Swimming 1,500 Sundays in the ocean
Greg Trythall
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I was fortunate that my parents took me down as a young boy from our inner-city suburb of Footscray to their favourite beach at Williamstown back in the 1950’s. Now I feel more than fortunate to be the Catholic Parish Priest of Williamstown these last 14 years. Indeed, the ocean salt water has been like a good sister that was not born into my immediate family, as only two boys were born into our Trythall family of Footscray. The sea has nourished me with its beauty, it has greatly enhanced my health and like a good sister it has rarely let me down over the years. I was pleasantly surprised to find my parents shifted to Parkdale, not far from the beach, while I was in the middle of my two-year National Service army call up from 1968-1970. Without fully appreciating it over the years I have been blessed by swimming A-Z in this world during my 77 years on this earth. [A] being Anglesea in my previous parish as a Catholic priest, and [Z] being Zeally Bay in the same parish appointment, right next to Torquay front beach, where I ran along and swam for many years while being Parish Priest of Grovedale, Torquay and Anglesea. Without any background swimming technique or any real swimming ability I have managed somehow to not only swim over 1500 Sundays in a row, (achieving the magic 1500 Sundays on August 18th, 2024) and somehow during past years managed to swim the 1200 metres of the Lorne Pier to Pub in 1989 and 1990.
One could get carried away with the danger of the ocean, such as my needing to be rescued by a lifesaver in a secret
rip off a Newcastle beach in 1977, or being alerted by a passing helicopter “Shark, Shark, Shark” that there was a sizeable shark very close to me in the water just under the Byron Bay Lighthouse. as I swam innocently there alone one early Sunday morning in 2018 on annual holidays.
Nevertheless, in perspective the ocean has given me nothing but joy and good health even though one could certainly do without the 9 degrees coldest of temperatures at Williamstown Beach in August. In my lucky life I have swum in the Black Sea, the Red Sea and the Dead Sea. But it is hard to say I swam in the Dead Sea as one mainly floats with the salt content around 27%!
I believe knowing what one is capable of, and acting on that for one’s general health can be the difference between thriving and just coping with one’s own particular vocational calling. To me my vocation just happens to be priesthood, but at the very least I can understand that God gave many of us the benefits of sea water to help us keep the best
of health and even with that greater happiness. Accordingly, given some reflection opportunities on annual holidays in Byron Bay in my late 40’s, I came to the decision I needed to get back to some more serious running and swimming. I decided to make the effort to try to swim 10 Sundays in a row before the Sunday Mass at Torquay so that I might form a habit.
I understood physical benefits are only achieved by first making a habit. Once started and found beneficial, the habit can become part of one’s life. For me it was running above the Torquay Front Beach 3 times a week on the grass and on a Sunday, Wednesday and Friday to swim in the ocean immediately afterwards. Although I did that most Wednesdays and Fridays, I made sure there was a non-negotiable day and that was the Sunday which I started on the 2nd Sunday of November 1994. In May 2003 I left Australia for six months Sabbatical Leave and had already much to my surprise notched up 443 Sunday swims in a row! When I was about to return to Australia from my first sabbatical leave, I realized that I had not missed any Sunday swims while in Australia since that second Sunday of November 1994. Rightfully, I could continue that unbroken streak back on Australian soil.
Since then, I have had Sabbatical Leave overseas in 2010 and 2019 when I enjoyed two ancient and very beautiful pilgrimage walks through France: the first one, 800 kms, and then the next one 1000 kms. Back in Australia I have never missed that Sunday swim these last 30 years and Sunday August 18th was the culmination of 1500 in a row which makes me even shake my head in disbelief. The first 10 were difficult with colder water, but I never thought I would get to a 100, certainly not a 1000 or 1500. This has meant a lot of help from above. I have stayed completely healthy and God, I believe, has answered my initial prayer made during a Byron Bay holiday 30 years ago that I would find something which would help me retain enthusiasm in my own calling in life for the years to come.
Although I never needed a wetsuit in years gone by, these days I appreciate the help of the Short John wetsuit and the help of the two caps on the head, plus in the coldness of winter the help of gloves! It was not mainly about my own self-discipline, but more in religious terms God’s Holy Spirit leading me down a personal path which would have been madness for me not to follow as I have discovered over the years.
I was fortunate on being appointed to Grovedale in 1992 as it had within its borders arguably the greatest surf beaches in the whole of my own Melbourne Archdiocese.
Although there was a little more pressure, besides the ever-growing Torquay within the parish boundaries including Bell’s Beach, I was more than happy to take on Anglesea parish in 2004 as an extra workload. This turned out to be another Godsend as not only the people there were great, swimming at Port Roadnight in Anglesea before Saturday night Mass turned out to be a real bonus as it was not only a top beach, but it kept my health at an even higher level. I was doubly fortunate to have been appointed in 2010 to Williamstown.
It was not only the best beach in the western suburbs but the beach where my parents took me as a primary school child when we lived nearby in Footscray.
If all the cards fall my way in three years’ time, I hope at 80 years of age, to retire in Williamstown and besides golfing twice a week at Kooringal Golf Club with friends, I hope I can keep the friendship of the “Dolphins,’ the 25 or so men and women who swim early of a morning at Williamstown Beach around 7am. They form a group of not only good friendly people, but also equally self-disciplined as me for their own health benefits.
My 1000 Sunday swims in a row came on 28 December 2014. It was a beautiful sunny day, and a nice crowd of parishioners came down to our local Williamstown Surf and Life Saving Club to support me on reaching an unusual milestone! Now with gratitude and pride I swam out to the first buoy at Williamstown Beach with a few others at 4pm August 18th 2024 to achieve that next milestone. On that cold August morning in Melbourne spectators were able to enjoy coffee in a local favourite kiosk next to the Life Saving Club at Williamstown.
The ability to thrive and be enthusiastic in priesthood has been the truly important to me. For most people habits like swimming or walking are not an end in themselves, but you can neglect the physical side at your own peril!
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