🇲🇾 Put this Swimming Event on your Bucket List! Perhentian Islands, Malaysia
🌏 The most beautiful swimming event on the planet (in more ways than one!)
Hey Swimmers
Last weekend I had the great fortune and privilege to be invited as a guest to attend a 16km marathon swimming event unlike any other on the idyllic tropical Perhentian Islands off the north east coast of Malaysia:
What Goes Around, Comes Around…
The journey to the Perhentian Islands for me actually dates back some 13 years, when a passionate swimmer and coach by the name of Amirizal Ishak from Kuala Lumpur contacted me in 2012 to join our Swim Smooth coaches forum.
Amir had become a little disillusioned with more traditional swim coaching methods and found that what we both preach (and practice!) here at Swim Smooth, really struck a chord for his own swimming, especially with regards stroke rate, different kicking patterns and adaptation to the open water.
Fast forward three years to 2015 and Amir got in touch again to both inform me that he’d created a little “one man operation” (Amir’s words) to grow the sport of open water swimming in South East Asia, and that he had decided to bite the bullet and come and visit me in Perth for a video analysis session to boost all the complementary coaching advice I’d been providing Amir on his own swimming over the years:
…yes, I know what you’re thinking…I haven’t changed a bit in the last 10 years! Ha!
Amir, reached back out to me about 12 weeks ago and very generously - together with the tourism board of Malaysia - offered to fly me and a ‘partner’ up to the event for the weekend to swim the event either ‘leisurely’ or ‘competitively’ (Amir’s words). Seizing the opportunity to spend some time with my 16yr old son, Jackson, we decided to make a father/son weekend of it. Oh, and the question of ‘leisurely’ or ‘competitive’ - yeah, you can only guess which way that decision went!
Now, from the outset, I knew this was going to be a very challenging swim in waters over 30ºC, given that I was already gaining weight for cold-water acclimatisation for the double Dart 10km swims in the UK in September (13ºC to 15ªC), which ultimately got cancelled. However, I’m going to preface the rest of the blog this week with the following three caveats to really set the picture of just how tough this was going to be for me:
I am that guy who always complains about pool temperatures being too hot. Claremont Pool is 28.5ºC year-round, but international competition standard is 25.5ºC. If you’ve been following us on Instagram, you’ll remember one of our more popular reels back in August where I talked about how I’d failed to complete a 10km pool swim when the pool was over-heated to 30ºC - I only made 2.5km!
I was unable to complete my trip back from Europe just 6 days before the Perhentian Islands swim due to a major gastroenteritis episode I had in Montenegro. I boarded my flight from Dubrovnik to Vienna but became so sick on the plane that I had to forfeit my flight to Perth via Singapore due to being too ill to travel. Instead I checked into a hotel at the airport, slept for 14hrs straight and then had to cough up $3,000 to get a new flight home via Doha! I was back in Perth for less than 68hrs with two full days on pool deck before jumping on the flight up to Kuala Lumpur for the race. Suffice to say, my gut and my hydration levels were not were they should have been.
Despite my fitness and speed peaking as high as they’ve been in over 20 years before leaving for the UK in early September, after the cancellation of the Dart 10k and going straight into running our camp in Montenegro, I had lost a good chunk of fitness in the 3 weeks between the Dart 10k and the Perhentian Islands swim.
None of the above is aimed at making excuses however, more-so to place context with the following race report because, to be frank, no matter how hard and uncomfortable I found it, I would head back to do this race in a heart beat! The location is stunning (obviously!) but what really made it amazing were the people, the community and the vibe that Amir Ishak has been able to create from some very humble beginnings indeed. It was simply incredible - and if this swimming event doesn’t muster your musings as a bucket list item in the future, I’m not sure what will.
Race Report: My Perspective
Once we’d arrived at the Perhentian Island Resort it was time to formulate a bit of a game-plan. After supping a fresh coconut under a palm tree (as one does), me and the boy wonder took a dip in the sea and it was so warm that I could barely manage 200m! I doubt I’ve ever been so nervous about an event after this. I had totally told myself (naughty I know!) that I wouldn’t be able to complete this 16km swim and had nightmares all night about it! Jackson had some tips for me though which you can listen to here:
The plan was to set off steady, and I promise I did! I was, however, right there at the front of the race for the first 10k with Jose Luis Larossa Chorro (well worth a look at his palmarès on OpenWaterPedia - his list of wins and records are as long as Jackson’s arms!). Here’s a video of us swimming together at about 8km into the race:
Jackson was trying to do everything he could to keep my core temperature down by pouring icy water over my head at each feed stop, but the ice in the polystyrene esky was only ever going to last so long and eventually it ran out…
I felt indescribably strong. Until I didn’t. It literally hit me like a freight train and once I become incapable of regulating my core temperature, my heart rate spiked and my whole body went into a full body cramp. The heart rate chart below goes some way to describe what happened physiologically:
Everything hurt, including my kidneys. I had promised Jackson I wouldn’t completely destroy myself but it took everything I had to make it to the finish - backstroke, breaststroke, survival stroke - you name it! The currents were strong but I just couldn’t cool the engine once it got hot. I was caught in the tussle between:
show your son that a little bit of discomfort is not to be feared and is actually where you grow and learn most about yourself and what you can achieve, versus,
don’t be the Dad who makes his 16yr old son be the one to experience a medical emergency in a place where he doesn’t know anyone
Anyway, he and boat pilot Lee got me there in the end and I just managed to hang on to 2nd place overall (from 1st place female champion from Italy, Elizabetta Nervi), having lost 8 minutes to Jose in the last hour of swimming. Jose’s prowess was simply incredible - massive kudos!
Here’s me reflecting on the swim post-race:
Race Reflections
They say a picture paints a thousand words, well if that’s the case I’ll leave you this week with the rather knackered looking image of me scrambling across the finish line versus the hundreds of ecstatic faces from the rest of the courageous finishers below - I seriously doubt you’d find a more welcoming and happy open water swimming event anywhere on the planet:
And, after all that effort to try and hang onto Jose for the win, I didn’t even come away with the best sideburns either - doh!
One Thousand Thanks!
So, from humble beginnings in 2012, setting his sights on creating something truly special and meaningful for the swimming community of Malaysia and SE Asia, Amir Ishak from SwimOn, the then “one man band”, has managed to build an event as good as any other I have ever been to anywhere, and probably much better than that!
Massive thanks to Amir for inviting me and Jackson over and showing us all some amazing hospitality. I’ve had an absolute blast meeting some of the most friendly and passionate swimmers I’ve ever been lucky enough to meet, especially from @myswimcoaching - thanks team!
You know, it’s a pretty good world when you get to do and share what you love with your 16yo son and have him come along as an integral part of the team, and for that, I’m truly grateful and the effort to get me across the line in 2nd overall (just!) was well worth it!
Well done to everyone who competed. Kudos in the currents and heat 💪👍
For more information on the event in 2026:
Your Coach, Paul.