Minutes earlier than getting dropped off mid-ocean at Kovalam (Covelong) for our first open water swimming lesson, Murthy Megavan, the founding father of Murthy Surf Faculty, tells me that I’m to strap on my life jacket and wait at a spot 100 metres from the shore, marked solely by random bobbing waves.

“Simply loosen up and speak to Syed,” he says, asking one among his instructors lounging on a surfboard, to accompany me.

So I observe directions, talking to Syed about job losses, the post-COVID economic system, and why I selected to do journalism, someplace round 20-feet above the ocean mattress. I’m feigning calm. There’s a mild drizzle. However the solar is eliminating the lack-lustre gray clouds that enveloped the sky earlier that morning, threatening to cancel my lesson.

Swimming amidst fish in Chennai’s waterbodies.

In lower than 5 minutes, we’re displaced by the waves so we swim again to the spot, ready for Murthy. Syed says that the life jacket tends to make it somewhat troublesome to swim. With out it, he says I can be free.

Quickly, Murthy arrives on a kayak, pulls my life jacket away, and throws a vivid yellow buoy over my shoulder and peppers his directions with reassurances. “There isn’t a place else on the planet the place one can float as simply. It’s due to the salinity of the seawater,” he says.

I shuttle for a minute between the freestyle, breaststroke and the canine paddle. My chin is above water for many of it. The waves carry me forth. When an enormous wave hits, I duck. For smaller ones, I attempt to rise above.

Earlier than I do know it, I’m making my means throughout the excessive seas of Chennai, for the primary time. It’s true. There isn’t a place on the planet the place one can float as simply. As I step again on land , I’m each thrilled and relaxed. Murthy says that individuals who swim within the open waters chase this precise feeling.

Regardless of cities in Tamil Nadu having an expansive shoreline studded with stunning seashores, solely a handful discover water sports activities. Most of the lively open water swimmers come from Karnataka and Goa. Murthy says that folks in Tamil Nadu have feared the water for too lengthy, forgetting its magnificence.

Though browsing and kayaking have grown in recognition, different water sports activities are but to see an uptick. Nonetheless, because the COVID-19 restrictions had been lifted, there was a small but regular rise within the variety of swimmers seeking to transcend the 4 edges of the pool, leaping into quarries, lakes and the large blue sea.

With ample security measures, these fans want to enhance their health whereas additionally getting a entrance row seat to the various wonders of Nature.

Murthy explaining the character of Covelong’s cove
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Driving the tide

“Open water swimming might be one of the best ways to grasp the ocean,” says Murthy. The fisherman-turned-surf teacher says that swimmers who’ve educated in swimming swimming pools include no prior expertise within the sea.

With some primary classes together with an in depth understanding of the placement, the inexperienced persons return with plentiful data together with the workings of tides, the swell, currents and wave breaks. One ought to be capable of neatly assess their swim situations together with the climate to make sure that they’re protected, he says. “It’s the first mark of a superb swimmer,” he states.

Throughout our lesson, he speaks in regards to the rocks on both aspect of Kovalam’s cove. He additionally explains tips on how to navigate the areas the place the waves break and what to do when swimmers discover themselves caught in a rip tide — a present created from the shoreline previous the road the place waves break. It causes robust tidal circulation, disallowing even skilled swimmers to flee. “You shouldn’t swim in the other way in direction of the shore when caught in a rip present. Simply transfer left or proper and you ought to be positive. Panic causes extra points than the ocean.”

Chennai’s in style seashores like Marina, Besant Nagar and Thiruvanmiyur, are usually not thought-about protected for swimming. Murthy says that because the seashores would not have a curve, one touches chest-level water inside a matter of 10 to twenty metres. “This doesn’t assist for these seeking to swim,” he says.

Murthy along with his yellow buoy used for swimmers nearly choosing the game up.

He provides that Kovalam and Mahabalipuram are comparatively safer because the depth is normally extra gradual. There are additionally a number of surfers, lifeguards and fishermen on boats who can rapidly rescue swimmers in misery. In the intervening time, one doesn’t require permission to enter the ocean for a swim. It nonetheless, helps to alert the lifeguard or be affiliated to a swim or surf college as instructors can be looking out.

Sharath Mukundan, a certified Nationwide Institute of Sports activities (NIS) coach, says that when you get previous the waves, the ocean normally turns into an enormous, calm swimming pool. One solely wants to recollect to breathe and acquire oneself. He provides that the ocean is ideal for these seeking to study extra about marine life. In Chennai, one can usually spot jellyfish, dolphins and whale sharks throughout the season. They’re innocent and delightful if we maintain a distance, he says.

Sharath runs a swim academy, Wild Swim, in ECR and takes a handful of scholars — 5 to seven in quantity — as soon as each month to Kovalam to strive their hand at open water swimming. “We spend a superb period of time assessing the waves and understanding the tides. It isn’t harmful if you realize the method,” he says.

PT Gajalakshmi, a medical psychologist who was a part of one among Sharath’s workshops says that after her expertise, she tends to suggest open water swimming to her purchasers. “Now and again, I really feel the necessity to strive new issues. Being within the water seems like you might be being held by it. It additionally seems like a large achievement. There are not any worries within the sea,” she says, including that she was assured proper from her first day out.

A near-drowning incident at an area seaside, propelled swimmer S Shobika to overcome her concern of the water. Now, the 28-year-old says that she is freed from trepidation plans to swim within the sea repeatedly.

Nishanth Ravichandran, who carried out AquaFest 2023, amongst Chennai’s first open water swimming competitions on Could 7, says that 200 folks participated this 12 months with over 1/third from Tamil Nadu. Individuals from the State are concentrated in Thoothukudi, Madurai and Chennai. “Round 70 of the individuals who took half had been younger college students with particular wants from Chennai,” he says.

Folks collaborating in several iterations of the triathlon and ironman challenges additionally like to swim within the sea. Whereas there’s solely a handful who repeatedly prepare within the ocean, Chennai’s seashores see many from Bengaluru, Mumbai, Goa and Mangalore visiting the East coast for his or her coaching throughout the season which is between June and September.

“Swimming within the ocean supplies phenomenal endurance. It’s exhilarating to finish a 5 kilometre swim into the ocean and again,” Nishanth says.

In addition to the a number of well being advantages, Sharath says that each time he swims amidst Nature, he comes again brimming with concepts. “The ocean actually dumbs the ego down. You realise that something can occur so that you try, with each swim, to navigate the world higher,” he says.

I’m not but positive whether or not I can navigate my world higher. This solely means one factor. It’s time for my second lesson.

Swimming amidst fish in Chennai’s waterbodies.