Meet the Slimline Pool contestants

The Slimline win-a-pool competition is taking place on June 26 at the Ballito Junction and the brave and hardcore contestants have been chosen.

Meet the 15 men and women who will try and fight it out in the pool to walk away with the grand prize of a new swimming pool.

We asked all of them the following questions:

1. How long do you think you will last in the pool?
2. What do you think the hardest part will be about the challenge?
3. Are you going to do any training before hand to prepare?
4. Why are you entering?
5. What is the first thing you are going to do when you finally leave the pool?
6. What is the biggest challenge you have faced in your life?
7. How do you feel about the cold?
8. Best swimming pool memory?
Now see their answers!

Albert Pretorius

1. As long as it takes.

2. Most definitely late evenings and early hours of the mornings, the cold and wind-chill factor.

3. How do you train if you already have the right attitude and mind-set!

4. After what I saw last year – the camaraderie and willingness to push your body to its limit really grabbed my interest.

5. Take my pool home of course.

6. My wife.

7. What cold!

8. Hillbrow indoors pool, during the 80s.:

Bruce Curtis

1. I will win.

2. Being confined to one place.

3. No training required.

4. To win the pool for the kids, who are in the Grace wing at Ashton College.

5. Have a cold beer.

6. Having had an injury and being told I would not be able to do what I loved.

7. I do not feel the cold.

8. Teaching the Grace kids how to swim.

Barry Chapman

1. How long does a teabag last if it sits in water all the time?

2. No sleep definitely.

3. Well I would try, maybe swim a length.

4. So I have somewhere to float my rubber ducky.

5. Have a very long session on the white throne. Not just 10min.

6. Hanging off a cliff with my rope jammed 160m off the ground. Got down three hours later. Or not.

7. Brrrrrloody cold.

8. I would rather not mention it.

Daniel van Wyngaardt

1. I think a can last till the end. I am a go-getter.

2. I think the hardest part will be when I have to give up hot drinks. I love my coffee.

3. No training required, I like to think I am a know-all.

4. I need a pool.

5. First thing when I get out… Coffee

6. The most challenging thing I have ever done was move a twelve seater jacuzzi down a three storey building.

7. I love it.

8. When I just started swimming. We were at a church camp and I was about five-years-old. The first day there I grasped the concept and the rest of the weekend you could not get me out of the pool.

Debbie Nicholson

1. As long as I have to.

2. Not being able to talk during the isolation challenges.

3. Well, if I answered that I would stand less chance of winning.

4. I need to win a pool for my family, it will take a massive financial burden off of us.

5. Get dry, get warm, get a cuddle from my boys.

6. I am facing it now, we are building a house!

7. I feel it, I do not love it, but I will stand it!

8. Living in Ballito we are spoiled by so many gorgeous summer days each year so there have been many awesome swimming pool memories along the way but my best memories around the pool so far are definitely those with my family and friends braaiing, celebrating birthdays and other special occasions, and just feeling happy to be together and grateful for the lives we lead.

Inéz Richter

1. Hopefully until the very end – fingers crossed!

2. Sitting in a fish tank and having strangers look in, oh, and the cold.

3. I tried on my wetsuit.

4. To win a pool!

5. Have a hot shower and some coffee.

6. Getting my degree.

7. I am a summer baby, slightly nervous of the cold.

8. Every swimming pool memory is the best because that is family time for us.

Roxanne Zanette

1. Hopefully till I am the only person left sitting in the pool.

2. The hardest part I think is that there is no shut eye at all.

3. Not really, nothing besides my normal day to day gym training.

4. I am opening my own learn-to-swim school and need the pool to assist me with this.

5. Get into dry warm clothes and sleep.

6. Getting my Northern Coastal and South African colours for swimming.

7. I do not mind the cold as long as I can keep warm to some kind of extent.

8. Definitely seeing my stepson swim on his own after I taught him how to swim.

Celeste de Bruyn

1. This is so hard to determine but I am definitely in it to win it!

2. I have an amazing family and not being with them for the whole weekend is not a nice thought at all.

3. I really do not think one can truly train for such a challenge other than mentally preparing yourself.

4. My daughter loves swimming and it would be an amazing blessing for our family to provide this for her.

5. Thank the sponsors and Slimline for the pool.

6. God has brought me through so many challenges it really is difficult to say.

7. Nobody loves the cold so I am hoping to make some warm memories.

8. I have so many wonderful memories but I am sure this one is going to be the best yet!

Trenley Tilbrook

1. The longest.

2. Sleep deprivation.

3. Absolutely – going to sleep as much as possible or as little as possible – not sure.

4. My kids are desperate for a pool and I simply can not afford one at the moment. Secondly, if I do not win I want to make use of the opportunity to raise money for a charitable cause.

5. Go for a swim – just kidding. I am going to celebrate and sleep or probably just sleep.

6. Caught in a storm at sea on a small sailing boat that lasted five days when sailing from Cape Town to the Caribbean. It ended taking us 45 days to reach our destination due to the damage caused to the boat during the storm.

7. Luke warm.

8. Seeing the look (and enjoyment) on both my daughters faces when they finally learnt how to swim.

Brian McPherson

1. Difficult to say as I have not put myself through such a difficult challenge lately.

2. The hardest part for me will be not being able to sleep and shower.

3. Too late for training anyway so I will have to take it as it comes.

4. I need to complete my entertainment area and the Slimline pool will round it off beautifully.

5. Jump in a hot shower.

6. Running the Comrades Marathon.

7. I love the cold I grew up in an Igloo; no I am stressing about the cold weather and water.

8. Censored.

Lauren Harvey

1. I am hoping I can go the distance!

2. Staying awake. I am not a night owl.

3. Nope, I would not know where to start!

4. We have been promising our kids (and ourselves) a pool since we moved here nearly nine years ago.

5. Get dry!

6. Hmm, I must be really blessed as nothing springs to mind.

7. I am trying to tell myself it is mind over matter.

8. Christmas days around the pool with all our cousins when we were young.

Bernice Glenny

1. To the end.

2. The sleep deprivation and raisin feet!

3. I go to gym during the week and include swimming in my training, so will probably increase push-ups and cardio.

4. I want to win the pool!

5. Kiss and hug my beautiful girls and hubby.

6. Wow, moving to a farm in the freezing Midlands to help my husbands father recover from alcoholism with a newborn baby and toddler and no help.

7. I am not afraid.

8. I love swimming, it is peaceful and allows me some rare time to myself, I love the rhythm of swimming and very best was watching the first time my baby learnt to swim from my hubby’s arms to the steps when she was two-years-old.

Gianna Scoulelis

1. I love watching and listening to water but I do not really like swimming or being cold, so by rights, I should not last long at all. It has to be mind over matter…so the whole way!

2. Getting cold and tired and trying to keep it under control.

3. Going to eat lots, so that I can build up my fat storage, so that I can keep warm for longer.

4. I run Animally Haven, a registered NPC which is a sanctuary for abused and neglected animals. The 52 dogs would love to have a pool to swim in as well as using it for the many injured dogs I get in that need hydrotherapy for recovery. I also want to bring about awareness of the cruelty problems we have in the North Coast area and hopefully raise some much needed funds while having fun.

5. Get into my warm bed in front of a heater and defrost!

6. Having an emergency cesarean after 10 hours of labour with my son Noah and the courage to live my dream which is rescuing animals.

7. Brrrrrr, I hate being cold.

8. Best two memories are when my mother stopped taking me to swimming lessons because my swimming coach thought throwing me into a cold pool at age three was a great strategy to teach swimming, and my dad coming to my rescue when I nearly drowned in the ocean at five. Got to make the negatives, positives!

Niccy Westoby

1. Hopefully till the end.

2. Being cold.

3. No, I think just carry on with my normal active life, and try make sure I do not get sick before the challenge.

4. To grow and run my swimming school from my own venue.

5. Get into warm dry clothes and go to bed.

6. My competition days as a gymnast – sticking a double flick layout on a balance beam in a full stadium.

7. Hate it!

8. Winning South African schools inter-provincial waterpolo tournaments.

Natalie Memory

1. I am strong and competitive so I will be in the pool till I am the winner!

2. The hardest part of the challenge for me I think is going to be staying awake at night after the second day.

3. I have started my body, mind and spirit training which involves staying up all night, no blankets and cold showers when it is freezing!

4. I entered to win the Slimline pool for my charity foundation so the kids can learn how to swim.

5. The first thing I will do when I get out of the pool will be celebrating winning!

6. Having to be an adult when I was still a child as I am from a child headed family.

7. I am a superwoman so the cold does not bother me!

8. Best pool moment was my surprise birthday party. It was epic!