I have waited a long time for this official announcement and am very proud and honoured that Lisa has chosen loneswimmer.com to announce her big swim for this year. But before we get to that … For those of you who don’t know, Lisa Cummins was the twentieth person to swim a two-way English Channel…
This phrase is a consistent Google autocorrect search term that bring people to the site so I thought I would use it directly. I’ve previously written a couple of posts on understanding waves, theory and some practical. Writing recently about the 2010 eight hour pool-training swim followed by a sea swim, I was reminded of the…
(I accidentally sent out a brief version of this post yesterday to subscribers, sorry about that). Some of you will have already seen Stephen’s own post-Cook swim report. He emailed me on Saturday night so I can put it up here. He titled it a “Widowmaker swim”. Stephen is not prone to exaggeration so for him…
Recently I wrote about how I consider safe entry and exit points and possibility of swimming at all tide times to be a critical requirement of a good open water swim location. Kids growing tend to think the whole world is the same as their local experience. Though I didn’t live by the coast growing…
Steve Munatones posted a list of possible features on dailynewsofopenwaterswimming.com for a good open water swimming spot some time back. 1. Year-round conditions 2. Summer conditions 3. Abundance or absence of marine life. If marine life is known, how does the abundance or absence of sharks, dolphins, turtles, jellyfish, Portuguese man o’ war positively or negatively…
The Celtic Sea is that section of the Atlantic off the south Irish Coast. The Irish Sea is the sea between Ireland and the UK. The Western Approaches is the large rectangular stretch of water south and west of Ireland and the UK, i.e. the Atlantic Isles, including these two seas. The term Western Approaches…
There are swimming legends around the world. Little known outside our sport. Some past, some current. In a country with a very small population of only four million, Ireland is only occasionally successful in International Sport, and we celebrate our sporting heroes as a consequence. But in Open Water Marathon swimming, we excel. World Open…
Reflections on Project Copper. I’ve swam about 54,000 metres to cover the 25 kilometre coast, which were swum as a series of out and back swims, so every metre of coast was swam twice. With the experience I’ve gained of the various currents on this stretch of coast, I now know there are longer swims…
In 2010 while Channel training I did the majority of my Waterford training at Clonea, trying to eek out some fractional comfort from the average extra 0.25 degree Celsius water temperatures, after spending the previous few years mainly swimming at the Guillamene, where I returned again last winter and this spring and early summer. But…
A last-minute decision was made. What the hell, I might as well do it. It’s the closest swim and the swim run by (one) of my own clubs and at my most regular swimming location. I’d met a few of the club regulars the day before when I made a failed attempt at my own Mo…
This is the first post about exploring some new or lesser swum areas along the South East coast. Whiting Bay is on the Dungarvan side, just around the headland from Ferrypoint in Youghal Bay, in Cork. Capel Island is visible in the west, beyond Youghal. Mairead Ní Eidhean swam from there into Youghal some years back, swimming…
Part 1. As part of the Cork Distance week two years, some of the attendees swam the inside of the Valentia Sound, to literally test the water. Rob and Lisa were the only two in this year’s swim who had been present. We knew the race would be longer, about 7.4k versus the 6k around…
It was difficult to decide what to write about today. Do I pull out a “here’s one I made earlier” post? Do I just write about swimming this week with friend and English Channel Soloist Ciáran Byrne? Finish the Beginish post or something else? It was similar last year after Rob’s EC attempt. I really…
Alcatraz? Hellespont? Dover? Possibly but I’d like add: Ireland. We took a trip a Dublin two weeks and went down to take some pictures just for today, (Bloomsday), June 16th, of The Forty Foot which appears in the opening of the twentieth centuries most famous novel, James Joyce’s Ulysses. “The sea, the snotgreen sea, the scrotumtightening sea”, as…
Ok, if you’re a regular here, you know by now I have an interest in these feckers, partly because we get a lot of them in Tramore Bay, I’ve been stung more times than I can remember (first two very minor stings of the year yesterday), AND they are fascinating. On one hand I like…
I don’t want to be accused of hypocrisy, given my own habits and the site name. So I deliberately didn’t write much originally about Open Water Rule Number One, though I’ve mentioned it in passing quite a few times. But I would also be less than honest if I avoid it completely. Open water swimming Rule Number…
Lisa Cummins, Danny Walsh, and myself tackled the 24 miles in 24 hours swim challenge this weekend past, as I briefly mentioned last week. Mark Robson alerted us to this UK charity swim back in January/February. I thought it sounded like fun and asked a few of my regular swim friends and the rest of…
On the visit to Dover last weekend, we all stopped at Varne Ridge to take phots of this year’s wall plaques. Her’s the first, with Lian, Jen, the Stiletto relay team, Sue, Ian, Stephane & the Italian relay team who were all on the same tides.
So I get grief for swimming alone and offshore. Eilís has thrown the head at me occasionally. Dee also has to control her panic. The other guys have berated me on occasion. Partly because of that (and partly seeking warmer water), I’ve been swimming a lot at Clonea this year. It’s been rough cold water,…
Year ago, I used to use a Palm Pilot with an application to tell me the tide times at various locations in Ireland. I also had a Windows program called Wxtide that displayed the Irish tides. Both however were changed such that the tides for Ireland and the UK were no longer available. When I…
Yes folks, time to warn you all. Spring has been well and truly under-way in the ocean for some time now. The dead give-away is the deepening green of the water indicating the first and largest plankton blooms. (Note the banner colour of my blog again!). Early “action” isn’t particularly visible but the next most…
Clonea Beach Beach, about 2000 meters in length but swimming distance can be further. Parking at both ends. Shallow beach means quicker entry at high tide, but there are submerged rocks right in front of the parking at the Clonea Strand Hotel end of beach most of which are hidden at high tide. A common…
Kilfarassy to Metalman About 5 KM. Nice swim but only one other safe entry/exit point. Should only be swum on correct tide due to tide stream. Kilmurrin Cove to Dunbrattin Kilmurrin Cove is a small horseshoe cove about two miles from Bunmahon. It’s safe to swim in the cove but there are strong rip currents…
For the South/South East, very warm water temperature, if we get them (which we haven’t really the last 2 summers), would be 17°C/18°C i.e. 62.5°F/64°F. Or at least there were 4/5 days I recall last year that I swam here in those temps. There was no consistent period however at that level, except one good…
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