George Bjälkemo and Pontus Lindberg

Welcome to episode sixty-six of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We’re super stoked to have George Bjälkemo and Pontus Lindberg back on the show this week to chat about the film All the Way: The Making of Swimrun Champions. We think G & P are great and it was fun to connect with them.

More on this interview later in the show.

But before we get too far into this episode, this seems like a good time to announce that our first event of our “media company” LTBz Productions, is happening on Sunday, April 11th at 3:00PM EST. We will be hosting an Encore Premiere of All the Way for the U.S. audience that missed the Premiere a few weeks ago. Special guests G & P will be on after the film for a Q&A with the audience. Head over to lowtideboyz.com/alltheway for all the details.

Training Update

Training continues and we’ve been seeing a lot of improvement thanks to the swim coaching we’ve been getting from Tower26. If anyone is looking to give their swim training a jolt of energy, we definitely recommend their program. Swimrun practices are on the horizon and we’ll be heading back to Lake Sonoma for the first (of hopefully many) Swimrun adventures there. If you want to hear more about Tower26 check our episodes with Gerry Rodrigues, Founder of Tower 26, and Emma-Kate Lidbury and AMA style interview with Tower 26 coaches Megan Melgaard and Jim Lubinsk

Shoutouts

We have a shoutout-heavy episode this week so let’s get right to it. 

First, a big shoutout to Helene for her generous donation to our fundraiser for Wild Swimrun’s Wild Youth Initiative. If you heard last week’s episode then you know that we’ve raised enough funds for a second woman or girl to attend one of their amazing camps but we’re not satisfied with that. With Helene’s help, we’ve got a jump start on getting a third scholarship funded. You can donate to Wild Swimrun at lowtideboyz.com.

Next up, we have a combo shoutout for a great training crew from North Carolina. A group of eight of them are doing their first Swimrun at Lake James in a few weeks. (They were supposed to do the race last year to celebrate Chris’s 60th birthday, but COVID.) So best of luck Chris (and Happy 61st Birthday), Bob, Al, Bobby, Ryan, Kristen, Brian, and Bernard. Thanks for listening to the show and prepare to have an awesome time at Lake James! 

Finally, we wanted to give an extra special shoutout to Trista Mennen. She was recently selected to be a Wild Swimrun Ambassador and we can’t think of a better person to represent the inclusive spirit of Swimrun and the mission of Wild Swimrun to get more women and girls into the sport. Her enthusiasm is infectious and she’s personally gotten a small army of people to get super stoked on Swimrun. Thank you for everything that you’ve done and will do for the sport.

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is none other than Chipper’s brother, Michael. Chipper has been working on getting him super stoked on Swimrun and it’s working! Keep it up “Little Chipper!”

Bonus awards this week go to Bronwen and Greg from Team Boston Wet Sox for posting workouts while on their recent vacation to Puerto Rico. They ran in Chris’s hometown and swam in the ancestral waters (Ocean Park) where he learned to swim.

Make sure to join the LTBz Strava Club and get inspired by your fellow Swimrunners as they train all over the world.

This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)

We have a couple of updates to share this week.

ÖTILLÖ announced that all of their 2021 events are open for registration on raceid.com. We are already registered for Catalina so come join us. If you need more incentive than just hanging out with us in the back of the field...early bird registration is happening until April 13th so sign up early to save money.

Ladies, save the dates of May 15-16 for the next Wild Swimrun camp called Wild Day at Utö. Pretty sure everyone can figure out where the camp is being held. There’s more info on that coming soon so sign up for the Wild Swimrun newsletter to be the first to hear all the details.

The next registration price increases for Ödyssey Swimrun events Mackinac Island, Swimrun Ludington, and Swimrun Austin are happening on April 14th at midnight so make sure to sign up soon if you want to race AND save some money. Our sources (the Internet) tell us that Mackinac Island is already 50% sold out so let the FOMO take over and sign up soon! 

That’s it for this week. Feel free to email us to tip us off to any events or Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Updates

Our latest episode of Gear Talk with The Swimrun Labs is out. We do a full review of the Ark Sports KORP Wetsuit so check it out wherever you’re already listening to podcasts and stuff.

Speaking of gear, we were sitting in the idea lab (Chipper’s garage) and came up with something to help everyone buy, sell, or swag new and used gear. Check out our Swimrun Swapmeet Facebook Group and help find your used gear a new loving home.

Finally, mark your calendars to join us on Sunday, April 11th at 3:00 PM EST for an Encore Premiere of All the Way: The Making of Swimrun Champions for the U.S. audience that missed the World Premiere a few weeks ago. We will have a live Q&A with George and Pontus after the film. Head over to lowtideboyz.com/alltheway for all the details.

This Week’s Interview

We were super stoked to have George and Pontus back on the show to chat about the film All the Way. We discussed a lot of scenes from the film and dove deeper into their training for the World Championship, their positive attitude, and their relationship as friends and partners. We’ve said this before, but they are great ambassadors for Swimrun and they are really easy to root for.

You can follow G and P on Instagram here and here and their Kraken Swimrun training and fika (coffee) crew here.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star review. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback and/or suggestions. Finally, you can support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.