{"id":492177,"date":"2026-02-20T10:25:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T10:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/492177\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T10:25:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T10:25:08","slug":"rottnest-channel-swim-cancelled-due-to-strong-winds-choppy-seas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/492177\/","title":{"rendered":"Rottnest Channel Swim cancelled due to strong winds, choppy seas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Forecast bad weather has forced the cancellation of Perth’s iconic Rottnest Channel Swim just 14 hours before it was due to start, leaving thousands of swimmers and support crew disappointed.<\/p>\n

Authorities said the conditions made the event too unsafe to proceed.<\/p>\n

Some of the 2,500 swimmers had already made the call not to race in the 48 hours prior to the 19.7 kilometre event being cancelled.<\/p>\n

Rottnest Channel Swim race director Rob Herkes said he shared the frustration and disappointment of all participants.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Swimmers<\/p>\n

Swimmers and organisers have been left disappointed by the cancellation.\u00a0 (ABC News: Eliza Laschon)<\/p>\n

“[It’s a] tough decision, somewhat frustrating, the weather just was not in our favour to provide a safe crossing for all participants heading to Rottnest tomorrow,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s with great disappointment from everyone involved in the association that we had to make that decision, but it is the right decision.”<\/p>\n

Mr Herkes said a large percentage of participants would have struggled to make the crossing to the island in the forecast conditions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“With such strong winds inshore right off the beach, we’re looking at 18-20 knots just off the beach, before we start getting out into deeper water where those winds increase,” he said.<\/p>\n

Organiser Will Rollo told ABC Radio Perth on Friday morning that dozens of swimmers had already made the call not to swim the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the weather forecast has been broadcast for days, Mr Rollo said delaying the decision until as close to kick-off as possible was in line with their risk management plan.<\/p>\n

Weather warning looms over iconic Rottnest Channel Swim<\/a><\/p>\n

As thousands of people prepare to tackle Western Australia’s iconic Rottnest Island Swim, strong weather warnings are threatening to grind it to a halt just 48 hours before it begins.<\/p>\n

Mr Rollo said his organisation had learnt lessons from 2024 when the race was canned mid-way due to weather conditions.<\/p>\n

Several people in that event had to be pulled from the water and taken to hospital for assessment as conditions deteriorated.<\/p>\n

Participants were notified of the cancellation via text message late on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n

“The Rottnest Channel Swim Association would like to acknowledge the swimmers and support crews who have trained, prepared and travelled for this event,” a spokesperson said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“We understand the cancellation may have left some participants disappointed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“This decision was made to ensure the safety of all event participants, which is always the top priority.”<\/p>\n

The statement also highlighted that no refunds would be offered due to the event cancellation.<\/p>\n

“While we understand the disappointment stemming from the event cancellation, it’s important to note that event costs unfortunately cannot be refunded, nor can the event be rescheduled,” it said.<\/p>\n

“As per the event terms and conditions, there are no refunds for the cancellation or withdrawal of team\/duo registrations at all, or for solo registrations after the 28 November 2025.”<\/p>\n

Mr Herkes said all the money raised so far – nearly $300,000 – will go to charities, while the food organised for the volunteers will go to a homeless service.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“From a swimmer’s perspective, from a skipper’s perspective, I know how hard everyone has trained and the efforts that everyone has put in in order to get to the start line tomorrow,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Our first and foremost priority is to keep you all safe, and unfortunately tomorrow is not one of those days where we can provide you a safe environment for you to swim.”<\/p>\n

The RCSA said it had explored the option of moving the event to another day, but that was not feasible due to the “enormous” amount and cost of logistics, including management of the shipping lane.<\/p>\n

The Rottnest Channel Swim has been cancelled once in 2007 due to dangerous weather conditions, and was abandoned once in 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Forecast bad weather has forced the cancellation of Perth’s iconic Rottnest Channel Swim just 14 hours before it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[248570,64,63,220532,86,248572,248569,176534,248564,248561,248556,248563,248560,248559,248571,248557,248566,248568,248558,248565,85,45,248567,248562],"class_list":["post-492177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-abalone-season-postpone","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cottesloe-beach","tag-perth-news","tag-rottnest-channel-swim-update","tag-rottnest-fgerry","tag-rottnest-island","tag-rottnest-island-channel-swim","tag-rottnest-island-ferry-times","tag-rottnest-island-swim","tag-rottnest-island-swim-cancelled","tag-rottnest-island-swim-start-time","tag-rottnest-solo-crossing","tag-rottnest-swikm-update","tag-rottnest-swim","tag-rottnest-swim-2026","tag-rottnest-weather-forecast","tag-rottnest-weather-update","tag-rotto-swim","tag-sports","tag-wa-news","tag-weather-rottnest","tag-will-rottnest-swim-be-cancelled"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}