Welcome to episode nine of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

Team ARKsouls Addnature Ötillö Race Report

This week’s show is all about Ötillö Catalina that happened this past weekend (Feb. 29-Mar. 1).

We have something special this week and have two parts to this episode. The first part will be the Low Tide Boyz report and the second part will be the race report from a Swedish Team, Team ARKsouls Addnature, that finished in second place female division. 

Now for an actual race report! (Note: This interview was reported a couple of hours after the race on the beach in Avalon and we were pretty tired but it was great to get their view on the World Series race.) (Note 2: Our guests were extremely humble so it was hard to get some straight answers from them.)

We interviewed Isabella Hedberg and Helen Wikmar of Team ARKsouls Addnature.

Isabella and Helen are a top international women’s team out of Sweden and have been competing together for about a year. They’ve competed in many swimrun events together, including the Ötillö World Championships in 2019. They got 3rd place FYI. They were the 2nd Place Women’s team at the first ever Ötillö Catalina. 

They thought that the race went well (obviously). There were highs and lows but they have a tactic that they use at all their races to pace and try to get stronger and stronger as the race goes on. They kept passing teams throughout the race and passed the third place team with about 500m left in the last swim.

Unlike a lot of swimrun events that they’ve raced in Europe where they are usually alone for long periods, there were a lot of teams bunched up and more competitive than they were used to. There was way less chitchat on the course as well.

They felt that the course was well suited for their strengths. The Parsons Landing Bay swim was what they thought was the most interesting swim. Helen admitted that she was a bit scared going into those waves. Overall, they had a great race and would recommend this race to anyone. While Catalina was a great race, they felt that it was hard to compare to other Ötillö events because every race is so different. 

It was great to get the international perspective from Isabella and Helen. You can follow them on Instagram here and here.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Low Tide Boyz, please be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast player. We are on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow along on Instagram and Twitter. You can also support us on Patreon, if you are so inclined. If you want to drop us a line, email us at [email protected].