Labuan Cross Channel Swim - DNF

I did cross the channel from Labuan to Pulau Papan, but didn’t make it back to Labuan. I got sea sick (motion sickness) while swimming in the choppy waters. I reached the checkpoint boat at the island and was only able to swim a few hundred meters back. I felt nauseas and disorientated and decided to throw in the towel.

I must have swum about 3 KM.

I get motion sickness easily, on buses, boats, trains and even car. But usually I’ll just take some motion sickness pills and it works. I didn’t expect I would and could get motion sickness while swimming. Will surely try this again next year, and this time I’ll be prepared. I’ll try.

Congratulations to Faizal and Keeran for completing the swim, they did it in under 2 hrs.
More info and pictures from the trip at PNG’s site. Thanks bro for joining us and taking the awesome photos.



What is motion sickness?

If you've ever been sick to your stomach while riding in a car, train, airplane, or boat, you know exactly what motion sickness feels like. It's no fun.

To understand motion sickness, it helps to understand a few parts of your body and how they affect the way you feel movement:

• inner ears - liquid in the semicircular canals of the inner ear allows you to sense if you're moving, and, if you are, which way you're moving - up, down, side to side, round and round, forward, or backward.
• eyes - what you see also lets your body know whether you're moving and in which direction.
• skin receptors - these receptors tell your brain which parts of your body are touching the ground.
• muscles and joint sensory receptors - these sensing receptors tell your brain if you're moving your muscles and which position your body is in.

The brain gets an instant report from these different parts of your body and tries to put together a total picture about what you are doing just at that moment. But if any of the pieces of this picture don't match, you can get motion sickness.

For example, if you're riding in a car and reading a book, your inner ears and skin receptors will detect that you are moving forward. However, your eyes are looking at a book that isn't moving, and your muscle receptors are telling your brain that you're sitting still. So the brain gets a little confused. Things may begin to feel a little scrambled inside your head at that point.

When this happens, you might feel really tired, dizzy, or sick to your stomach. Sometimes you might even throw up. And if you're feeling scared or anxious, your motion sickness might get even worse.

http://kidshealth.org/kid/ill_injure/sick/motion_sickness.html

More info and remedies for motion sickness: here, here, here, here