Andrew Chin’s Marathon Swim Story
Today I virtually trekked from Cape Town South Africa to Switzerland with stops in the Unites States and South America. Just a few of the places that ice swimming adventurer Andrew Chin has swam. With a hearty crew of limit pushers and inspired by Lynne Cox, they even made it to Antarctica! It was quite a thrill to hear the tales!
Lately Andrew has focused his time on bringing light to the important issue of water security and preserving South Africa’s waterways with his Swim for Rivers initiative. “If I can change the behavior of one person for the better, it’s worth more than any of my swimming certificates.” Andrew says, “Together we can save our planet.”
I hope you enjoy this episode!
In his own words: After swimming in Junior school I started again at the age of 30 after a second lower back operation and having started a family. I am married and have 2 awesome daughters.
Within a year I completed my 1st Robben Island crossing after training with friends who were preparing for one.
The bug as it were bit, and hard.
We started sea swimming every Sunday as a way of just getting used to the sea and the cold , waves marine surprises etc. This Sunday group is now formally known as the Sunday Hot Chocolate Group and we often have close of 50 swimmers joining us.
After my second Robben Island crossing which was an hour faster than the 1st I read an article on Martin Strel and I decided I wanted to swim South Africa’s longest river the Orange River but do it with friends . A group of 6 swimmers tackled the 4 legs of the swim and we ended up swimming around 1900km broken up of 4 years in a total of 40 days.
I had partnered with Ram Barkai and we pushed each other to do try new swims together, we did Cape Point, the Llududno swim and then started experimenting with the cold.
I ended up going to Lake Zurich with Ram where he did over 2km and me 1.3 in sub 5C water, the cold bug had us and we searched for cold waters in sunny South Africa.
I ended up being part of the Ice Swimming association and did 2 local Ice miles.
The spirit of adventure never left us and we looked for challenges abroad, our group had grown to include Toks Viviers, Ryan Stramrood, Kieron Palframan, Gavin Pike amongst others.
We travelled to Alaska, the USA, South America and Asia in search of both fun and adventure, many of the swims inspired by Lynne Cox.
Locally the Robben Island swims continued and I embarked on SWIM FOR RIVERS a non profit organisation which used swimming to highlight the need to protect and preserve South Africa’s waterways. This project is still under way and we have reached 100’s of children directly, achieved solid responses to our message and now use the organisation to clean rivers and fund raise around water security.
I ended up Chairing the Cape Long Distance Swimming Associatio for 3 years and still look at ways of being able to put back into the sport that has allowed to be achieve so much for myself.
Swim For Rivers In South Africa – World Open Water Swimming Association
Wild Swimmer Andrew Chin – Roving Reporters
Latest News – Andrew Chin completes his fifth Swim for Rivers challenge (ru.ac.za)
2011 World Open Water Swimming – Performance of the Year Nominee – The Men from Cape Town – YouTube