My masters swim group met early Saturday morning at 6:30 am to ride together to Kona for the 2018 King’s Swim sponsored by Kona Aquatics and Bike Works. Kona Aquatics has been headed by coach Steve Barowski for the last 30 years and has a large, age group swim program as well as an established masters program that includes many local triathletes that train at the Kona municipal pool at the Old Airport. This pool is the only 50 meter pool on this side of the island and from what I understand, Steve Barowski helped specify the pools dimensions to ensure it’s suited for large swim meets and multiple practice venues. Their pool makes our 25 meter pool in Mauna Lani look like a small pond but I still feel pretty lucky to have a legit lap pool in my own community!

We arrived at the Kona Pier and registered ourselves including the necessary body marking where I received number “77” on both upper arms. Someone said to me in passing “Lucky 7’s” before I entered the water for a warm up and I thought to myself-well “maybe”. I looked at my Surfline app as I usually do when I woke up and saw where there was a 3’-5’ “south” swell so I knew we would have murky conditions and I confirmed that once I got in the water. From the pier you could see the obvious swell and subsequent wave crashing along the entire shore line looking south. I looked toward the iconic Royal Kona Hotel with it’s distinctive pyramidal shape for the Body Glove catamaran or other large boat that usually positions itself as the turn around buoy and saw a small ribbed inflatable boat with a large red flag in its place.

Steve confirmed at our pre-race meeting the Body Glove was not going to be the traditional turn around but instead we had a much smaller target, the RIB with a red flag, more than a 1/2 mile in the distance. Because of this my team mates and I decided to use the pier itself to site down as it was in a perfect line with the RIB meaning we could swim parallel to the pier for a straight shot at the boat once we entered the water. Better to swim straight than to swim hard in the wrong direction-easy to do in open water swimming!!

Once we entered the water I positioned myself on the right side along the pier and took off at a brisk pace in order to draft the pack in front of me. They soon moved to my left and instead of following them I held my course right along the pier passing behind the Body Glove that was still moored. I soon found myself alone with no drafting pack heading straight for the RIB with the obvious red flag. The rest of the group was being pushed toward the shoreline by the swell but I decided not to follow which I believe was the best tactic for me anyway.

I cruised by myself until I reached the buoy picking up a few drafts along the way as most of the swimmers wondered back toward the buoy and made the turn. I soon picked up my friend Aubry and drafted with her the entire back half which was over 1/2 mile. I decided to let her know it was me drafting at her side so I pulled up next to her and shouted GO to get her attention. She spotted my lime green Cinco De Mayo swim cap and started laughing and we drafted each other all the way to the finish!!!

Cindy, Susan and I finished 3rd in our age group! Noe finished first and also 2nd women in the Triple Crown series overall. The guy that finished first in my age group was from California and is the 2018 Masters National Champion in the 1 mile event just held in Indiana. I shook his hand when we received our medals and jokingly told him he was “cheating”. The second place finisher was from Alaska-both guys great swimmers!

We created some great memories Saturday. I’m a lucky guy to share great workouts with the very talented women in my master group as well as our very talented coach Dave Prutow. Thank you Dave for all the time and tips you share! It’s made a real difference in all of our swimming-obviously!!

Written by Rick Oliver on July 15, 2018
Posted in: Hawaii Life | Tags: 2018 King’s Swim, swim, swim race