Samoa’s warm tropical waters have never been so busy as the South Pacific’s keenest open water swimmers took to the ocean in a series of open water swim meets.

Aquatic celebrations kicked off with an Independence Day Celebration Swim in June, led by AUS AID Surf Lifesavers Emily Cox and ErinDoyle who kept a close eye on the participants while providing much needed coaching and support.

The Independence Celebrations Swim was quickly followed by the Motor 1 Swim Series with the youngest participants coming in at the tender age of 9 years old!

There will be five more swims for the Motor 1 programme and it is expected that this will be a warm up event to the inaugural SamoaSwim Series event which starts on the 24th of July and finishes on the 26th and will cover all types of waterscapes including reef,waterfall and lagoon.  In addition to the growing number of local participants, an expected 80 participants from Australia and New Zealand are expected to join the three day event.

Open to locals, visitors amateurs and pros, the swim series is a fun event for open water swimmers to come together in fitness while promoting water safety practices and environmental awareness in Samoa.

Many of the local participants have trained for this event at the nation’s premier sporting facilities located at the Samoa Sports Centre in Apia.  Considered one of the best in the South Pacific and built in 2007 for the South Pacific Games, it houses state of the art facilities for swimming, diving, rugby, volleyball, cricket and weight lifting.