Swimming in open waters: the sport that is helping Limans stay afloat in pandemic

A Patricia del Río el mar siempre le dio “igual”.Did not inspire her particularly.Nor was a source of calm for her.In fact, he said that he never spent more than two hours on the beach, which only took fugitious dip to diminish the heat of the summers.That until a June 2020 day.

Porque siempre hay un día en todas las grandes historias.

The three months of the first quarantine had passed, perhaps the toughest in the life of the journalist, when he could no longer with the feeling that the planet had died.She was one of the few who did not stay at home to work, but covered from radio and television that unlikely and painful reality that we are still living.Today more of the virus is known and it is understood - or should - how are the rules of the game of a pandemic, but then the uncertainty was brutal.He began to feel that he suffocated with the news that the mourning figures had to announce, the testimonies in the air accompanied by sobs, the endless obituaries of people who knew and who did not know.He missed his son, from which he separated for fear of infection;the streets where a soul or a car was no longer seen;Time to advance.And then, one day he went down to Yuyos Beach, in Barranco.It is not clear what motivated her, but she started swimming.

"It was incredible.I was alone, with my swimsuit, I was dying of cold. Pero con el tiempo fui dándome cuenta de que el mar era el único lugar donde podía llorar sin que se notara. El único sitio que me daba paz”.His Surfer sister would lend a wetsuit, who began to give him hard.That, plus a hat and some fins that dusted some closet at the times when he swam in a pool, are so far the necessary rudiments so that the River Bracee ten or twelve kilometers every day every day.For security, and because with friends everything is better, he joined the school swimming is life and there is no photo that does not take - with 3/4 parts of the body involved inside the Pacific - where he does not show a smile. Nadar en el mar durante la pandemia le ha significado, sin duda, descubrir la inagotable fuente de endorfinas que necesitaba para seguir a flote mientras continúe el temporal.

Aquatic tribes

Swimming in open waters can be done recreationally or competitively.In both cases, this consists of swimming in open spaces such as the sea, lakes or rivers.Its origin dates back to May 3, 1810, when the British poet Lord Byron swam several miles to cross the Strait of the Dardanelles, from Europe to Asia.

The challenges of the dynamics are not few: swimmers must face the movements of currents, swirls or waves and various temperatures.It implies a great physical and mental effort because it is fighting the same natural space and distances.

In our country, discipline had not been popular until pandemic.While in recent years there was already a greater interest in practicing it, it has been with the closing of the pools as a control measure to avoid contagions by the COVID-19 that many followers are fishing.Thus, there are those who throw themselves into the water alone, in groups that have been formed organically on the banks or in schools.

Something similar happens with more experienced swimmers.They train individually or collectively, for national professional challenges - as the mythical Olaya route in which, annually and for 22 kilometers, nothing from chorrillos to the tip or international competitions.In fact, for example, Peru has the National Swimming Team Category Aguas Open, directed today by a guild legend, María Isabel Barragán.

Many of the latter see with joy the increase in people excited about the practice of their loves, although they only order new schools: continue with the biosafety protocols to avoid infections.As is known, water is not a Covid-19 Transmitter agent, but the short social distance or the lack of use of masks on the shore is risky.Otherwise, welcome are.

Ocean of emotions

“Every little disorder in my swim was, then, a great mental victory. Vencer el pánico de nuevo, la ansiedad, el miedo que nos paraliza.If someone had told me that in Pandemia I would discover or recall things like these, I would not have believed him.Nor would I have believed that, swimming, I would learn to understand the weight of breathing in my days.So simple and secret, so fragile and at the same time powerful ".

The lines that precede these were written by journalist Beto Villar on an Instagram account that has just opened: @enaguasprofundas.There he documes, with photos and testimony, the personal revolution that has been swimming in the sea for a little over a month.One day it began motivated by a friend and now bracea three times a week, alone, absorbed from the emotional changes that are revealed to him.

"Pandemia pushed me into the sea.Has coincided with a series of strong spiritual changes that I am driving to do, work on things that I think I can't.Be, for example, more resolved. Le di la oportunidad y no puedo estar más contento”, le cuenta a Somos. Agrega que lo que le sigue sorprendiendo es que los limeños, teniendo el privilegio de vivir tan cerca del océano, no lo aprovechemos."It cost me 39 years to realize that I had this huge free natural pool for me.". Como a Patricia del Río, Villar confirma el efecto catártico que practicar este deporte puede provocar.“It happened to me that, being 200 meters from the shore, I have turned to see the city and I started crying.It is like a download of sadness for everything that has been happening this year, in general.Vent.In addition, of course, to have the chance of observing Lima in front of you, from that perspective.That is wonderful ".

New waves

There is no ‘depressed trout’, says Patricia Woyke (64), athlete of a lifetime and head of ‘the trout’.One day, on June 5, after the first quarantine, she and seven other friends who exercised in a pool lowered the green coast looking for the denied water of the swimming academies. Todas tenían miedo, al principio no se alejaban de la orilla.However, it happened again.Each stroke was momentary oblivion, the body injected with energy.The calm. Hoy ya son 50. “Esto a todas nos ha cambiado la vida y la manera en que afrontamos la pandemia.You enter the sea, go out and, so you have the hardest day, you put your chest, ”says the former cyclist.

In September they got bored from coming and going from one beach to another and longing for longer distances.“We could not enter without protection, so one day I asked a fisherman who always saw if he could accompany us on Saturdays on more demanding crossings.The idea was to bring water, food or pick up someone if necessary.His name is Édgar Pandal, but we tell him of affection ‘Superman’, because that's what his boat is called ”.With him they go from fishermen (chorrillos) to the cave of the horseshoe, to the Chira, to the nautical rose, to Peña Horadada, to the island San Lorenzo.They are endearing routes against tides, malaguas, concerns and sorrows.And, in each one, pure epiphany //.

A balm also for the most experienced

The dentist Eduardo Collazos nothing for twelve years in the open sea."This year has been the most therapeutic".

12 years ago that the swimmer and dentist Eduardo Collazos (49) moves with expert in open waters, whether Peruvian or foreign.His amazing experience includes having crossed the Strait of Gibraltar (2014), the Canal de la Mancha (2019) and having tapped around the island of Manhattan (2018).In our country, the iconic ‘Olaya’ route Nine times has completed the iconic journey.For more than a decade he has swam in front of the Costa Verde, hence he says that for two years he began to observe greater interest in the practice of this sport.However, he adds, this has been increased exponentially with the pandemic, following the closing of the pools."It is something impressive, there are mornings that you find so many people on certain beaches that it would be worth putting a traffic light on a boat so that they do not crash with each other," jokes the athlete, who today belongs to the fiery group Peru Swimmers and another called Los Marlines."And I understand why this phenomenon happens.With all the time I have been doing this, I certainly tell you that the ocean has been vital the last year. Para mí y muchos conocedores del tema.If I could not swim daily I would have fallen crazy.This has been a balm to be able to tolerate the difficult times that we still have, ”he reveals.Collazos, who is now preparing to swim at night from the coast of Los Angeles to Santa Catalina Island (will happen in 80 days), recommends everyone who lives near the sea to overcome fear and enter.The passion will arrive on its own.//

Healing strokes

What is necessary to start

1. El nadador Eduardo Collazos sugiere, primero, haber aprendido a nadar antes en una piscina, por un tema de seguridad.
2. Explica que el equipo básico consta de un gorro, lentes, aletas, un wetsuit (traje de neopreno), una boya (para ser visto y para flotar cuando sea necesario. Ver foto). Hay algunas con compartimentos impermeables para guardar pertenencias.
3. Sugiere, además, el uso de un reloj con GPS (ver foto) que provea de información sobre tiempo, distancia, número de brazadas, temperatura del agua, etc.
4. Finalmente recomienda iniciar la práctica en un grupo, no solo (a). Junto a otras personas se aprende y todos se protegen mutuamente.

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