PATHUBIDRI OWS CHAMPIONSHIP 2024 Nov 23rd 24th

Mangalore is a city sorrunded by full of back waters.It is a God's own place ,rich in natural beauty because of sea.I never knew seas were different at different place.They say Arabian sea is Smooth not with much big waves.It was TRUE on the day before event ,the waves were not very strong,high,not frequent as in our Bay of Bengal. Coming to Padubidri beach isolated blue flag beach well maintained.This site is selected probably because of its because of back water is running parallel to the site...just 50 mtrs from sea it is a mangrove rich back waters. We can train sea type of training such as swimming,kayaking without waves of course with water current. We all reached the spot after our wonderful train journey to mangalore. From mangalore it is 40 km to badhubidri ⛱️ beach.but the point  is they drop you at the entry point of padhubidri blue flag beach (pbfb).From there u have to go by auto to the point.It is 3km From main road. But one guy deviated from our train trip was kishore who came to the spot by bike trip 750 km from Chennai!!! Man with power. 

It was 4th National junior open water swimming competition for age group and masters .

There were 8  registration in masters 6 were from CHENNAI SEA SHARKS."Wow" applauded ourselves.
Our love of OWS really worked. Yes Ravikumar,Velan, kishore,Saravanan Siva,Aru,Myself were from CSS.2 from karnataka (suresh and raghul).Suresh is a excellent swimmer from karnataka. He did lot of open water swimming won 🏆  🏅 🥇.

It was on 22nd November the organisers felt that wind and waves were not suitable for event .They graded it as 6.5 and allowed grade was below 5th grade.so they may change the site to backwaters as I said before it was parallel to sea .We heard that but they said by next day 23rd morning 🌄 if sea was alright they keep the swimming site at sea.but next day morning the venue was fixed in backwaters and  we were quiet disappointed. Anyway we made our mind to go ahead. The site announced was like 500m loop.250 mtrs down and 250 mtrs return. You have to go for 20 loops in 6 hours.The down route was along the current return route was against the current. It was started late by 8.05 am.along with 5km youngsters age group swimmers.We started swimming at but at many points water was shallow and ankle to knee deep.For first two or three loops we found difficulties to adapt to this.Those points we had to "walk" by hands.

Organisers kept two points for water and nourishment banana and 🍊.It was really nourishing and energizing us.Aru and velan raced ahead from the beginning and myself maintained my own pace.I found difficulties to adapt to Smooth race rhythm. 6 loops I couldn't cope up my breathing and strokes.something was missing.After that I concentrated on strokes and finally synchronized my rhythm.Me,Saravanan Siva,Ravikumar ,kishore were same pace. Aru and velan were one loop ahead of me.

I completed 5km that is 10 loops out of 20 in 2hours 15 min.we had 3hours 15 min to complete rest of 10 loops. I thought it was easy to complete within another 2hrs 30 min.Here started our mind and body game.After 13th loop that is at 6.5km my left shoulders were really paining and back of the shoulders were stiffened.It was hard to move on.Thought of quitting popup in mind.My arm movements, strokes ,stream lining, kicks were not matching to each other.one intersting points my cardio and breathing is not giving problem..it was good well adapted.There I got confidence to complete. Because now the loop time was increasing by every loop.Look like I may not complete in cutoff time.

Then I stopped at a refreshing point had my water ate two bananas few pieces of oranges there I told myself to coordinate my movements and synchronize it with breath enjoy every stroke talking to mangrove trees and water. Now it started working .water and me were friends now.Astonishingly I got my double side breathing working very well.my glides were smooth.I felt my body moving like boat.i compared my movement with trees on the shore smoothly moving behind me.wow my body was boat now.last 4 loops 2km was like Smooth glide and excellent coordination my body flow.I loved it.Finally last one loop 20th loop of 10km I felt like missing my friends the mangrove trees water current.

Temperature transition at the other end warm to chill kayaks timers,the boat boy who served fruits and water with smiling face and loop announcers I thanked them did namaste to everyone.And I finished my 20th loop with reception from my friend Terrence.I clocked 5hrs 11 min to complete 10km.

Thanks to Mother Nature, My guru rajan sir, my team CSS