((TITLE)) OPEN WATER SWIMMING
((TRT: 09:40))
((Reporter/Camera/Editor: Gabrielle Weiss))
((Map: Mukilteo, Washington))
((Main characters: 1 female; 0 male))
((Sub characters: 4 female; 0 male))
((Blurb: Training in the pool to swim in open-water gives freedom and joy. Amy Heape, a homeschooling mom of five boys, trains people to improve their swimming technique and prepare for open-water swims.))
((NATS))
((Amy Heape
Swim Coach))
It is the easternmost country in Africa, situated on what is commonly called the Horn of Africa. What do you need?
((Benji
Son))
I need help with...
((Amy Heape
Swim Coach))

I’m Amy Heape and I have five boys. My husband and I have been married…how many years...14 years. We got married in 2010.
((Amy Heape
Swim Coach))
Benji, did you hear any noticeable features? The color of their skin on their necks and thighs? What color are they?
((Benji
Son))
White?
((Amy Heape
Swim Coach))
While a common ostrich neck and legs are pink, the Somalian ostrich sports a greyish, blue neck. I homeschool pretty much Monday through Friday. So, we're at home in the mornings, doing history and Bible and whatever else. We take breaks. Right after Bible in the morning, we go on a walk because we all need a reset.
((NATS))
My turn.
((Amy Heape
Swim Coach))
With five kids there’s a lot going on. How do I keep my sanity? I definitely swim. Open water swimming is anything in the open water. So that can be the lake. It can be the ocean, it can be the sound.

((NATS))
We're heading out. Shut the door. See you in the water.
((Amy Heape
Swim Coach))
So, part of my life is homeschooling, being a mom, being a wife.

Yeah.

((Amy Heape
Swim Coach))

The other part of me is I get to coach. I get to encourage other swimmers along their journeys, whether that's somebody who just started swimming, or it's somebody who's been swimming for years and all of a sudden, they're like, 'Hey, I want to do open water swimming. That seems fun.’
((NATS))
((Amy Heape
Swim Coach))
So, I run Amy Heape’s Open Water Coaching. I've been coaching on and off since I was 16 [years old]. But I started open water coaching about four years ago.
((Courtesy on video of Amy Heape swimming: MarySue Balazic))
There was a client who really wanted to swim Catalina channel and knew I had done it when I was younger and asked me. And I was like, ‘I just had a six-week-old.’ And I was like, ‘No, you're crazy. I can't do that right now.’ She just kept messaging me. And I think it was about at eight weeks. I had gone and swam in the pool by myself.
((Courtesy on phone video of Amy Heape swimming in pool: Julie Ann Cooke))
((NATS))
((Amy Heape
Swim Coach))
And I had come up with this whole business plan in my head that one day I was going to coach, and I was going to coach people in a community, to invest in their lives and be part of their lives, and then be able to see them do amazing things. I wanted to do that for open water. I didn't want it to just be, they see me once a week. I wanted to invest in their lives. I wanted it to be the whole person.
((NATS))
((Amy Heape
Swim Coach))
You’re coming out here still but you’re using these muscles.
((Client))
But I’m bending. No, I’m straightening.
((Amy Heape
Swim Coach))
Nope. Bend a little bit, not...just like swimming.
((Amy Heape
Swim Coach))
I have a group of clients that swims on Friday mornings, and that's kind of our small group workouts, and that is so fun. And we do a little bit of dryland training first, and then we hop in, and we swim for an hour, just so they can learn the moves and then they can transfer them outside.
((NATS))
((Amy Heape
Swim Coach))
We're going to work on some flip turns and they're going to get angry at me because...200. Yep. You did it? Good.
((Amy Heape
Swim Coach))
The reason I do flip turns is because, say you're in open water, you get freaked out. Then you know how to bring that breath back down. And so, I really try and get all my open water swimmers to work on flip turns. So they know, ‘Hey, somebody kicked me in the face, but I can keep going.’ Or you see a giant jellyfish or a sea lion or something, and you can bring that breath back down and continue, which happens.
((NATS))
((Amy Heape
Swim Coach))
All right, we are going to work on some kick, and then we’re going to do some flip turns. Told you. Did I not tell you?
((Fleenor
Client))
How bent should your legs be when you, when your feet land against the wall? Should they be 90 or…?
((Amy Heape
Swim Coach))
Yeah, I like them about 90, a little bit tucked in, so you’re not like, open. Yeah, you're open a lot. But that's kind of, if you swim through any pregnancies at all, that's what happens. Yeah. So don't look at my flip turns right now. Tuck that chin. Have those hips follow your shoulders. Keep your core tight. Ready, go. Good. Good.
((Susan Fleenor
Client))
I love flip turns, but I’m not good at them, but I like doing them. Everything we practice here, I can practice out in the open water for sure. For sure. It helps a lot.
((Amy Heape
Swim Coach))
That’s why we do that, because what if you’re in the open water and you can’t catch a breath. Ready, go.
It's super-duper fun. It's just these are all open water clients that want to improve, whether it's technique, whether it's speed, whether it's wanting the accountability of being in a group together.
((NATS))
((Amy Heape
Swim Coach))
Okay, Bi-50 breathing every 3,5,7,3. And, go Lynn.
((Lynn Valiquett
Client))
It's more than just swimming. I mean, the pool is one thing, but then when you get out in the open water, you have a newfound appreciation for it. You can get out your frustrations. You can get a good workout. The group that we have are so tight knit where we support each other. You know, we're there for each other for our big swims. And yeah, can't get much better than that.
((Dana Wiedenhoft
Client))
I find myself focusing on the repetition of what we're doing here in open water.
((Amy Heape
Swim Coach))
It is so important to be in the pool. If you're just swimming open water, solid mile, two miles, that's great. But you're not going to get the cardiovascular workout. You're not going to get the efficiency of your stroke. You're not going to be able to work on your technique at all. So, you have to be in the pool.
((Susan Fleenor
Client))
Getting into the cold water in Puget Sound is different than the pool. And for me, I give myself a few minutes to acclimate, just putting my face in, my neck in, submerging, getting used to it, and then I start swimming. I don't jump right in and go swimming. I have to give my body…and I'm in a wetsuit where some of the others are not. I have to give myself time to acclimate a few minutes at least, and I watch my time, at least three minutes to get used to the cold water, so I can continue to swim.
((Amy Heape
Swim Coach))
All right. I'm going to get my gear and I'll see you guys at the beach then.
((Susan Fleenor
Client))
On to the Sound.
((Amy Heape
Swim Coach))
Open-water swimming is anything in the open water. So that can be the lake, it can be the ocean, it can be the Sound. We're in Washington state and we are near the Puget Sound. Our temperatures range in the water from 38 [degrees Fahrenheit] during like the coldest up to probably about 67 [degrees Fahrenheit]. That's like the highest we've ever seen.
((Dana Wiedenhoft
Client))
The cold water has been a ng love of mine. Well, the open water. I was open… playing, growing up in the Sound in the lakes in the summer until COVID came and all the pools shut down. And I heard about these crazy swimmers that did it all year long. So I decided to give it a go. And it's amazing. Whatever's going on in the background of life…the stresses, the fear, a lot of anxiety post medical, post COVID, the challenges, physical challenges, the body awareness…it's a full sensory experience that forces me to stay in the moment now. Let everything go for a while. And the endorphin rush. It's just…it's addictive. I'll say honestly, it is.
((NATS))
One, two, three. There we go.
((Mary Sue Balazic
Client))
Well, she helped me get ready for the Coronado Island marathon swim. She would work everything from nutrition to helping me focus on sleep and rest. Rest was something she really pushed me on because I don’t rest very well.
((Amy Heape
Swim Coach))
We're going to get in. We're going to get in. We're going to swim down that way. Swim that way first, and then we'll come back and stop and check on people.
((Client))
Okay.
((Amy Heape
Swim Coach))
And whatever you were working on in the pool today, go ahead and try and apply it out here.
((Client))
Sure. With the chop.
((Amy Heape
Swim Coach))
Breathing, bilaterally.
((Susan Fleenor
Client))
You. She’s looking at me.
((Amy Heape
Swim Coach))
Open-water swimming can be anything from swimming a thousand yards, 500 yards, or anything over 10K [10,000 kilometers] is a marathon swim.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Amy Heape))
Ready? I'll just stop. All right.
((Amy Heape
Swim Coach))
These people are like so talented. We have a microbiologist. We have engineers, like just all these people in their normal daily life. But when we're all in the water together, we're just swimmers. There's a few of us in the water at a time.
((Courtesy underwater shots of animals: Amy Heape))
We're swimming kind of close to shore out to a dock and back, checking in with each other for safety. It’s kind of what open water is, in the logical sense. And in the other sense, it's freedom, it's joy. There's no lane lines. It's swimming, and all of a sudden you look down, there's starfish and crabs and moon snails, and you get to be in the water in this like, amazing aquarium, swimming with all of that. And it's pretty awesome.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Amy Heape
Swim Coach))
I think it's one of the only places for myself that I'm not thinking of what I have to do next. I've seen grown women, older than me, revert back to childhood because you're just playing. Why would I ever not do this? How could I ever stop doing this? It's pretty magical.
((NATS/MUSIC))

((Animation))