Do you get ‘hangry’? Do you need that daily coffee fix?
Meet Shien and Pieter, who get ‘hangry’ if they don’t complete their daily swim just off Frankston beach. As they make their way from the boardwalk to the jetty and back, the couple get a few strange looks from dog walkers and anglers alike. That’s to be expected when they emerge from the thrashing waves in the middle of winter without wetsuits to protect them from the bitter cold.
Shien says she and Pieter enjoy the feel of the water on their skin, allowing them to truly interact with their surroundings. “You get to soak it all up if you’re not rugged up in a wetsuit,” she says. The only insulation they use is a cap made of wetsuit material to avoid brain freezes.
“I just gotta have my fix,” Shien says. “I know it sounds a little mad, but if I don’t swim I don’t feel right. I feel more relaxed after I’ve been in, and I can think clearly afterwards.”
Shien and Pieter have always swum and it’s been their daily ritual since 2005, when they met as members of the Dendy Icebergers in Brighton, swimming each morning rain, hail or shine.
“I did pool training every morning as I grew up but only started swimming properly in the ocean 15 years ago as I lived next to the beach in Brighton and felt I had to utilise it,” says Pieter.
So after swimming off Frankston every day for the past two and a half years, have they managed to create a local equivalent of the Dendy Icebergers? “No, no, it’s just us,” says Pieter.
These two crazy cats have no fear of the water or the cold, just a slight aversion to seaweed. Shien and Pieter occasionally see dolphins and rays, and it’s also become a habit to pick up rubbish on the beach as they head down to their spot with their three dogs.
Shien prefers long-distance swims, which have included Lake Argyle in the Kimberleys, the Rottnest Channel Swim, and the Bloody Big Swim from Frankston to Mornington. With Pieter paddling alongside her in a kayak and supplying her with snacks and water, Shien says she’s extremely lucky to have a partner who loves the water as much as she does.
“I swim long distances because I can. I love it; I end up meditating and zoning out.”
Shien is thinking about her next wave of challenges, including swimming down the Mornington Peninsula, crossing Cook Strait between New Zealand’s North and South islands, and swimming the 70km Queen Charlotte Track in the Marlborough Sounds.
“I’m a water baby,” she says. “It’s my happy place.”