Daniel Kingsley - Central Coast, NSW, Australia
Name: Daniel Kingsley Known as: Dan Age: 43
Where do you live: The Central Coast, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation: Risk and Compliance Manager
How many times per week do you swim?
I aim to swim three to four times most weeks during the summer months of the surf life saving season, and to compete (casually) at my local beach, Shelly Beach, on a Sunday morning.
Of course, the effects of COVID have interrupted my swimming since early 2020.
Describe a regular swim (or 2)
My pool swimming is at the Mingara Aquatics facility, my local indoor pool, as part of the competitive squad program. This squad is a mix of teenagers through to competitive masters adults training for swimming, triathlons, or surf lifesaving.
I am thankful my swimming these days has reduced by about 50% compared to my youth, so now 4-5kms is a typical session.
The Sunday beach swim is mainly fun with mates which include various short races. We compete hard and test ourselves out.
Why you swim?
While I get a kick out of competing, I mostly enjoy swimming with the mates I train alongside and compete against.
I still keep in touch with some people I swam with as a teenager, my friendship group today includes my current regular swimming mates.
Do you have a favourite swim / pool set?
I’m a big fan of what I would classify as quality work; all-out efforts with plenty of rest. For example, 8 x 50m on 5 minutes, or 8 x 100m on 5 minutes.
I don’t particularly enjoy short rest repeats. I will much rather go a longer distance time trial than try and maintain a faster threshold with little rest.
Do you have a swimming current goal? Or a ‘Bucket List’ swim. If yes, what is this?
I don’t have specific goals, but I am still young enough, I think, to swim faster than I ever have before in freestyle. I never trained specifically for freestyle events as a teenager, breaststroke being my stroke of preference and success in those days.
I would like to compete for quite a few more years across Masters Surf Life Saving carnivals, in both the surf events and the pool carnivals I attend. When an event means going away with mates and our families, I’m for it.
What’s the best place (or 2) you’ve swum?
To me, the most unusual swim I have done is when backpacking through Europe in 2004 with my girlfriend Kylie (now my wife). I came across a down-river swim race in the Aare River, Bern Switzerland. Despite my swimming training being nil, I decided I should enter as it was a chance to race in the light turquoise waters. It was something I couldn’t pass up.
I don’t remember where I finished (language being a barrier) but I was handed a mug at the end and remember the water being very cold.
Swimming for leisure in Lake Bled Slovenia was another memorable experience with its very scenic surrounds.
Lake Bled
When a visitor comes to the Central Coast where would you recommend they swim?
For an outdoor swim and for those who enjoy the waves I’d recommend my local beach and surf club, Shelly Beach. The water is clear and clean with great natural surrounds, north, south and looking back west to the beach. When you are done there is a café, a restaurant and bar at the surf club to reward your efforts.
If you prefer to stay away from the waves, then head to Toowoon Bay. Again, clean water with a sandy bottom, surrounded by rocky reefs with plenty of sea life to admire.
For the indoors swimmer, you can’t go past Mingara pool, the premier indoor pool on the Central Coast which is part of a large community club.
Tell us about one of your proudest swimming achievements / moments:
My dad would say when I placed third at the 1995 Age Australian Championships 16yrs 200m breaststroke, however while this swim was arguably my best result as a teenager it wasn’t a PB and I finished behind someone who I usually beat leaving me feeling underachieved to what I was capable of.
I say when I won the NSW State Age titles in both the 100m and 200m breaststroke with fast swims, also in 1995. This was the only time I won both breaststroke titles at a State Championships.
And a third highlight. A year earlier I was part of my club relay team with my mates competing at the Open Australian Short Course Championships. We all put in fast swims to finish with the bronze medal.
For the first half of my swimming life this was a purple patch.
Has swimming changed your life? If so, how?
While I don’t identify as ‘a swimmer’, it has certainly shaped my life and allowed me to do things which I otherwise wouldn’t and couldn’t.
I stopped swimming at the end of high school. This wasn’t planned but I moved away from home to study, living on my university campus (UNE, Armidale) in a large co-ed college and where the local swimming program was quite different to what I was used to.
I struggled with not swimming for the first 2-3 years of study, at times tossing up the idea of pausing university to have a go at swimming to see what I could achieve; but I never did. I enjoyed my time at university in other ways including playing water polo for six years.
In my late 30s our two sons joined surf lifesaving. Around this time we moved houses which happened to be near a good pool. Knowing I should be in the water assisting with the water safety program for the children at the surf club, I was soon completing my required SLSC qualifications, swimming regularly myself and then found I still had a competitive itch to scratch.
I progressed from swimming by myself into the adult squad, before joining the senior squad where I am now. In my first few sessions I recall thinking I would never regain the same fitness I once had, and keep up with the teenagers. But slowly it all returned.
I have since competed in Masters Surf Life Saving with success, medaling in all colours at both the State and National level carnivals (Masters Age group).
More importantly I have developed great mates who I train and compete with, which brings me my most enjoyment from swimming.
Tell us a fun fact about yourself?
I started my schooling years in Paris where I lived for 3 years while my dad was on a posting with the RAAF.
Photos below: Dan with his club team (Burley Griffin. Canberra) and with his sisters, Rachel and Sarah
Dan with Kylie, and with their boys.
