Swimmers embrace the sea to tide over pool & pandemic blues

One of the few things thatthe coronavirus couldnot shut down was the sea, and for swimmers — who haven’t entered a pool since the first lockdown in March last year and the government still stubborn about not reopening them except for competitive athletes — plunges in the deep sea have created a new appreciation of Mumbai’s coastal waters, empowering swimmers physically, mentally and with social connectedness.

- Mohua Das

For a sport that was among the worst hit by the pandemic, devoted swimmers found a clever work-around to go freestyling and breast stroking in the sea at dawn or on moonlit nights in Juhu, Khar Danda or Gateway with help from local fishermen and coconut vendors. This hardy network of triathletes, endurance trainers, coaches and hobbyists who call themselves ‘Mumbai Sea Swimmers’ (MSS) have been championing the sport of open water swimming and is now have grown into a 500member community.

“After Covid hit and nobody had swum for six months with no possibility of entering a swimming pool anytime soon, it gave us an opportunity to start swimming sessions in the sea. In October 2020, we set up a website to reach a wider audience and the response was overwhelming,” said Mehul Ved, an IT engineer from Mulund who co-founded MSS with Minesh Babla, a businessman from Khar. “We had swum in Goa and Alibaug’s sea waters but never in Mumbai, a city with abundant beaches. Minesh suggested we take help of the local fishermen he knew in Khar Danda for our first sea swim in 2016.”