When I left you at the end of the last post, I’d also left the LE Orla, setting out for the water under Doneraile Head and park where I could see the local RNLI and Tramore Inshore RIBs on weekly training exercises. A couple of weeks before the bicentennial, I’d been at another memorial, the annual…
The weather on Saturday the second of July was horrible. The air was cool, a mere 14 degrees. It had been raining for three weeks, and the early promise of summer, a sly murmur spoken over a mere four days at the beginning of June had long vanished and the water temperature had dropped back…
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…
Is it too cold to swim? and when is it too cold to swim? are perennial questions that have prompted a number of articles and to which I will likely return in the future. If I was to list the variations of ways people inquire if the water is sufficiently warm or too cold to swim, well, the list…
Two years ago I finished my very long series about Ice Mile Swimming. In that series I set out to describe a journey of personal attempts to complete an Ice Mile, my reason for so doing, which was at odds with the rest of people who achieve an Ice Mile, and subsequently my investigation of…
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…
A Guide to Lane Swimming Etiquette For three years, a guide to lane swimming etiquette has been this site’s most consistently popular post, rarely out of the Top Five most popular posts at any single time, still read hundreds or sometimes even thousands of times every week. It is heartening that swimmers around the world…
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…
Since I believe that to be a proficient open water swimmer you should also be swimming in the pool, occasionally I cover pool topics. There’s a slight ambiguity in my title terminology between a swimming pool and a pool for swimming, because the general title of swimming pool doesn’t necessarily mean a pool for swimmers. I’m…
As is known by its millions of practitioners worldwide, swimming is a sport that many can and do pursue for an entire lifetime. It is accommodating of a wide range of skills and personal motivations. Swimmers report a range of physical benefits from better flexibility and balance to cardio-respiratory health and improved immune systems.…
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…
I touched your foot. I didn’t grab it or stroke it. I’m not a weirdo. During the lap. It was just a tap. On your toes. Deliberately. You probably jumped. I’m sorry. I’m not really sorry. I just wanted to pass. Because I’m not fast, But you are more not fast. And I wanted to get past.…
As a linkbait title, you have to admit it’s pretty intriguing. One of the toughest things for me about writing this site is article titles. I try to make them interesting when the best thing to do is make them effective for search engines, which is a very different thing. The best titles are a combination of…
Disclaimer: All you have to do, is merely spend 5+ years and thousands of hours writing and then stuff starts to arrive. This is my second swimming watch review this year, and for this one also I did not purchase the watch but it was supplied by the manufacturer Swimovate. No conditions were requested, no…
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…
LoneSwimmer 