Photo Credit: Frontierofficial – flickr.com

Entries are flooding in for the Fiji Ocean Swim Festival. The island’s crystal blue waters will be dotted with bright rubber caps beginning on Oct. 27. The location? Plantation Resort on Malolo Lailai, also known as Plantation Island. Competitors will hail from Australia, New Zealand and even as far as Brazil.

The Fiji Ocean Swim offers adventurers the choice of a 1.5km or 3km swim on the first day of the festival and then everyone competes in a 10km swim on the second day. The shorter races are considered warm-ups for the final round-island event. Plantation Island is the second biggest and most developed of the Mamanuca Islands, lying 12 miles west of Nadi on Fiji’s main island, Viti Levu. The organizers describe it as “the perfect Pacific setting for ocean swimming: warm clear waters, pristine reefs, colorful tropical fish and coral, all against a backdrop of blue ocean and the jagged peaks of distant islands.” Sound a little more appealing than endless laps in a chlorine-filled pool?

The series has given many local junior swimmers in Fiji the opportunity to try swimming in the ocean for the first time.

We can’t think of a more extraordinary introduction to the sport.

Cover Photo Credit: miguel sancheese – flickr.com