COFFS Harbour ocean swimmer Richie Goddard competed in the 10km South Head Roughwater 2025 Bondi to Watson’s Bay Sydney swim, coming in first for males without a wetsuit.
His time of 3 hours and 7 minutes gave him third place overall for males, and fifth place overall for a solo swimmer.
A regular winner of Coffs’ ocean swims, Goddard told News Of The Area that he was inspired to get the Roughwater “off my bucket list and make it a new and exciting challenge I have never done before”.
He prepared by going on an alcohol detox and having a full body shave.
“I absolutely love the feeling of the water gripping me.”
He tested himself with a 10km swim in the Coffs pool in January.
“Breaking it up doing 1km, resting 10 minutes, then doing it all again until I clocked up 10km in total.
“For mental preparation, it’s difficult to decide how to count out your distance.
“I tend to be a count down person, so instead of counting from one to goal, I start at the number of laps I have to do counting down to one.
“Tackling a 10km swim versus a swim a fifth of the distance, I had to remember it’s a marathon.
“With the preparation done since the start of the year, I knew that I had to rely on my muscle memory and race craft.
“When you’re swimming north from Bondi alongside the cliff faces it’s quite a picture that can only be seen from the water.
Goddard’s strategy was not going for “outright speed” but finding a groove and focusing on the next cliff edge.
“Along the coast you pass three lighthouses, then the fourth lighthouse is the turning point to go down into Sydney Harbour.”
Here he met “really rough water”.
With waves breaking, he dug into his race craft skills, which were to “see where the waves are breaking, don’t get bashed onto the rock wall or dive too low in the low depths”.
Having broken through the Heads, he set his sights on Centrepoint tower, with relief.
“The old timers say, ‘how you practice is how you play’.
“That’s too true. The amount of time you put into muscle memory, race craft and tactical planning, is the strategy.
“Asides from the oyster cuts, it felt good to finish.
“The last 12 months have thrown a few positive, but also challenging curve balls, so knowing I kept a promise to myself and finished the race was rewarding.”
By Andrea FERRARI
