Friday, 7 November 2008

Bondi Baths and Icebergs

Early morning at Bondi Baths, at the southern end of Bondi Beach, sees lots of lap swimmers. In spring (Oct 20 & 27), the sea temperature is still quite low - about 16 or 17 degrees, so a few people wear wet suits.

Bondi Icebergs was founded in 1929 by some dedicated winter swimmers. Every Sunday from May to September, over 700 male and female swimmers compete in races. To be a full swimming member you must swim three out of four Sundays for a period of five years. There are 90-0dd junior members, aged 5 -17, called 'Bondi Icecubes'.

The official winter swimming season opens on the first Sunday in May, when blocks of ice are ceremoniously thrown into the pool.

Artist Alex Lavroff has painted a beautiful series of works called The Iceberg Series. You can see them by clicking on the link.






















Photos taken at approx 7am October 20 & 27, 2008
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4 comments:

  1. Dina4:58 pm

    What a cool idea--a whole blog for swimming places!

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  2. Mark Gale5:55 am

    Great photos. We were at Bondi Beach when visiting Australia in 2007 for the swimming World Championships. My son is American swimmer Garrett Weber-Gale. You can see his blog at garrettwebergale.blogspot.com.
    Cheers,
    Mark

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous11:20 am

    Any idea what the dark patches are on the first and third pictures? Just curious.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sally1:07 pm

    Hmm....well, they could be clouds overhead, or as the pool is open to the sea, perhaps seaweed?

    ReplyDelete