This time of year I get more emails and PM’s asking about English Channel pilots, tides, Associations, Channel costs etc and all the related stuff. During a recent weathered-out trip to Dover in September for Sylvain Estadieu’s English Channel butterfly swim, which included yet another a trip out into the Channel, a tour of a…
Parts 1& 2. As I said previously, I endured three hours of the panel on the telephone before bailing out about thirty minutes before the end. You are surely thinking to yourself, only three hours compared to this unending series? Yes, that’s how I feel also, actually. 🙂 Swim promoter, panel organiser, Moderator and former Observer…
Part 1. – An outsider’s opinion – Introduction Critical Start Timing and Boat Availability Timing is critical for MIMS as swimmers and applicants are essentially told, as a MIMS Selection Committee Member points out; “MIMS is timed very precisely – on a specific kind of tide, at a specific point in the cycle – to give…
Acting as Official Observer for a swim that has no governing association can still require an Observer’s Report. There are too many details to keep track to ensure you will remember them all. A full observer’s report can act as a checklist. It’s primary function is to capture all the relevant detail of a…
This is an updated version of a post from a few years ago on following marathon swims online, with the specifics mostly aimed at English Channel swimming. This is mostly for those unfamiliar with following a swim and I’ll try to explain a couple of anticipated questions before they arise. Channel swimming is a sport…
Varne Ridge Caravan Park is such a personal part of the Channel swimming experience for myself and so many others that it is impossible to contemplate a Dover visit without Varne (as it is called) being an integral part. Every Channel swimming or crewing trip of mine to date (and I’m losing count) has involved…
Part 1. The first few hundred metres out to the first corner are the most shallow and generally considered difficult swimming on a low tide due to heavy tough seaweed. Around the fourth (nearest to slipway) corner is also very shallow and can require a long detour if approached from the third corner on a…
During the summer of 2013 I indexed all the cold and cold water swimming How Tos for your easy perusal. This time I am indexing the HowTo articles, each again getting a brief description. HOWTO be an open water swimmer… One of the first posts on loneswimmer.com HOWTO: Open water swim tips for beginners open water swimmers…
In 2010 during English Channel training Coach EilĂs imposed certain strictures and deadlines. One of these was that on the first week of May  we would swap from primarily pool training to primarily sea training. May. It’s a word and name laden with the promise of summer. In Ireland and the UK may is…
I love swimming at my favourite places such as Kilfarassey, Sandycove and the Guillamenes. but I also love swimming at new places and there aren’t that many left to me on the Waterford Coast. It’s been some time since I did Project Copper Coast, swimming from Powerstown Head as far as Stradbally. There’s a gap…
Because I live and swim in Ireland, I am constantly made aware of the large tidal range here. I’ve written extensively about tides previously because I feel they are an aspect of open water swimming not appreciated by enough swimmers and because global variations can mean that many people never see nor even realise the…
In Part One I covered the physiological limiting factors in marathon swimming. The various environmental aspects of a swim are not insignificant. They are especially important in that they all lay outside the swimmer’s control and often even outside the control of the support crew. Water Temperature This is generally a known factor prior to a…
Salt Mouth Unlike Third Spacing of Fluids, salt mouth is one of the most common and least visible or appreciated effects of marathon swimming and can cause the swimmer great distress and discomfort, and yet it’s invisible to everyone else. Salt Mouth is the effect of salt build up on the tongue and in the…
100 milliseconds: Contraction time, aka male shrinkage time in 5 degree Celsius water. Zero, aka Go, aka Scratch: The fastest group, the elites, the last wave to go in an open water race. It’s ok to hate them. 0 seconds Rest Interval (R.I.): When you are not making your 100 max repeat times. You want…
How many photos and posts of the Guillamenes have you seen here on loneswimmer.com? If you are a regular visitor that is. Quite a few. (You should see the hundred of pictures in my photo library that haven’t made it here but which I still keep taking). How many of you from around the world know…
Part 1. Post-Swim Events I struggled to get my sandals on, then climbed the steps to my swim box to get changed. It was another struggle, as my swim box wasn’t against the wall on the bench, as the other guys had filled up the space before me pre-swim. Instead it was balanced on the…
Trent Grimsey’s Channel record again raises the question: What’s the best possible English Channel record time? Here’s the English Channel record progression charted. No good record list is complete without an asterisk. In this case the asterisked years are France to England (F-E) swims. The records are gender independent as three women set the record.…
There has been some discussion, questions and indeed argument arising from Trent Grimsey’s record-breaking English Channel swim, within the marathon swimming community. This centres around whether Trent swimming on or behind Gallivant’s bow wave makes it an assisted swim. Just in case you don’t know what I’m speaking about, riding a bow wave is where…
I came across this gem from 1963 in Sports Illustrated archives a couple of years ago. I’m just going to reprint it. Hey, an easy day, no writing! * From Donaghadee in Northern Ireland to Portpatrick in Scotland is a fraction under 21 miles. Between the two land masses the sea rages in swollen tides and hungry eddies. Out…
Part 1. This swim is told from two viewpoints, of both Wayne and his crew chief Paul. Wayne’s is the grey text on the left, Paul Greenhalgh’s text is in green and justified to the right. ******************************************************************* We finally made a GO decision on Thursday evening to swim on Sunday, I booked flight tickets for Saturday, we…
I’m delighted to have another historic swim report for you to read. Toward the end of August (2012) just passed, Wayne Soutter, originally from South Africa, contacted the Channel Chat group, looking for any last-minute thoughts or advice on his attempt to swim the never-before successfully swam Mull of Kintyre to Ballycastle route, instead of the only…
Continuing to take advantage of unusually warm water that is completely out of sync with the crap summer we are experiencing, I’ve been revisiting some of the caves and arches from last year’s Project Copper now that I have a waterproof camera (oop, just realised I must do a review of it) to take…
This is astonishing. Â – Donal *** Tsugarui Channel FEAR AND LOATHING JAPANESE STYLE Saturday 14/7/12 in Tapi Japan 4.00. I am going blind from checking the weather on my phone. Every one of the weather apps tell me today is going to flat calm with light north-westerly winds, hard to believe after the gales of…
New York maps show Manhattan Island plumbing a line from north to south, bounded by three rivers, the East and Harlem rivers circumscribe the east curve of Gotham with the East River swerving out and around lower Manhattan, up through Hell Gate and the confluence of the East and Harlem rivers and the Long Island…
I was pretty excited a few month’s ago to be asked by Simon Griffiths, editor of the world’s first and only open water swimming magazine, to write a post on a subject I feel pretty strongly about; tides. You feel strongly about tides, Donal? You are even weirder than we thought. The magazine has previously…
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