How FutureFitYou Saved Me on a Swim Adventure in Greece

I’ve never been a swimmer. My wife, on the other hand, is basically a dolphin who lives on land. She can swim for hours in the open ocean. Me? I do occasionally short ocean swims in Vancouver for the thrill.

So when I had an opportunity to go to Greece for my niece's wedding, I researched any swim holidays and found the Big Blue Swim UK was having a 5-day adventure in Santorini that coincided with our time there for the wedding. I thought a swim adventure could be a great way of seeing the islands via boat and also a way to score points with the wife, and maybe test myself in a new way. I had no idea what I was getting into.

There were 15 swimmers in our group — mostly British, plus an American and a French couple. At the welcome cocktails the evening before, we briefly introduced ourselves. When it was my turn, I admitted I wasn’t really a swimmer and how nervous I was.  Noa, our lead safety instructor, asked why I signed up.  I shrugged and said, “Seemed like a good way to score points with the wife and get out on a boat.”  My nerves stemmed from a variety of reasons – first, I was worried my lower back would not hold up, second, would I cramp, which I’ve done before, and third, mechanical failure, ie, would my goggles start leaking. 

Pre planning Cocktails. Who is nervous?

The next morning, we were picked up at our hotel and driven down the winding cliff road to Santorini’s port. Our Greek captain greeted us aboard a beautiful traditional Greek wooden fishing boat, commonly known as a kaiki, and off we went toward the island of Thirasia. That’s when Noa told us our first “warm-up” swim: two laps around another boat, 150 meters away. They’d use this to group us by ability — pink, orange, or yellow caps.

As we all jumped in off the boat, I didn’t know what to expect.  Were there any swimmers like me, just someone who swims only in the summer and may hit the pool once or twice a winter.  Or were these all keen swimmers, who swim as their major workout activity?  I quickly found out.  As we started to swim to the boat 150m away, I could see the distance between me and everyone else.  I couldn’t relax, thinking, man I am out of my league.  I barely finished one lap around the boat, and as I was finishing, a group of about 5 or 6 swimmers was there with me, lapping me.   One of the coaches said kindly, “You’d swim faster if you ditched that loose sun shirt—it’s like dragging a parachute.” So I did. The Farmer John wetsuit stayed on, though. For now.

When all the swimmers returned, Noa divided us into Pink (Master swimmers), Orange (people who swim 2 or 3x week), and Yellow for… well, me. I was my own group.  The privilege this got me was to lead every swim we did in the future because you started with the slow group (or person in this case), and the next fastest, and finally the fastest group to try and time the finish.  The added embarrassment of all of this was that I knew so many eyes were on me when I jumped in.  How is he swimming? Is he going to make it?  I tried to lighten everything up by leading us in prayer before I jumped in – I led a “prayer to Poseidon” to protect all swimmers. After all, we are in Greece and it is his domain.

Team Yellow it is. Aspronisi Island in the backdrop, which we swam around.

When we did are next 2 laps around the boat, remember me without my sun shirt, I still could only do one lap.  Upon returning to the boat, the coaches did a GoPro film of our swimming technique. This would prove invaluable for me by day three.

After lunch on the first day at a small fishing village, we returned for our afternoon 3km swim, the first big one.  Needless to say, I was nervous.  But here is where FutureFitYOU kicked in.

C'mon FutureFitYOU, do your stuff, there are serious swimmers here.

I remembered what I wrote in my blog, The Art of Not Hesitating: that moment when you stand on the edge of something unfamiliar and risky, and your body hesitates. I felt that again, looking out at the Aegean. I also remembered my own fitness work — the resistance training, the Zone 2 cardio, the breath control. All of it gave me confidence that I could keep moving as long as I stayed calm.  I thought of that after I did my prayer to Poseidon.

I also knew that the saltwater would keep me buoyant, even after I ditched my Farmer John suit and now just had swimming trunks.  I knew the trick was to try and relax, find some rhythm, even when the Aegean Sea rocked with tides or passing boats.  That first long swim, I managed close to 2 km. Not perfect, but more than I imagined. I surprised myself.  Although I didn’t finish and the orange and pink caps were long passed me, I felt a huge sense of accomplishment.

Being a technique guy, what really helped me was the next night when one of the coaches went over my swimming stroke. I told him give me one big thing to work on, because too much information will overwhelm me.  And he did.  He corrected how I was pulling my arm back.  I was only being 50% effective with my stroke. 

Its lonely out there, but the beauty of swimming the calder of a volcano is unsurpassed.

By our last swim, a 4km swim in Mouzaki Bay near the town of Oia, when I jumped in first, it took the orange caps almost 1.5 km to catch me.  I had improved.  While I never did finish a complete swim (I probably did 9km out of the 20km total swam), I felt like I belonged.  I had improved — not fast, not graceful, but solid. I’d found a rhythm and sense of belonging in the water that surprised me.

The whole experience — the people, the sea, the challenge — was unforgettable. I left with new friends, a deep respect for open-water swimmers, and proof that the FutureFitYou principles actually work in real life.

I came home already looking up the next swim adventure.

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