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Leura Kowald

2026 Summer Ocean Swim

My Activity Tracking

29
kms

My target 2 kms

I'm supporting cancer research and the health of people in Australia 

Roughly 1 in 2 of us will receive a cancer diagnosis in our lifetime. This is a statistic that we need to change. 

So, I've decided to take on a personal challenge with the support of CanToo, to raise funds along the way that could be life-changing. From supporting the ongoing health promotion work CanToo provides, to funding incredible, innovative early-career cancer researchers.

We desperately need to find more solutions to cancer, from prevention, to treatment, and ultimately a cure. Please support me on my journey with CanToo by donating to my fundraising page today!

Thank you for your support!

 

Donate today to help me reach my goal

Raised

$1,365

My Goal

$1,200

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My Updates

Week 9

Friday 16th Jan
This week hasn't gone to plan in terms of training..

Monday i had an appointment for my regular skin cancer checks... well unfortunately they found a few precancerous spots to freeze off and one to biopsy (waiting results) so hopefully its all good. But this ment i was told not to swim for a few days and try to keep out the sun as much as possible. 

We ran the Elouera Surf Awareness Clinic this week so I was busy doing that all week walking on the sand but no swimming. 

Tomorrow Saturday 17th training at Elouera has been cancelled with the predicted heavy rainfall,  14ft surf with 10second intervals. 

Instead ill head to the local pool and do a few laps, almost a week since the biopsy by then so close enough ;)

Week 8, post Christmas holidays.

Saturday 10th Jan
Over the Christmas and New Year holidays I had a little holiday break to New Zealand where I found some lovley spots to have a swim in like the Viaduct in Auckland, lots and lots of laps in hotel pools or random gyms. The weird thing in NZ was most pools were 20m, or 33m which really mucked up my lap counting so I have no idea how far I swam. My friend and I also did LOTS of walking and exploring so most days were a minimum 20k steps in a day, often over 30k steps which really helped my fitness - so many hills!

I missed the Monday pool session first week back as I was still overseas,  but I did make today's ocean swim. It was already over 30 degrees C at 7.30am. We dove in at Elouera, swam north to Wanda surfclub,  then swam all the way south to Cronulla Surf club before swimming back again to Elouera SLSC. I estimated it to be about 2.8km or so swim. By far the most I have swum! Usually im exhausted by the time we get to Cronulla and I have to walk back. The idea of walking back bare foot was enough motivation today to swim all the way back to Elouera. It was far too hot to walk by 10am! 

Stoked even with 2 weeks of interrupted training to achieve a solid distance!

Week 7. Last week before Christmas break

Saturday 20th Dec
Monday night i was still exhausted from the vertigo last Saturday.  It wiped me out for most of the weekend.  I did the session but i was well behind and oftener struggled with the last part of some of the sets. But.. I turned up, did what I could and that was the best I could do at the time. It did help for the swim today.

Saturday was a beautiful flat day at the beach. The North Cronulla Christmas Surf Boat Carnival was on at Elouera so we swam way around the bouys and watched the boats from the water. 
It was a good day with rabbit and greyhound drills and pacing the swimming at 75%, 90%, 100% effort to push ourselves at different sprints. 

Today we also joined the 2 minuites of silence standing shoulder to shoulder on the beach, remembering the Bondi attack last weekend.

Week 6.

Saturday 20th Dec
Missed the Monday night swim this week, it was Jared's birthday so we went out for dinner. I was also away for work for the week so I didnt manage to squeeze a swim in at all in the pool. . . Not great. 


Sunday we swam from Elouera to Wanda, then continued further north for another couple hundred meters before turning back. The swell was challenging. The waves were pretty big, even out the back a rouge wave would break early. On the way back to Elouera I started to get vertigo in the water swimming. I think i had only swum about 1.2-1.5km. I couldn't figure out where I was going and the wonderful water safety girls stayed with me and signalling the jetski who took me back to the beach. Thank you to Chris, Debbie and also the Burns who kept me safe and got me back on the sand safely! 

I didnt even know who was around me  but everyone checked up and made sure I was ok. Its supporting groups like this that make the surfclubs such inclusive places. 

Week 5

Saturday 20th Dec
Monday was a good consistent pool session. We did some distance swimming, 200m warmup and i did a 600m swim. Then had our social pub night to celebrate being close to half way through the program.

Saturday was a tough swim. We walked up to Wanda and swam down to Cronulla Surf club. Each beach we did ins and outs at the flags, I skipped one as I was feeling tired but made the rest. My swim was approximately 2.3-2.4km. Then it was a stroll back to Elouera,  the longer distance group swam back as well doing close to 4km! It gave me the confidence I can make the distance,  but I was also so far behind the longer distance swimmers and just plodding along at my own pace.

Week 4.

Saturday 29th Nov
Had a great pool training session and managed to swim about 1.6km in the hour and a half! Lots of drills and a few 200m sets meant we got some solid pool distance in but also felt more fun. 

The beach session was lovley.  Warmer water,  calm morning this morning and we just swam, not many ins and outs. Just staying out the back..
 I swam about 2.2k! Saw stingrays and fish as we went. I was pretty slow but kept the constant swimming going and had very few rests.  

Week 3.

Saturday 29th Nov
Week three was a tough week in the ocean! 

The rips and currents were really strong and Elouera Beach was closed. We walked down to Cronulla surfclub where its usually more protected but even Cronulla beach wasnt open yet. Last option for training was the rock pools. They were like a washing machine! The surf was high crashing over the pools and sucking back out. It was a push to swim parallel to the waves in the pools but the group got a few laps in.  

After that the Cronulla Beach lifeguards opened the beach and we managed one in and out. The lateral beach currents were so strong I couldn't swim against them to even stay in one spot. In the end it was a very tough 750m session. Shortest ocean session to date.. but by far the roughest! 

Wk2.

Monday 17th Nov
This week was hard, I had another last minute work trip which meant I had to miss the group Monday night pool training session. The positive side was I was in Mudgee Monday night and made enough time to get 30min to go to the pool after work and before dinner. I got 500m in and being such a quiet pool I could swim continuously. 

I didnt get a second pool swim in this week with travel and meetings on for the surfclub after work. 

Saturday night we had a fitness training beach session.  Two hours of ins and outs through the surf break. Lucky it was fairly small surf again with 1-3 foot waves but as the tide was going out the back sandbank really made the waves start to stand up. The estimate distance for this session was 2.1km!  Next week I need to step up and make sure I get atleast two pool sessions and that they are both over 1km each time. 

Wk1. Day 2. Beach session

Saturday 8th Nov
Today was a tough day, its been one 13 years since I have had the confidence to swim properly in the ocean. The water was so cold when we first got in it catches your breath.  After a few ins and outs to warm ourselves up it got a little easier. 

We swam out far enough to line up with the three pines at Cronulla club and back again  the equivalent distance to the first bouy on the 2.3km Shark Island Swim.  It got me thinking back trying to remember when I last did the Shark Island Swim. Officially I did it once, The 1km swim when I would have been 16, I finished top 5 for the 16-19yo age bracket back then. My 1km time was 18m 20s in 2005. Part of the struggle of swimming post injuries was the difficulty of doing something I used to love... being in the water. 

Super happy to have finished today knowing i managed to swim 1.3km in the ocean with only two pool swims for training this week. Now I know I can do it, its time to start to focus on breathing and my missing techniques.

Wk 1. Day 1. Pool

Monday 3rd Nov
Tonight was a bit of a washout. A really heavy electrical storm rolled through right at the start of the training session. Plenty of time for introducing ourselves and to ask questions. 

We did manage to get about 20min of training in at the end once the lightning passed which meant we were able to do the baseline 200m swim and tread water for 1min. I learnt that I'm much slower then I realised,  but i did manage to swim the 200m, even if it took five and a half minutes!  Gotta start somewhere.  

Deciding to sign up

Sunday 2nd Nov
It wasnt a hard decision to sign up to a challenge like CanToo. Its a great charity promoting healthy lifestyles and raising much needed funds towards cancer research.  

Im sure nearly everyone knows someone who has been affected by cancer in their life. It is now estimated that one in two people will have a cancer diagnosis by the age of 85!  CanToo funds research into the prevention and treatment of cancer, so far funding over 160 research programs in 20 years. 

I have joined the ocean swim program to push myself back into a healthier lifestyle, to get back to ocean swimming I haven't been able to do since 2013 due to past major injuries. Will you support me and support CanToo's research and make a donation?

Thank you to everyone who has made a donation towards my goal

$54.12

Kerry Piper

Good on you Leura! Great effort for a great cause!

$54.12

Gracy Prestin

Well done Leura!

$22.58

Virginia Lewis

You go girl.

$106.12

Fiona Mcmahon

Great work Leura! You’re doing something for an excellent cause.

$25

Kut And Alice

Good on you for taking up this huge challenge! All the best, we'll be watching from afar for your updates.

$54.12

Brian Whitwell

Dear Leura - all the best fundraising for this wonderful cause. Love Brian and Linda

$54.12

Catherine

You go girl!

$211

Anonymous

Proud of you Leura

$106.12

Doreen Stuart

$106.12

Heather Stusrt

Good cause

$106.12

Rod Stuart

From an 85 year old with cancer !!!

$54.12

Yvonne

Way to go Leura good luck. ❤️

$100

Ellen And Jack

Donation to start and we will add $s every annoying beach update photo we get of you swimming

$100

Jared

Great work Leura, train hard and you'll smash it!

$211

Leura Kowald

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