Sydney swimmer learns to navigate waves and marine life

Claire Keenan is learning to swim in the ocean off Sydney, testing herself against the waves and local marine life.

She began with laps in ocean pools at Malabar and Coogee while a friend was visiting, bought a secondhand wetsuit and new goggles to see fish and seaweed, but was stung in the face by a jellyfish during an after‑work dip at Clovelly. The traumatic encounter drove her back to the safety of ocean pools; at Wylie's baths she watched staff and children collect nearly 50 bluebottles with elongated kitchen tongs.

Keenan says she spent her childhood swimming in the Murrumbidgee River, the Hume weir and on family trips to the Gold Coast, and that those experiences drew her to the ocean. She has reminded herself that people do not need to succeed at every hobby they pick up.

At the time of writing, her ocean swims probably amount to about 20 laps of a pool; she never used the wetsuit because it felt claustrophobic. Locals called her "brave" after an extremely cold Coogee swim where she turned back from Wedding Cake Island. She has not joined a swim club, preferring solo swims and the company of fish — she has swum alongside blue gropers, tiny stingrays, silver and striped fish and a Port Jackson shark — and says she actually prefers snorkelling when conditions allow.

Key Topics

Sports, Claire Keenan, Sydney, Clovelly, Coogee, Wylie's Baths