensure a safe passage for the swimmers.
The concept for the swim came from Bob Lynch, the father of Barton Lynch, our former World Champion surfboard rider. Sadly, Bob, a police officer, was killed while travelling on his police motorcycle.
The idea of this beach-to-beach, open ocean swim caught on, with numbers of entrants increasing dramatically to a point just shy of 2000 in 2003 and 2004. The Big Swim was not held in 2005 due to dangerous surf conditions. Now, such beach-to-beach, or point-to-point, journey swims have become the favourite swims of fine ocean swimmers.