Open Water Swimming in Ontario

Interested in clean fresh Ontario lake water, blue skies and bright sunshine or fingernails full of algae from the rocks you hit, weird numbers in white on your sunburnt shoulder for the next two weeks and water weeds for breakfast ???

Then come on out, this is the place for you this summer.

Contact the organizers or the MSO Registrar for more info.

Georgian Bay Swim - Meaford
Hosted by Georgian Bay Masters
Contact : Beth Whittall or Cheryl Blay
Ontario Championship 1 and 3 K.

The course is 500 metres long, so you swim out and back to complete 1 K or out and back 3 times for the 3 K. There is a 'beautiful' park adjacent to the bay and you can camp before and/or after the swim. The 'fantastic' post participation meal is provided by a local restaurant in Meaford. An easy 2 hour drive from Toronto.
 

This is what Georgian Bay looked like in the year 2000.

2002 News : Still not enough water :-(

Georgian Bay Masters miss all their friends who have visited Meaford over the years to particiapate in this event and they do plan to host the Georgian Bay Swim when (if ever) the water levels rise sufficiently.

St Marys Quarry - St Marys
Hosted by London Silver Dolphins
Contact : Bryan Finlay
Ontario Championsip 5 K

This is the grand daddy / grand mummy of open water swims in Ontario, well over a decade old now. The 5 kilometres is completed by swimming 11 laps of a triangular course. Easy viewing of the entire race and food afterwards.

2002 Update : The Swim is scheduled as usual September 8, 2002. You can check up on the the course, the history, the results and the entrants at Bryan's website.
 

St. Mary's 2000 Bryan Finlay after completing the 5K doing breast stroke (of course)

Technosport Open Water Swims - Meech Lake
Hosted by Technosport
Contact : Technosport
Technosport runs a 3K in July and a 4K in August.

Please note that these swims are outside of Ontario and therefore cannot be sanctioned by MSO. We continue to list these swims because most of the participants are Ontario Masters.

For more of this kind of swimming check out the Solo Swims of Ontario website or the Channel Swimming website.

And, as always there is a plethora of information from USMS : a calendar, a list of championships, the rules and a manual.

Photo credits : Barrie Malloch