The Ironwoman — 3 Girls, 5 Activities & 12 Hours

A different type of challenge

We were young. Full of energy. Full of ideas. And nobody could stop us. A bunch of girls working and living in southern Africa. Living their dream of an adventurous life filled with happiness.

It was November 2015. In Namibia.

The time back then

The town of Swakopmund was back then the party hub of the country. Tourists would come from all over the world to go sandboarding, skydiving, and quad biking in the dunes of the Namib desert. And they would come to party. Despite being a small town in the middle of the desert we did have a good party scene back then.

Especially for those travelers who have been on overlander buses for weeks and haven’t seen a solid bed for a couple of days. Coming out of the desert, Swakopmund seemed like an oasis. Despite being still in the desert.

Due to the increasing tourism industry, there were lots of ex-pats living and working in town. I was one of them. Working as a sandboarding instructor for several years. Engaging people to climb the dune and motivate them to go party at night.

There were obviously more guys than girls in my group of friends. Pilots, skydivers, and tour guides. All jobs mainly are done by men. So they had their rituals and challenges. One of them was a Namibian version of the Ironman. It has nothing to do with the real Ironman. You had to do a selection of five activities within 24 hours.

But who says only the guys can do the Ironman? We were two and a half German girls (one of us was a Namibian German) who were taking over the lead. And we said we will do the challenge. Most of the guys said we won’t be able to finish it. Like any of us would listen to what they said. We changed up the activities a bit, put up our own rules, and found supporters to help us complete the project.

And renamed the challenge.

The Ironwoman.

The rules

The five activities we selected were the following:

1. one hour surfing
2. one hour crayfish diving
3. one tandem skydive
4. one rock climb
5. one hour sandboarding

And the rules were making it harder one by one to complete the challenge. As I said we were young and party animals. So we added alcohol into the game. (All of you responsible parents just skip this part by reading…)

• before each activity one strawberry shot (I used to make strawberry limes by myself)
• after each activity one, Gemsbok shot (Khalua & Amarula mixed)
• the only reason to stop the challenge is when two of us have to go to the hospital (Wait what? We really wrote that down? Can’t remember that part. Did I mention we were young and maybe stupid?)
• something with bikinis (like wearing them all day long?)
• all five activities have to be done in less than 24 hours

I just found a picture with the notes for the challenge. Couldn’t remember all of them. Some of them I had to read twice to make sure that was really what we meant.

The first challenge: surfing

The challenge of the first challenge was getting up early. Like really early. We needed some waves in order to be able to surf and that seemed to be six o’clock in the morning. Meaning we had to be in the water at 6 am.

Just to inform those of you who are not familiar with the climate of Namibia and Swakopmund in specific. It’s not a tropical surfing place alias sunbathing under palm trees. Due to the cold Benguela current coming up from the Antarctic not only the water is freezing cold, but the air too. Most of the days in the year the temperature is below 20 degrees.

Despite getting into summer we happen to choose a cold misty morning. It was still pitch black when we loaded the car with all the gear we needed. One driver got organized for the trip to get us from one place to another and one other girl came along as cheerleader. And videographer. Because the entire challenge had to be documented.

When we got to the ocean we didn’t feel like getting undressed and putting our wetsuits on. It was super cold. And still kind of dark. We could barely see the ocean due to the fog. The mist was hanging on the ground. A typical Swakop morning.

But there was no backing off. We got dressed in our thick, but not thick enough, wetsuits, took our first shot of alcohol at 5:55 am, and walked down the beach. We weren’t great surfers. Or surfers at all. We would go out with the boys sometimes and try our luck. But the ocean out here is quite rough and it’s not a place to learn to surf.

Here we are. Four girls fighting their way through the waves to get to the back of the swell. There might have been a scream when we first entered the water. The water temperature was probably barely above 10 degrees Celsius. But we were doing our job.

Paddling. Catching a wave. Trying to stand up. Falling into the water. Swallowing tons of seawater. Fighting our way back through the waves. Just to repeat it all over again.

The fourth girl actually joined us for the first challenge but left the water after a while. I caught one good wave which I decided to ride it out while being on the knees. When I try to stand up I fall off immediately.

One more last try. One of the other girls caught the same wave as me. We rode it out all the way to the beach. Session completed.

We’re awake now. I’m telling you that. Shivering, we’re getting back to the car just to get our second shot of alcohol. A delicious shot of Gemsbok. And I seem to remember us saying that it tasted and felt good. Despite the time of the day. It probably warmed us up.

Wrapped up in towels we make our way to town to grab a coffee and continue to the beach on the other side of Swakopmund. The wetsuits are still on since we have to go back into the ocean.

The second challenge: crayfish diving

One of the popular activities amongst locals between November and April is crayfish diving. You can catch your own delicious seafood. How awesome is that?

It has a long tradition in the town of Swakopmund and you will find crayfish on every menu in the restaurants in town. It’s not that easy to catch them though. I’ve joined the boys a lot. You have to dive down between the rocks, reach underneath them, and try to grab these creatures with your hands.

You can’t see the ground. The ocean here is everything else but clear. Lots of seaweed grows in between the rocks. And did I mention already that the water is cold?

Whilst the boys have the rule in the Ironman to catch at least one crayfish, we decided on the rule of diving for one hour. Which is most probably the longer option. The boys who judged us before the challenge said we would never come out of the water with a crayfish.

But let’s get in the water first. It’s just past seven o’clock. We take our next shot of strawberry limes, put the extra gear on, and dive in the freezing cold water. With an extra weight belt to help us dive down, we are on the hunt for the sea creatures.

Diving down. Grabbing on roots of seaweed to prevent us from drifting away we repeatedly dive down to the ground in order to catch something.

Looking at this picture you can see we walked out of the water with more than just one crayfish. The boys still don’t believe us but they weren’t there to watch us either. Too early for them.

Challenge two is done and finally, we can take these cold suits off our skin. Now the bikinis underneath just have to dry. Someone said we have to wear them all day long.

The third challenge: rock climbing

Finally, the more fun part starts. More fun or at least warmer. Being in a desert we only have to drive a few kilometers inland to reach 30 to 40 degrees Celsius. Which is where we go rock climbing. Our third challenge.

In the dried-out riverbed of the Swakop. Once in a few years, it carries water. The rest of the time it is a huge playground for the locals. They explore the area with bikes, 4x4s, fat bikes, and on foot.

Despite being young and maybe a bit ignorant we still look after each other. You don’t want to get sunburn in the desert. It’s a brutal one. Step one out here is to apply sunscreen.

We had one safety man with us. That is how we called him at least. One of our friends was back then the only real rock climber amongst us all. He was there to set up the route and secure us while we fought our way to the top.

This challenge took the longest since we all had to climb after each other. Looking at this picture now brings a lot of memories back up. In the meantime, I am a rock climbing instructor and have organized multiple rock climbing excursions by myself.

My climbers called me “safety-Anne” referring to the high safety standards I would enforce. Wearing a helmet while climbing on the rock was not debatable in my courses. Luckily none of my students knew about this picture.

Everyone has to start somewhere. And guess what, I learned.

It wasn’t an easy challenge. After all that fighting in the water for hours, our muscles were tired. The sun burned down on us and we were sweating a lot while climbing. But we made it. To the top.

One after the other.

In order to get to the dropzone, we drove through beautiful mountainous scenery. We’re on a roll now. A bit tipsy. And happy.

I just love this area.

And that time of my life.

The fourth challenge: skydiving

For this challenge, we needed help from the boys. Since none of us were licensed skydivers back then (now two of us are) we had to do a tandem skydive. Which is also the reason we could do all those shots of alcohol beforehand. It would obviously not have been possible if we would have jumped on our own.

Still for many people jumping out of a plane is something challenging. For one of us, it was the first jump ever. For the other two, it wasn’t. For me, it was my fifth tandem. And the last one. After this one, I started my training and with years of practice, I became a skydiving instructor myself.

Being the girl who doesn’t wear shoes I obviously did jump barefoot. The boys wanted to force us to jump in the bikinis but our vaguely held rules allowed us to throw a shirt above the bikini.

It’s still our challenge.

But we thank all of them for the work they did. There was a lot involved in order to let these jumps happen. We loved it. Had loads of fun. And shared smiles all around us.

The fifth and final challenge: sandboarding

Part of this last challenge was climbing the dune. Which is the only way to get to the top. After almost 11 hours of a full program, we were all tired. Really tired. We actually planned to do this activity in the evening. During full moon. But since the fog moved back in we wouldn’t have been able to board later in the day. The mist makes the sand wet and the boards wouldn’t slide anymore.

We originally planned to complete the challenge in 24 hours like the rules of the boys’ Ironman too. But due to the weather, we were aiming now at completing it in half of the time.

If we gonna get up that dune.

Now we were really tired. And I guess the alcohol in our body doesn’t make it easier. Looking at this massive dune. But it’s the last part of the challenge. We are not giving up now.

We grab our sandboards and boots and start hiking up. In bikinis. This time we are really wearing nothing else but our bikinis. The wind is blowing but we’re sweating.

At the top, we take a short break, wax the boards, and tie the shoes. Looking at each other if we’re ready. All three of us are snowboarders. Two of us are even snowboarding instructors. This should be the fun part. But we’re still not keen on faceplanting in the sand. In bikinis. During the first meters, we act shy. Then we let go. Ride out the dune all the way to the bottom.

And we smile.

We hike the dune two more times in order to get the hour of sandboarding full. Yes, it does take a while to get up there.

But in the end, we were lying in each others' arms.

We made it.

We completed the Ironwoman.

In TWELVE HOURS.

I remember driving back to town listening to “we could be heroes” from Alesso. Repeating the phrase “we can do anything” over and over again. It ended up being the song of the challenge. And the song of the night. We celebrated our success. Obviously.

And the boys actually came to congratulate. A few of them said they didn’t think we would finish. But they were proud of us.

Thank you. We appreciate those words.

And we showed the male-dominated industry what women are capable of. Teamwork is the key. If women work together nothing can stop them.

Thank you again to everyone involved in this challenge. It was an amazing event. Great memories to look back at. Special thanks to Des & Nici. You are awesome!

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