The inaugural South Saskatchewan Open Water Classic was held at Saskatchewan Landing Provincial Park on Sunday morning, serving as a test event for the upcoming 2019 Western Canada Summer Games.

The Swift Current Barracudas Swim Club-hosted event allowed Summer Games organizers as well as the event organizers to get their feet wet, so to speak, by having a run-through of the event.

The addition of a windy and wavy morning, though initially not welcome, proved to be what the event organizers needed while forecasting the full-scale event come next summer.

“The wind was more than we wanted, but I got thinking about it and I would rather have the wind today and we learned how to deal with it -We learned for next year," said Ken Duncalfe, event coordinator for the Swift Current Barracudas Swim Club. "If it was calm today and everything went simple, we wouldn’t have learned as much, right?"

With these conditions we were able to learn a lot. We are going to be able to take this information after we’re done and be able to sit down and discuss what worked and what didn’t. That’s exactly what we wanted. This is the reason we’re having this event the year before the Games so we can work out these kinks. That’s why we wanted to it," he added.

Saskatchewan's first open-water event in over 25 years saw a pile of first responders, Western Canada Summer Games staff, volunteer lifeguards, and event organizers crowd Cottonwood Beach as well as the waters of the South Saskatchewan river.

“We have got volunteers that I didn’t even know two days ago and here they are coming in - we had people calling us wanting to be volunteers," said Duncalfe, who admits that for the full-scale event for the games, more bodies may be necessary. "Honestly, I think we probably need a few more, just with the way things are looking as we get a chance to step back and take a look at this we probably need a few more to make this perfect. But you live and you learn."

As for the quality of swimming in the test event, the Barracudas event coordinator was proud of the athletes for tackling their first-ever open-water meet.

“You have to keep in mind that the majority of these swimmers are between the age of 12-14 and none of them have ever done open water before, never. This is their first time doing it," shared Duncalfe. "An event like this hasn’t happened in their lifetimes, so this is all new to them. I saw a lot of kids coming in, they were smiling - I love that. This was a huge success in my eyes. We’re not done yet, but this has been a huge success."