On Saturday morning, July 15th, the ideal weather and warm water were perfect for an open water swim event. With over 35 boats lined up along the course providing safety “islands” to all the swimmers, even newcomers to open-water swimming felt comfortable.The swim went off smoothly and while many of NSC’s volunteers couldn’t see or hear the finishing swimmers at BYC, everyone felt happy and fulfilled after having finished a fun event.
The first 2 swimmers finishing the 3000m event were 17 year old Olivier Risk & 16 year old Jordan Schaepper finishing @37:09.5 & 37:10.6 minutes respectively. 1.1 seconds apart. (They hardly got wet!)
On behalf of the swimmers and the organizing committee for the Bring on the Bay Swim 2023, I want to thank you, the members, volunteers and the staff of NSC that made this charity event a success!
In summary, the statistics are –
- 661 swimmers registered
- 585 showed up, 418 for the 3000m & 167 for the 1500m swim
- We raised over $80,000 for Easter Seals, our biggest fundraising year
ever! - There were almost 110 members and guests on the 35+ anchored boats;
- over 55 kayaks, SUPs & canoes;
- 10 people in power boats;
- 2 drone operators and a videographer;
- an Ottawa Fire Services boat from Station 22;
- Councillor Theresa Kavanagh and a former Canadian Olympic gold medal winner, Linda Thom, supporting the event.
Hope everyone had fun! Here’s the drone footage of the 2023 swim.
Next year will bring major changes! We invite NSC members to join the organizing committee to enable Canada’s 2nd largest open water swimming event to continue. Stay tuned for more on this topic!
Meanwhile, on behalf of Easter Seals, our charity, the BOTB Organizing Committee, thanks again.
Until next year!
Submitted by Parke Davis
