This post begins a new series here on Loneswimmer.com. There are certain patterns that I’ve seen repeated over the years. There are certain experiences that recur, certain thoughts that reappear, coming anew each year. Though previously experienced, all feel fresh each time, only deepened by the growing realisation that what were once first-time or rare…
I need you to believe me on these two things. To the best of my knowledge, the only three people who have really seen the Yellow Sea, are Tramore inshore fisherman, skipper of the Little Tern John Stubbs, local (international record-holding) kayaker Mick O’Meara …and myself. Three of us three who haunt the Copper Coast,…
The Simple Rule of Rough Water Exits I’m going to continue by reiterating the most important point from Part One. The first, easiest and more common way of dealing with rough water exits is to not get into the water unless the water is calm. It’s an option many novices fail to consider and they often…
Introduction I haven’t previously tackled the subject of water exits specifically, though I have covered it in general terms in a number of articles. Especially those articles which try to condense the basics of open water swimming considerations for beginners and irregular swimmers, such as beginners or triathletes I haven’t written about exits because anyone…
I stand and I watch and I look. The sky is blue. The sky is grey. There are clouds, there are no clouds. There is wind. There is always Father Wind, always Mother Ocean. Wind blows onshore, a santoku knife chops up the water surface, spray and solid lumps of water scatter. Wind blows offshore…
What is the Ameo Powerbreather? It’s a “revolutionary” …well…snorkel. You’ve probably seen pics of it online, looking like something a Storm Trooper would wear for a visit to the enlisted clone’s pool on the 745th Lower Deck of the Death Star. Or maybe more like Darth Vader without his helmet. Maybe…Darth Loneswimmer? Let’s call…
The pool temperature had been out of control for four weeks, only dropping below 30°C (86° F.). for four days out of thirty. It was difficult being constantly frustrated by excuses which had already long run their course, the problem having intermittently recurred since the pool fire six months ago. (Remember the pool fire?) Casuals…
As mentioned in the first part, this irregular series resulted from the great documentation that former CS&PF President and multiple English Channel swimmer Nick Adams generously shared with me from his copy of the relevant Fry’s Outdoor Magazine. The series quickly grew into an overview of the early years of marathon swimming. Part One and…
Time means nothing. Yet marathon swimmers, as a group of endurance athletes who more than most should know this, also consistently ignore the lesson and ask “how fast were you?” or “what was your time?“? We allow ourselves to be deluded into ascribing more importance to time, in its incarnation of speed than it deserves.…
I joined the boarding queue, just as a vaguely familiar chap joined the queue just in front of me. My suspicion from earlier that I knew him was correct. We chatted, he’d been there on urgent family business. He’d guessed I’d been on early holiday in the popular location, but during the conversation I responded (or as…
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…
It’s a prayer though entirely non-denominational and entirely religion free, but feel free to impose your belief system or lack thereof on it. Feel free to call it a wish, or a blessing or another bad Lone Swimmer poem.
It gets better from Down Here. Down Here it’s the coldest and the shortest swims. Down Here is where we separate ourselves from the newbies, the dippers, the triathletes, the fakes, the Christmas Day and mystic swimmers. Down Here is where we differentiate ourselves, even from ourselves. Down Here is the bottom of the bathtub…
“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…
The local pool and gym is taking part in Operation Transformation in January. So there will be six weeks of hell in the pool, as most will not succeed. and will have given up by mid February. This is the same as almost every pool and gym in the world, it will just be exacerbated…
Our eponymous hero first appeared in the letters column of H2Open magazine back in 2012, subsequent to Simon Griffith, (editor of H2Open) posting a link to the one of the articles I’d written about pool lane swimming etiquette. Bob was not happy. Bob was very not happy. I was an elitist. I was…a lane hog.…
Swimmers love to eat, quite a lot, and to talk about how they eat almost as much. Yet there is little discussion of food on this site. The last time I wrote a recipe here was some years ago with the Swimmer’s Smoothie, which I still heartily recommend for those many people who struggle with early morning…
Rolling across the water from somewhere in the distance I could hear the sound of bells. Under the water’s surface the luminous dial of my watch showed six PM. So. The Angelus Bells, the Catholic call to prayer. Sound travels far across water. It must be coming the whole way from the church in Fenor…
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,…
LoneSwimmer 