What is the measure of a great swim? Challenge? Distance? Surroundings? Conditions? Pace? Companionship? Tactical suss? Opportunity to give back? The inaugural 14-km Aweh-lets-swim Kromme, the non-stop, top-to-bottom, do-it-in-one-go that took place on Saturday 27 September, 2025, had it all, and had it in spades, by the bucketload.
And what an awesome swim, starting at a kind farmers grass patch at the top of the estuary, 43 swimmers set off in four batch starts, with the winner crossing the line at the paddling club in the St Francis Canals some 3 hours 15 minutes later. Conditions were as close to perfect as you would want, sand banks and dredging operations changing the channel kept it interesting, and the (never-ending) canals at the end tested resolve, the place where most had to dig a little deeper. But the tidal push, the accompanying paddlers, the mid-way ferry with sliced oranges, the lifeguards on their malibu’s, the chocolate milk and crowd at the finish all helped ease the delicious pain a little.
Runners may consider the 42-km marathon as their measure, cyclists may point to 180-km as their benchmark, and Ironman competitors may hold up the 3,8km swim start as the most tough of their three stages, but swimming 14 kilometres (8,7 miles) in one go is the stuff of legends. One day when I grow up… stuff.
And for the inaugural full Kromme, many a story was created in its waters to add to the legend. Jonathan Lewis from Sedgefield used the swim to raise over R18,000 for the House Under Grace (HUG) safe home for kids and others. Mad Swimmer, a swimming charity (who’s Knysna 14-km inspired Awehness Tours to partner with them on this swim) their 15 swimmers raised close to R7,000 for their charity. Development paddlers from Sea Vista and development lifesavers from Nelson Mandela Bay got to stretch their wings alongside the swimmers. Sam Smith, our youngest competitor, and uniped swimmer Gavin Smith, you guys were an inspiration.. It was Herman van der Westhuizen’s (the first male home) inaugural swim in a wetsuit and he travelled all the way from Stellenbosch for the experience, Lelané van der Merwe (first female) came all the way from Mossel Bay, and Tania van Thiel, more than doubled her previous longest distance to come within a whisker of taking the honours. Blush, blush, the timing fluck-up meant we announced Tania as female winner on the day, and then Lelané when times were finalised, which has taken the shine off their achievements. We are very sorry, and so huge apologies to them and their supporters. We now know what to do next time to prevent that from happening again.
Our female winner, Lelané van der Merwe, with husband, Helgard
Our male winner, Herman van der Westhuizen
Logistics for an event like this always has its challenges, and conditions and swimmer safety are top-of-mind. Did we get the tide right, do we have sufficient safety support, are the swimmers visible enough to river traffic, will the jellyfish or sandbanks be a problem? The tide worked, the jellies behaved, and thankfully everyone crossed the line, and everyone did so safely. The lack of reception at the start messed with the timing app, the taxis meant to ferry swimmers to the start never pitched which made the 06:00 AM parking lot arrival for a 07:30 AM start upriver a little… challenging. But we were so blown away by the camaraderie, by the connections between swimmer and paddler, by the awesome setting, and those smiles (not one grimace) at the end. What an awesome inaugural event. What a river.
The youngest swimmer, Sam Smith
Tania Van Thiel, fantastic swim and a close second
Uniped swimmer, Gavin Smith
Thank you to all the swimmers and supporters. Without you it wouldn’t have happened.
Huge thanks to the Kouga Municipality and the Kromme Joint River Committee for the use of the river and canals, to St Francis Brewery for hosting the registration and prize-giving on a very busy Bokke and calamari weekend. Thanks to all the lifesavers and paddlers, you did a brilliant job. Huge shout-out to St Francis Bay Resorts ferry, Mike Grosse skipper and owner of our event boat, to Kelly Janse van Rensburg the River Captain, and Neil Du Preez our Safety Officer for the oversight and river work. Big hugs to Johan Fourie, Angelique Diedricks, Tigs Koekemoer and Mike Fairall for the brilliant photos and drone footage. And hat’s off to the Awehness crew and Race Director Kevin Taylor for the early starts, late nights, months of prep, managing last-minute hiccups and getting everyone down the river.
Next year will be epic… watch this space.
