A Sea Point resident managed to realise her dream of swimming the False Bay crossing from Rooi Els to Miller’s Point, making her the fourth woman to complete the swim without a wetsuit.
On Saturday 6 May, Linda Thompson became one of only 12 people to complete the 33 km swim. The swim is known as the Everest of Cape swims due to strong and unpredictable currents, winds, icy and often inconsistent water temperatures. False Bay is also popularly known for Great White sharks. The first successful solo False Bay crossing was completed by Annemie Landmeters in 1989.
Thompson completed the mammoth swim in 11 hours and 28 minutes. The weather and water temperatures played in her favour.
“My mission was to do the swim for myself. I am not nearly as accomplished as many of the other local open water swimmers who have completed more Robben Island swims. I set myself this goal and knew it was a route well suited to my mental tenacity and physical endurance even though I knew it would require much training.”
Thompson says she experienced many setbacks before the crossing, including developing a shoulder injury and having the swim cancelled three times due to cold water temperatures.
“I developed a shoulder injury in November last year. I had to scale back on swimming. This was a setback, but the goal didn’t change. I used to do around 30 km of swimming a week and with the injury, I had to scale down and couldn’t do much swimming. I worked with a pilates instructor for the past two years to strengthen my upper body and improve my muscle. I only got the go-ahead from my physiotherapist in February.”
When asked how she managed the full 11-hour swim, Thompson says: “You are not allowed to climb out of the water or touch the boat. Every 45 minutes my coach would whistle, and I would then stop, and my crew member would throw me a water bottle and that would contain a protein carb mix.”
Thompson says open water swimming is “isolating” but says she didn’t experience too many challenges during her swim.
“It is not like other sports where people can cheer for you. It is quite isolating.
“The length of the swim was not hard for me and the water temperature was great, but the biggest challenge was keeping a focus on the swimming when the water conditions became tougher.
“I did experience some calve cramping for the last 7 km. I didn’t feel stiff or tired or muscle pain. I am so grateful that I didn’t feel that.”
Thompson says she was always a pool swimmer and competed in competitions and galas while at school. But she explains that she only started open water swimming about three years ago.
“Compared to many other open water swimmers who have been competing and doing open water swims for decades, it was only about three years ago that I started applying myself to my open water swimming which I had taken up when I moved to Cape Town in 2017.
“I had originally started swimming in the sea in 2017 to meet people when I moved here and knowing I enjoyed being in the sea. Until about three years ago, I was much a ‘social swimmer’.”
Thompson is no stranger to the open sea and has completed various local swims such as the Robben Island crossing from Blouberg as well as swimming races in Langebaan including three 12 km events.
“There were swimming routes such as the 10 km Kommetjie to Hout Bay and the 10 km Hout Bay to Sandy Bay routes to prepare me for this swim among other preparation swims. I hadn’t swum longer than a 12 km swim in a continuous swim prior to this False Bay Crossing.”
Thompson says the experience still feels surreal.
“I am happy! This achievement reflected the importance of mental strength and putting in the work to achieve a goal. A swimmer who hasn’t completed or finished numerous marathon swims to pull off this swim which makes my personal victory even sweeter for me.”
Derrick Frazer, swim support specialist, was the skipper who piloted her route on the boat.
Frazer has been involved in the planning, scheduling, and piloting of five of these crossings, and coupled with 100% success in all False Bay attempts. Frazer says since 1976 to 2009, there were five successful crossings. In the last three years, he did 16 crossings.
Frazer praised Thompson on her achievement and said she “did very well”.
“She was never a competitive swimmer. She just set herself a big goal and did all the work that needed to be done to achieve that goal. The water temperatures were 17,6 °C. We were not expecting to get a crossing at this late stage of the year.
“I spent a lot of time monitoring the conditions and I noticed that the water temperature was still relatively high, so I contacted her on May third and said ‘don’t plan anything for (Saturday) 6 May because it looks like we can do it then’.”
“I am so appreciative to the skipper and my crew on the boat and everyone who supported me,” concludes Thompson.
