Members of the White Rock Wave Masters Swim Club were busy in July – not in the pool, but in the open water.
On July 1, seven Wave swimmers took part in a Canada Day swim at Port Moody’s Sasamat Lake, with five earning medals. Then, two weeks later, 10 Wave members travelled to Kelowna for the 2.1-km Across the Lake Swim in Okanagan Lake – a gruelling event that featured nearly 1,200 swimmers in total.
At Sasamat, the Wave were led by Lawrence Lam, who won gold in the four-km race, and Theo Manley, who placed first in the two-km event. Ross Nicholson and Paul Scanlon also emerged from the water with silver medals, and Joanne Christopherson also found the podium with a bronze medal.
Susan Kirk, in the two-km event, and Heather Young, in the four-km race, also took part.
At the Across the Lake event, Manley, 62, was the top White Rock finisher, placing 125th overall with a time of 32 minutes, 55 seconds. Others to cross the finish line were Dianne Robinson (228th, 35:48), Scanlon (271st, 37.13), Greg Young (338th), Christopherson (386th), Nancy Waterman (477th), Karen McCreath (486th), Chris Jo – competing at the event for the first time (495th), Helen Raven (661st), and Heather Young, who swam alongside her mother for the entire distance, and both finished one minute faster than in 2016, according to Wave head coach Carole Gair.