Swim Challenges

Swim Challenges

We heard you were keen for a challenge, so here we are!

With swims covering as little as 14km to epic journeys over 337km there is a distance and location for everyone. Browes through our swims below and find a distant and location you wish to swim and jump on in.

Download you swim challenge tracking sheet and get lapping!

Remember to drop off your completed tracking sheet at the Aqualife receptions for a chance to win some amazing Aqualife and swim school merchandise.

Strait of Gibraltar 14.4km or 288 laps

From Spain to Morocco, we are taking on another major water. Swimming the distance of the only natural link between the Atlantic ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, the Strait of Gibraltar.

Be sure to track your journey through this natural hot-spot, and keep your eyes peeled for the abundance of marine life, such as your fellow lap swimmers with their fins and reflective goggles.

With only 14.4km of swimming to conquer, this challenge is the smallest of our series, meaning that this month, there are absolutely no excuses!

Strait of Gibraltar

Lake Clifton 15km or 300 laps

Just over an hour south of Perth, you will find the incredible Lake Clifton.

Lake Clifton is famous for housing the Southern Hemispheres largest collection of Thrombolites, dating back 2000 years. These rock-like formations are thought to be one of the first lifeforms on Earth, with evidence of their existence approximately 570 million years ago.

Before planning your weekend getaway, spend the month of September at Aqualife swimming the 15km distance of Lake Clifton. What a feeling to experience Yalgorup National Park in-person knowing that you could swim the whole lake if you wanted to!

Lake Clifton

Maui Channel Swim 15.2 km or 304 laps

I’m not sure about you, but a tropical island getaway sounds like a wonderful time right about now...

Well look no further! Sure it’s not Hawaii itself but, in our very own lap pool, you can map your journey between the Island of Lanai through to the Island of Maui in the now widely recognised Maui Channel Swim. If you let your goggles fog up enough, you wouldn’t even know the difference!

Track the 15.2km and become one of the first solo swimmers to complete the challenge (it’s a relay race, but you don’t need to explain that in your victory speech).

Join the Hawaiian legends, experience a slice of island paradise and join in with the challenge!

Maui channel

Tsugaru Strait 19.5km or 390 laps

We’re crossing international waters with a challenge that will see you swimming the 19.5km distance between Honshu and Hokkaido in Japan. This strip of water connects the Pacific Ocean with the Sea of Japan.

Tracking and logging your lap swimming, and finish it off with some well deserved R&R with all the wonderful treats Japan has to offer.

Tsugaru Strait

Rotto Swim 19.7km or 394 laps

Alongside Perth’s elite open water swimmers, we are tackling the biggest swim event WA has to offer! The Race to Rotto will see you tracking the distance from the shores of Cottesloe beach straight across to our Quokka island paradise 19.7km offshore.

Have you been one of those ‘one day’ heroes?

Leave that behind and get the glory you deserve (without the sharks and stingers).

The Rotto Swim

Lap of Rotto 24km or 480 laps

Spend your time swimming the Rottnest Island challenge that tacks an extra 4km onto the Rotto Swim! 

Track your way around Rottnest Island, moving through the incredible coastline. If that’s not enough to tempt you, just think, the next time you visit, you can watch the leisurely paddlers and know that you, in all your elitist glory, could lap the whole dang island should you choose to.

Lap of Rotto

Cook Strait 26km or 520 laps

We’re tackling something a little closer to home. Our beloved Kiwi counterparts would be thrilled to know that you are attempting to swim the distance between the North and South island of New Zealand, the Cook Strait.

With 26km between the two (or 520 laps for those playing at home), you can map your way across one of the world’s roughest stretches of water. Home to the ‘Roaring Fourties’ westerly wind belt, here at Aqualife, you can relax knowing that you’ll be avoiding the mountain-induced wind tunnel BUT still achieving all the glory of swimming the Strait.

 What are you waiting for?

Cook Straight

Messiniakos Gulf in Greece 30km or 600 laps

Anyone else vicariously living through the 20-somethings and their European summers? Experience a touch of that Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants magic by swimming the Messenian Gulf in Greece!

Enjoy the white buildings (of Aqualife Administration), the crystal blue waters (expertly maintained by our lifeguards) and however much hummus your heart desires (I am sure there’s some in the vending machine), with your very own Grecian getaway.

After 30km of laps, your exercise-endorphin delirium might convince you that you are well and truly swimming the Greek islands!

Messiniakos Gulf

Catalina Channel 32.5km or 650 laps

California here we come…

This month we heading South of Los Angeles to the wonderful holiday hotspot of Santa Catalina. Alongside the palm trees and cabanas you will be making your splash by starting the journey from Santa Catalina straight across the channel to San Pedro on the Cali-coastline.

With 32.5km to tick off, you will be ready for a coconut and cocktail on your arrival back to California mainland!

Catalina Channel

English Channel 34km or 680 laps

Get ready to find yourself listed on a swim that has it’s very own Wikipedia Page. A swim SO famous that there’s a formal observation and authentication team waiting for you at the finish line.

You are taking on the English Channel.

One of the busiest water channels in the world, with wildly unpredictable tidal patterns, this challenge definitely earns its challenge title. Knowing that when a successful channel swimmer is broadcast, you can absolutely, evidently, swim that far (you’d just prefer to do it somewhere a little warmer).

English Channel

 Loch Ness 35.4km or 708 laps

Travelling to the heart of the Scottish Highlands, the Glen Mor, to take on the world-renowned Loch Ness Lake. With tales dating back to the 7th Century, this lake is famous for its mystical monsters and mysterious happenings.

If you are up to the challenge, spend this Halloween season in the depths of Loch Ness, swimming amongst pike, eels, and the infamous Nessie monster, along the 35.4km stretch of lake.

Lock Ness

Lap of Manhattan Island 46km or 920 laps

Do you want to be a part of it? Watch those small town blues fade away…

Make your way to the city that never sleeps, New York City. Famous for it’s terrible traffic, expensive real-estate and it’s truly incredible hustle and bustle, Aqualife Swim School are challenging our patrons to spend the month of April swimming right in the very heart of it!

Tracking 46km this month will see you kicking off from Battery Park City and cruising your way through the Island’s channels. Imagine staring at that famous skyline with the knowledge that you SWAM AROUND IT.

Start spreading the news, you’re leaving today…

Lap of Manhattan

Panama Canal 82km or 1640 laps

We are heading to one of the 7 Wonders of the Modern World, the Panama Canal. Separating the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, this engineering miracle has already seen over 900,000 vessels cruising through its waters.

With only 82km to cover, this challenge is the smallest of our Large Swim Challenge series, meaning that this month, there’s NO room for excuses!

We can’t promise flights to Panama but we can say that there’s a sweet deal if you’re a lucky winner…

Panama Canal

USA to Russia 88.5km or 1770 laps

We are cruising between 2 of the major political superpowers of the world, USA and Russia. With 88.5km of distance between them, you can brave the freezing cold waters off the coast of Alaska to make your journey to Russia’s Eastern shores.

Or, if being a human popsicle and an Orcha’s afternoon snack is not your thing, you are welcome to track the distance by swimming 1770 laps worth of water in the comfort of the Aqualife pool.

USA to Russia

Lap of the Isle of Wight 90km or 1800 laps

We heard from a local that the English Channel swim was far too easy for a real competitor, so we are cranking it up this time, with a lap of the Isle of Wight.
Sticking with the English Channel, swimmers this month can enjoy a leisurely 90km lap of the island.
Renowned for the dinosaur remains on the island, count your laps and enjoy the knowledge that you too, are etching your own piece of history.

Isle of Wight

Lake Michigan 96.5km or 1930 laps

We’re heading to the home of the brave and free to swim in one of the World’s ‘Great Lakes’ and one of the biggest bodies of freshwater in the United States of America.

To complete the Lake Michigan Swim Challenge, you will need to track 96.5km.

Lake Michigan

Bass Strait 97.4km or 1948 laps

This time we are taking the gnarliest part of the Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race to swim the 97.4km between Victoria and Tasmania. Renowned for the rough seas, we are calling you to rock the boat this month and push yourself to tick this challenge off!

Tammy van Wisse made the swim in 17hours and 46minutes, and not a single soul has attempted it since. So, this month, earn your place on a very small list of Bass-Strait Swimmers and come join us!

Bass Strait

Avon Descent 124km or 2480 laps

Staying a bit closer to home to experience all of the adventure and none of the risk of the incredible 2-day race, the Avon Descent. Each year, competitors flock to Northam to begin the 124km journey to Bayswater, with ricer conditions varying from Grade 1 to Grade 4. It is, by all accounts, an absolute thrill.

Using your tracker, you can swim the distance of the Avon Descent in the comfort of our very own heated, cleaned and monitored pool. Get those legs moving to create your own whitewash and join in the adventure! 

Avon Descent

Lake Eyre 144km or 2880 laps

We’re getting salty this time and keeping it semi-local by cruising across to South Australia to the incredible Lake Eyre. Spend your time doing something you normally cannot do, lapping the 144km stretch of salt lake! Avoid the mud, the crisp salt crust and any skin irritations from the intensely salty water, by completing this swim in the comfort of the Aqualife Centre.

Sure we can’t offer you a pink pool, but with Lake Eyre having only filled four times in the last hundred years, you’re chances of getting a solid swim in are far better with us!

Lake Eyre

Cuba to Florida 177km or 3540 laps

Summer is coming to Aqualife early this year as we send our distance swimmers to the Caribbean paradise of Cuba. With crystal blue waters covering the coast, it’s no surprise that, we are tempting our swimmers to make the distance from Cuba’s coastline across to the land of sunshine, sandy beaches and cocktails, Florida, USA. 

This section of the Florida Strait stretches 177km, making this month’s longer challenge a cracker for any swimmer keen enough to give it a try! 

Following your 3540 laps of the 50m pool, you will be more than deserving of a Caribbean holiday of your very own, or a prize pack at the very least!

Florida to Cuba

Suez Canal 193.3km or 3866 laps

We are walking like an Egyptian this time and jetting off to lap the Suez Canal. This artificial waterway connects the Mediterranean and Red Sea, creating a degree of separation between the continents of Africa and Asia.

The impressive amount of cargo that moves through this waterway makes it unsuitable for swimming, but this time, we’re bringing the adventure to you! Follow the map and document your distance, tracking 193.3km from Port Said through to the Suez Port to be in the running for Swim Challenger.

Suez Canal

Swan-Avon River 280km or 5600km

For the eager swimmers, this challenge will have you travelling through the famous aquatic landmark of our city, the Swan River.

Stretching for 280km, the Swan-Avon River meanders through the Wheatbelt region to the arts hub of Perth, Fremantle. You’ll be starting your adventure South-East of Pingelly, near Wickepin, in the salt lake, Lake Yealering. Through your Aqualife tracker, you can map out your journey through townships such as Brookton, York, Northam, and Toodyay. With a well-earned finish in the Freo harbour.

There will be no greater brag than sitting by the Swan River with some mates, knowing and sharing that you could swim the entire distance.

Swan-Avon River

Thames River 298km or 5960 laps

Heading to the place that birthed the Beatles and that made breakfast tea a standard. The land of the monarchy and the home ground of true royalty (Harry Styles and the Spice Girls).

We are heading to the UK to swim the 298km distance of the Thames River. Stretching throughout the South of England, this challenge will have you tracking distances from Kemble through to the Southend Pier. With a whopping 298km to go, there’s no time to spare! Grab your tracker and start logging your laps.

Thames River

Lake Victoria 337km or 6740 laps

We’re taking a walk on the wild side this month and making our way to Africa to visit the famous Lake Victoria. Let the large populations of hippopotamus and crocodile inspire your pace, as you track the phenomenal 337km from top to bottom.

Luckily for you, there’s no real danger here at Aqualife, other than the risk of losing out on our monthly Swim Challenger prize, so be sure to drop your tracker into the centre!

Lake Victoria

 

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