For Priscilla Chow the water is where she usually takes her troubles, but today it's the ocean making her nervous.
"Today's aim is to get through it," she explains of the nearly 4-kilometre ocean swim ahead, which will take her across one of the most treacherous stretches of water in Australia.
While the distance might not be daunting for endurance swimmers — the location is.
On this Tuesday morning a group of swimmers are heading through what's known as "The Rip" or "The Heads" — the water stretching between Point Lonsdale and Point Nepean.
This waterway is the entrance to Port Phillip Bay and by extension Melbourne.
But the headlands are narrow, forcing huge volumes of water through a small space as the tides change.
When you add in strong winds, the conditions have been so tricky at times that the Nepean Historical Society lists 30 shipwrecks occurring in The Rip between 1840 and 1949.
It might not sound like fun to many, but on this day a small group of everyday athletes are challenging themselves to swim across this difficult stretch.
For Priscilla, this is well outside her comfort zone.
The 55-year-old works as a safety officer at Monash University and describes herself as someone who is "very risk averse".
"I think there is a sense of letting go when the risk is managed … but the fear is still there," she says of her attraction to this particular ocean swim.
Before the swim, she jogs and jumps up and down on the pier, using some of her nervous energy.
She's not the first to have felt this way.
Swim coach Grant Siedle has been organising these swims for the past 10 years and reckons this is a test that's about more than swim technique or fitness.
"I think it really does require a bit of courage, it is not just about being fit, I think it requires a certain personality which will take it on," he says.
He says the history of the swim goes back to 1971, when a swimmer named Doug Mew became the first to make it from one headland to another.
"At that point no-one had done it, it seemed ridiculous, it seemed foolhardy and dangerous so full credit to Doug," he says.
But it wasn't until the 1990s that Grant says swimmers really turned their attention towards The Rip.
"I swam this with a group of friends in 2010, a few people had swum it but they were all sneaking around because it was deemed illegal, so you did it on the quiet and didn't tell anyone about it and it felt a bit wrong," he says.
It prompted him to set up official swims with all the necessary approvals and support boats and kayakers for swimmers.
Jumping in
As a small boat takes Priscilla to the approved starting point just off Point Nepean, she poses for a photo with her fellow swimmers.
Then they take the plunge.
In the water, kayakers stick with small groups of between one and four swimmers, guiding them.
Priscilla's pink cap can be seen cresting rolling waves and falling into little valleys.
On this day, the wind is calm.
You can hear the slap of Priscilla's arms as they hit the water again and again.
With her head down, she bit-by-bit powers across the water.
Her only stop is to make way for a sunbaking seal, of all things.
"He dived below me and he looked up and was blowing me bubbles as he swam past me," Priscilla recounts excitedly.
"After that all I saw was his lovely little puppy dog eyes and his whiskers and a little trail of bubbles following behind him."
It's the inspiration she needs to get through the second half of the swim.
At Point Lonsdale, friends and family of the swimmers gather to cheer their loved ones to shore.
Some swimmers emerge beaming with smiles full of joy and pride, while others grimace as they finally catch their breath.
There are plenty of hugs, as swimmers share their triumph and relief.
Priscilla proudly waves mini flags for Australia and her homeland of Brunei.
This swim is part of a bigger dream for her.
"The country where I grew up, there is not many pools around and I was one of the very few women, or girls, who took up swimming," she says.
"My dream … when I am done with my job here in Melbourne, is to give back to the community to be able to promote water awareness."
For today though, it's a chance to enjoy her own achievement.
Ocean swims help 'keep the love for swimming'
Among the group celebrating on the beach is former Olympic swimmer Ada Tuciute, who swam in the 1988 Olympics for the Soviet Union.
On the sand she blends in with the other swimmers but in the water it's hard to not notice her long, graceful strokes that look almost effortless.
"It's an efficiency – a lot of people don't realise you need to be relaxed and efficient to swim fast and I think I was taught well to have a good technique," she says.
To make the swim more challenging, Ada completes her crossing without a wetsuit, braving the ocean's cold.
But the swim coach says for her, swimming is now about enjoyment and sharing the experience with her pupils, without the pressure of competitions.
"This is why I am enjoying ocean swimming, I can still keep the love for swimming and of being in the water," she says.
