North Shore series challenges swimmers

By Michael Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

Brett Phillips swims at Kailua Beach to prepare for the North Shore series. A former college competitor, he returned to racing after 20 years. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser North Shore Swim Series schedule All races start at 9 a.m. Saturday: Raging Isle Sprint — one mile from Sunset Beach to 'Ehukai Beach Park. Late entries are still being accepted. July 12: Surf & Sea Cup — one mile at Hale'iwa Beach Park. Entry deadline July 4. July 26: Cholo's 2000 Swim — 2,000-meter triangular course at Waimea Bay. Entry deadline: July 18. Aug. 9: Surf & Sea Challenge — 2.3 miles from 'Ehukai Beach Park to Waimea Bay. Entry deadline: Aug. 1. Entry fee: $25 per race until deadline; $35 for late entries through race day. Information: 638-8173, 256-3957, hawaiiswim.com. Getting in shape for open ocean Several local swim organizations use the summer and early-fall months to provide training in open ocean swimming. The UH Masters Swimming program is using June to focus on the conditioning, swimming skills, strategy and pacing swimmers need to complete long-distance ocean races. For more information, visit www.uhmastersswimming.com. For information on other masters swimming programs in Hawai'i, visit www.hawaiimastersswim.org. The Waikiki Roughwater Swim Committee starts its annual series of roughwater swim clinics Saturday at Sans Souci Beach. For information, visit waikikiroughwaterswim.com/ clinics.html.

For Joe Lileikis, it's a turn from Shark's Cove into a heart-stirring expanse of sapphire blue.

For amateur triathlete Cassie Schaeffer, it's the feel of her body rising and falling with the waves while her mind drifts to other races in other waters.

And for Brett Phillips, it's a chance to prove — if only to himself — that a swimmer once is swimmer always, regardless of what the years might do to a body.

The series is made up of four open-ocean races in the waters off O'ahu's North Shore. The races are staged every other Saturday, starting with the one-mile Raging Isle Sprint Saturday and finishing with the 2.3-mile Surf & Sea Challenge on Aug. 9.

"They're great races," said John Flanagan, a former series champion. "The North Shore in the summertime is just beautiful — clear, flat, great atmosphere. You really don't see this type of series anywhere else."

In addition to individual race winners (overall and age group), overall series winners determined by cumulative times also are recognized. Two years ago, Phillips won the overall series title by virtue of his strong finishes in all four races.

"I have yet to win ... (an individual) race outright," Phillips said. "And I don't think I ever will. But I'm consistent."

Phillips, 45, is no stranger to success in the water. He was a standout swimmer at Kailua High School and the University of Wisconsin, where he was a Big 10 champion in 400 meters.

But for some 20 years after his collegiate career ended, Phillips stayed away from competitive swimming. It wasn't until 2001 that Phillips began competing in earnest again. He said it took him nearly a year to get back into form.

Yet, even now, he isn't truly in top form. Phillips — who holds one world record and three national records in the 40-to-44 age group — won the 2001 North Shore Swim Series with a ruptured disc in his neck that eventually required surgery. He underwent another operation in 2001 for a shoulder injury. This year, it's tendinitis in his right elbow that's giving him problems.

"I'll just try to get through the first race and see what happens," said Phillips, whose daughter, Christine, is one of the favorites to win the women's division this year.

Though Phillips generally does his best work in a pool, he said, he enjoys the North Shore series because of its natural beauty and the challenge of competing in dynamic ocean conditions.

He's especially fond of the Surf & Sea Challenge, the longest race of the series.

"The shorter ones are pretty much a mad dash with a lot of frantic flailing," he said. "The long one allows for more strategy. There's more of a slow build, and you have to be in shape. It really separates the men from the boys."

Phillips said he much prefers the Surf & Sea Challenge to the more high-profile Waikiki Roughwater Swim, which is roughly the same distance.

"There's more crowd control with this race," he said. "The Roughwater is just a sea of humanity. This one is so much nicer, and so much more fun."

(The Roughwater attracts about a thousand participants every year; the North Shore series averages about 400 people per race.)

Still, a lot of people love to do both. For many, the summer series is a great way to tune up for the Roughwater in September.

Lileikis, an instructor for the UH Masters Swimming program, said that about half of his hundred-plus swim students expect to do at least one of the North Shore series races. Many of those also plan on doing the Roughwater.

"We try to prepare people for the conditions they'll see out on the course," he said. "There's always an element of surprise possible with the weather, currents and the surf, but with preparation you can handle these with more confidence."

Indeed, while most of the races stay relatively close to shore — that is, within moderate distance for the average swimmer — it does take a level of comfort with the ocean to appreciate the sapphire blue depths that Lileikis sees when the ocean floor disappears near Shark's Cove during the Surf & Sea Challenge.

"It's beautiful," Lileikis said.

Cassie Schaeffer can't wait to see for herself. The amateur triathlete from Kane'ohe has competed in the one-mile and 2,000-meter races as a way to get over her fear of open ocean swimming. This year, she plans on entering the 2.3-mile race.

"I really wouldn't think of swimming the North Shore by myself," she said. "But I feel safer knowing there's lifeguards and stuff watching everything."

Schaeffer said she often pretends she's in the first stage of an Ironman triathlon when she does these ocean races.

"It gets me motivated," she says. "I really, really want to do Kona one day and to do that, I have to get comfortable swimming (in the) ocean for long distances and being comfortable.

"That's why this series is so cool. The way it's scheduled, you get to test your skills in real race conditions, and you can make adjustments from race to race."