A trio of Special Olympics buddies have united for a summer series of ocean swimming competitions around the country.
There are seven races in the Ocean Series, kicking off with Swim the Shore at Auckland’s Takapuna Beach today.
The team, who have called themselves The Seals, hit the water six times a week with a mix of sessions in the sea and the pool.
Troy Rangi, one of the three competitors, says swimming in the ocean isn’t as easy as it looks.
“Ocean swimming is the hardest thing to do because the currents out there can be a bit rough, incoming tide or outgoing tide,” he says.
“We have to sight where we are going, where we are heading, what we are looking at.”
The seven races — three in Auckland, two in the Bay of Plenty and one each in Wellington and Christchurch — range in distance from two kilometres to five.
Rangi, 34, is convinced his stroke has been super-charged by his duties over 14 years as a trolley-tamer at Pak’nSave Albany in Auckland.
“It’s good for my fitness…It’s making my muscles stronger," he says.
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