We are a bunch of enthusiasts who love swimming in the open water. The idea of swimming at Khar started with one of the friend’s asking for open water practice before their triathlon race leading us to contact the fishermen at Khar Danda for feasibility of such a thing out there.
With a go-ahead from the local fishermen and the support provided by them, we have been able to organize regular swims at Khar Danda as per the availability of the fishermen.
Some important information for those who want to join:
- We don’t swim everyday, we do it only on days when fishermen are available and there are enough interested people.
- These are practice swims carried out by bunch of enthusiastic swimmers with varying levels of experience. It is not an organized competition or swimming training.
- We do have backup boats with experienced fishermen following a bunch of swimmers to ensure safety but we urge all participants to be careful and understand the risks that open water swimming entails.
- Prior open water swimming experience isn’t necessary, we have had enough people with no open water swimming experience join us. But, it it very important that you are well versed with swimming and comfortable doing atleast 1000 mts non-stop swim in the pool.
- Your safety is your own responsibility. There are no lifeguards or any life saving equipment. We do have boats with fishermen following each group but they do have their limitations and they are doing this on best effort basis.
- You are free to follow whatever style of swimming you prefer.
- On a given day, we gather at Khar Danda Bus Stop at 5:45 am and give a 15 minutes period for everybody to gather. We strictly move in at 6 am and get on to the boat. We head out to the desired start point, determined by the fishermen based on the tide for that day. We start the swim as soon as it is bright enough to be able to see the markers.
- There are no changing rooms at the venue, so people will have to wear their swimming clothes underneath and come over and put back their clothes over the swimming clothes after the swim. Also, the bags will be with us in the boat so ideally avoid carrying any valuables despite it being safe to carry in the boat as it increases overhead for everyone concerned.
- There are costs incurred by fishermen in terms of time, fuel and wear and tear of their boats. We compensate for that by diving the cost among all those present on a given day. The cost will come out to ₹200-₹400 per head depending on number of people who turn up and number of supporting boats brought in by the fishermen.
- If you have any queries contact Mehul on the number provided below, ideally whatsapp is the preferred medium. Since this is an activity we conduct just for satiating our desire for open water swimming, we can only respond back in our free time.