Not even the threat of great white sharks could deter some 5000 competitors, and an estimated 30,000 spectators, from the annual Lorne Pier to Pub on Saturday.
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In blisteringly-hot conditions, and with the smell of coconut oil and saltwater heavy in the air, wave after wave of wet-suited competitors took to the 1.2km course - the largest open-water competition in the world.
Shark precautions were evident everywhere, with a great white spotted off Lorne beach less than a day earlier. Helicopters buzzed above, and all but official competition drones were banned from the beach to keep the airspace clear for shark monitoring.
At 86, Dorothy Dickey was the oldest competitor, swimming her 31st Pier to Pub race (the event itself is only 37 years old).
Mrs Dickey, who swims four times a week with the Doncaster Dolphins and goes to the gym twice a week (Wednesdays are reserved for University of the Third Age classes), led three generations of women in her family to swim the race.
Daughter Janette Dickey, 56, swam the 5km race (making it the "20-somethingth" time she has competed), and grand-daughter Shelley Hogg, 13, swam 1.2km, her first race.
Still breathless after the race, Mrs Dickey said the camaraderie of the event kept her coming back, as well as the thrill of ocean swimming.
"And I even beat the men [in the Legends category], she exclaimed. "How good is that!"
The open men's heat was fiercely fought between gold Olympian Mack Horton, and last year's winner, Australian Swim Team member and lifesaver Sam Sheppard.
The pair stormed through the breaking waves towards shore, neck and neck, before Sheppard hauled himself to his feet a heartbeat before Horton, and sprinted ahead of him to the finish line, in 11 minutes and 16 seconds - just one second ahead of Horton. Matt Gilling took out third place, with 11 minutes and 37 seconds.
Asked whether he was worried about the threat of sharks, Sheppard - now a seven-time winner - dead-panned: "It's just great whites you have to worry about. All the other sharks, they're just like puppy dogs, they'll just come up and give you a nip".
Horton observed: "To be honest, it's probably the safest place in all of Victoria to be swimming today."
Last year's women's winner, Harriet Brown won the open women's heat, taking 12 minutes and 13 seconds to finish the course. Brown, the 2016 World Ironwoman Champion in surf lifesaving, said the thought of sharks never entered her mind. "I'm in the ocean every day," she said.
Naantali Marshall - who Brown now joins as a six-time champion - swam 12 minutes and 41 seconds, and Kira Kinsey swam the course in 12 minutes and 46 seconds.
The event's youngest competitor, Harry Hay, 12, took to the swim like a fish to water - as you'd expect for a member of the Lorne Surf Life Saving Club's Nipper program. "It was good - it was kind of different, but it wasn't too hard."
Race director Mark Williamson said organisers had been working with Life Saving Victoria's helicopters to survey the course, jet skiers were monitoring the outer edge of the course and Fisheries boats were working further out.
"But of course, we're a lifesaving club, and safety is our number one priority, so if there is a shark sighting in our course we'll be stopping."
Fairhaven Beach remained closed after reports of a shark there on Saturday morning, and there were also reports of sharks off Split Point Lighthouse at Aireys Inlet and off Eastern View.
A Life Saving Victoria spokeswoman said there had been a confirmed sighting of a shark at Black Rocks in Anglesea on Saturday morning.
On Friday, five great white sharks were spotted in the waters off Aireys Inlet, Big Hill, Eastern View, Fairhaven, Lorne, Memorial Arch and Moggs Creek.
- with Neelima Choahan
