CARINA'S BIOGRAPHY

Carina Bruwer was born in Cape Town on 15 January 1980. She grew up in the Cape Winelands town of Stellenbosch, where she matriculated as the head pupil of Bloemhof Girls' High School in 1997. Throughout her high school career, she excelled in musical, academic and cultural activities, receiving numerous awards and honours for musical performances, languages, speaking and writing, mathematics and accountancy, leadership, etc.

At Bloemhof, Carina learned the piano under Zorada Temmingh until matric, and passed her UNISA Final exam in 1996. Only at age 14 did Carina decide to take up the flute as a second instrument, after being encouraged by her aunt Acama Fick, a well-known choir conductor and vocal coach. She made rapid progress, and received her UNISA Final with the highest honours in 1998. Carina went on to study the degree B.Mus (Performance) at the University of Stellenbosch, concentrating on flute performance, and numerous achievements and awards followed (see music CV).

Coming from a musical family, (Apart from her aunt Acama, Carina's mother is also a gifted singer, and her brother, Dewet Bruwer, is an acclaimed pianist), Carina never really focused on sports while still at school. She loved participating (especially in water sports), but focused on her music and other cultural activities. Only during her first year at University did she decide to "become fit", in order to lead a more balanced lifestyle than most typical musicians. Swimming was always the obvious sport for her to choose, as she's always loved the water, and had a natural ability to swim.

She started swimming a few laps of the University gym's pool every few days. It then became a challenge to try to go further - 20 laps, 30, 40 (1km). After a few months she was swimming 3km, 4 times a week. The challenge prevailed, and she started timing every km; tried to limit her breaks; see how much further she can push. At the end of her second year, she was steadily swimming 4-5km per day, 6 times a week, just for fun. She realised that she was going further and faster than most other people in the pool, but did not think much of it, and people kept asking what she is training for - triathlon or long distance swimming. She was really only enjoying the water, but she also realised that it had become an addiction - she could not miss a day, and had to keep up the distance, always trying to go faster or further.

Carina had taken part in a few open water mile races, and in 2001 started reading up about swimming longer distances. She found details of a 12km race between Simonstown and Muizenberg, and decided this sounded like the ultimate challenge, and so she got in touch with the organisers, the Cape Long Distance Swimming Association (CLDSA). Her questions about sharks, water temperature and safety were answered with a tongue-in-cheek attitude - "there are more sharks on the roads; what is a wetsuit?; you need to get a support boat and get yourself to the slipway" - and Carina registered. She ended up winning the female race and finishing 8th overall, she met a few dozen of wonderful and eccentric swimmers and members from the CLDSA, and was immediately hooked on long distance swimming in the ocean.

From here, Carina made sure to take part in all the CLDSA events, and was encouraged to do her first Robben Island crossing in March 2002. She completed 3 Robben Island crossings in that year, and decided to look at crossing the 34km English Channel - the big yardstick of long distance swimming - the next year. In order to find sponsorship for this very pricey swim, Carina in March 2004 swam around Cape Point and became the first South African to do so, which received huge media attention - especially because she was also playing for Cape Town's production of the Phantom of the Opera at the time. She also broke the time record for this swim, and a month later rounded Cape Agulhas, also in record time. Huge media exposure followed (see Media), but Carina was still unable to secure sponsorship for the English Channel. She did a few more notable swims in 2004 - rounding Danger Point, as well as rounding the northern most point of Africa in Tunisia, while on a performance tour which coincided with Thabo Mbeki's inaugural state visit, during which she also met the president.

In between, Carina was also finishing her BMus(Hons) degree, partaking in music competitions of which she won quite a few (see Music CV), playing several concerts and gigs, and starting up her own music agency. After receiving her post graduate (Hons) degree cum laude, she spent a few months focusing on building up her agency, as she was not interested in teaching music, or doing anything outside music for an extra income. She created enough performance opportunities for herself and her groups, as well as acting as agent for other Cape Town based musical acts, to make a living, AND swim when she wants! Today Five Seasons Music Agency is one of the busiest entertainment agencies in AFRICA, with a roster of more than 300 acts!

In March 2005, Carina attempted crossing False Bay, a swim she had been wanting to do since she read about it in the CLDSA journal. The 36km swim is regarded as one of the toughest in the world, due to it's unpredictability and the psychological factor of swimming in White Shark territory. Calling the swim is also a daunting task, due to Cape Town's prevailing South-Easter during summer months. Only 2 out of more than 20 swimmers who have attempted, had successfully crossed False Bay. These were Annemi Landmeters, world-famous Dutch marathon swimmer, and Cape Town's own ace, Steven Klugman. On 17 March '05, the wind had dropped, and Carina attempted the swim. The water temperature had unfortunately also dropped to 14 degrees Celcius, and the fog didn't lift all day. Carina was pulled out of the water with hypothermia, having swum for 5 hours. She would try again as soon as possible. It was too late in the 2005 season for False Bay though. On 27 April 2005 Carina went back to the Atlantic side and broke the overall record for swimming around Robben Island.

In June 2005 Carina went to Spain for a break, and decided to cross the Straits of Gibraltar while she is there. She broke the female world record for the swim, and came back to South Africa for only a couple of weeks, before deciding on the spur of the moment to go back to Europe. She partook in a 26km race in Greece, in which she finished 4th overall and won the female race, and a week later she successfully swam the English Channel. Her guru Peter Bales from the CLDSA had joined her in Greece, and supported her on her English Channel swim.

2006 was put aside for False Bay. "It has beaten me once, I have to go back", was Carina's attitude. She was on standby to swim from mid-January. After waiting a month and a half for the right day, Carina started her attempt from Rooi Els on 26 February, and completed the swim in 10h58, becoming the first South African woman, and the 3rd person ever to do so.

Today, Carina runs her busy office and performs across South Africa, while still looking out for interesting marathon swims all over the world and partaking in several media related activities.