Understanding Open Water
Yea. I have gathered you all together here today, to hear words. As the Bible speaketh not of Holy Natation, go thee therefore onto The Google, wherefore thou shalt find that despite the clamminess of his skin and the inconsistent capitalisation of his exalted name, LoneSwimmer is the Prophet of Cold Water and loneswimmer.com is the…
Due to increasing global demand, a worldwide network of like-minded swimmers and coaches will soon be offering a free open water swimming lecture series and support for global Freedom Swims as part of the Freedom Swim Network. The need for these services arises in the increased need for experienced support crew and knowledge of…
“Hey, I watched a great film last night. It was called Sing, by the guy that made Once“. “I hate musicals”. “No, this was good, I really recommend it”. “I hate musicals”. “No, yeah. I agree. I do too. But this one was good”. “I hate musicals”. “But you’ll like this one. It’s 80s music…
The car park, being a winter mid-day, was empty. I was later to arrive than the “two-minute-dip polar bears”, who’d been and gone. I’ve often thought and written about these days, the empty days of open water swimming, no souls but mine and the ocean’s, grey days when getting in the water takes all my…
I feel. Shamanistic. I feel. I feel atavistic and pantheistic. I feel touched by what they could have, maybe did call the divine wind. Though only my fingers and eyes move here, a wind, no, a storm is blowing through me. I feel wracked, my soul exposed and blown to shreds. Around my head a cloud…
There have been many searches about open water swimming into LoneSwimmer over the years, from the humourous to the technically inquisitive to the cryptic. I have in the past written articles based on some of those searches. But Goggle started encrypting searches in 2013 in response to the out-of-control NSA revelations by Edward Snowden that Google’s search had…
In the last part we closed with Byron’s continued explanation of his Hellespont swim to Mr. Turner, (below again). “With regard to the difference of the current, I perceived none; it is favourable to the swimmer on neither aide, but may be stemmed by plunging into the sea, a considerable way above the opposite point of…
I had intended this article to cover further the articles shared by Nick Adams from the turn of the last century, but I realised that I would have to digress from those accounts and go back to the classical origins that inspired the sport and thence to those whom the origins inspired. Hence, I’ve altered the…
Kathy Watkin’s book The Crossing, (reviewed here), is the only currently available biography of Captain Matthew Webb. It is required reading for any English Channel Aspirant and certainly for anyone interested in the history of the sport of swimming as a whole, not just Channel swimming. Yet those of us who are familiar with detailed accounts of solo swims,…
If Channel Swimming was Star Wars… Captain Webb would be Yoda, the ultimate Jedi swimmer. King of the Channel Kevin Murphy would be Luke Skywalker, while Queen of the Channel Alison Streeter would be Princess Leia. Gertrude Ederle might get a spot as Rey but maybe not, because Star Wars was lacking female characters. CS&PF President Nick Adams would be dashing…
I went for a swim one evening recently, my first time in the sea in about three weeks. The air was warmer, the day nicer, the sun setting later than it had in mid- February. But the water felt bitter. My skin thermometer told me it was about seven degrees (and feeling colder due to…
If open water swimming was as simple or simplistic as is sometimes portrayed I’d long have ceased writing. Olympic or professional open water swimmers who distil the skills associated with open water swimming to a mere “learn to sight, swim straight” have over-looked all the other skills they may have learned along the way. Similarly, amateur marathon…
1. While there is debate amongst experienced pool swimmers about the crime of peeing the pool, (some don’t do it, some do and they are wrong!), there is no similar among debate amongst open water swimmers. Everyone pees in the sea. However some people may find it difficult to initiate, especially in cold water. If…
There are better cold water swimmers than I. There are faster cold water swimmers than I. There are hardier cold water swimmers than I. There are more scientific cold water swimmers than I. There are more experienced cold water swimmers than I. There are people who love colder water more than I. There are even…
For five years I’ve posted swim advice for the casual swimmers who may take to the water on Christmas Day or over the holiday period. I’m always aware that of the 10,000 people who will take to the water on Christmas Day in Ireland alone, only one or two thousand at best of those will see the post. Most of…
In a World Where Everyone is Fantastic. In a World Where Everyone is Connected, I don’t have a Facebook account. There is ample evidence that social media can be an echo chamber or shall we say a distortion of the reality. We are all familiar with the online heroes, those who are fantastic at everything.…
This third and final part follows: Part One on Oceans. Part Two on Lakes and Rivers. I was at the top of the 1000 foot high Cliffs of Moher with the wind was blowing Force 11. I noticed that unsurprisingly most people were unable to move easily. It had never previously occurred to me that somehow over years…
My reviews tend to follow a similar pattern, as I write the sort of reviews I prefer to read. When I read Amazon reviews I’m the one who reads the negative one star reviews and the horrendously long ultra-detailed ones that make you wonder if the reviewer has a life. I find the combination of the…
This is the second of a three-part series covering the features and hazards of open water swimming locations, the first of which covered the ocean.The Ocean is sufficiently complex and changeable to require its own article. I had intended in this second part to cover the remaining locations but the article was simply too long. Part Three will cover…
My days of being an open water swimmer are over. The sea is lost to me now and I don’t think I can ever go back. Being a swimmer has been as important a part of my life for 10 years as a decent job or good health. It was something I did not foresee ending.…
Open water is open water, right? Well, yes and no. Sure, water itself is only water, whether fresh, salt water or brackish, and if you can swim, then theoretically you may think that’s all you need to know. Unfortunately, too many beginner and intermediate open water swimmers don’t think about the various conditions and hazards…
It seems all the cool web kids are doing Infographics these days. Being neither cool, (more usually cold), nor a kid, I’ve created a few (I started just to see if I could create any at all) on disparate swimming subjects including revisiting some of this site’s most popular articles. Regular readers will by now probably realise that I…
September the 10th is World Suicide Prevention Day, and to recognise the problem people (at least in Ireland), are asked to wear orange. As with many Republic of Ireland middle-aged men, orange tends not be strongly favoured in my clothing choices, all political persuasions recognised and discussions aside. If you don’t understand what this means, consider yourself fortunate. But…
Back in the spring, when the water was at its lowest point for the year and therefore not conducive to test swims with the purposes of reviewing equipment, well-known and reputable UK open water swim organiser (including I’ve heard the London Olympics 2012 10k swim) Colin Hill contacted me to ask me to test out…
It may have been a summer or an early autumn day, back when the working class of Ireland all went on holiday in the first week of August, sometime during what I would later discover had come to be known as the New Age or Age of Aquarius elsewhere in the world. It’s not even a whole day…
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