Posts, interviews and opinions from guest open water swimming writers.
I’ve only met Quinton Nelson twice. But since each time I spent a good 15 hours on his boat, the beautiful ex-RNLI boat, the Guy And Clare Hunter, I guess that counts for something. I’ve been (mostly) fortunate enough over the past six years to have met quite a few pilots. Some of them belong to the…
Sam Krohn is an Australian open water swimmer, resident in the south-east of Ireland since his family moved here when he was young, Sam’s a regular swimmer at my own usual location of Tramore’s Newtown and Guillamenes coves. He’s also a regular reader of and the most regular commenter to this blog. Sam and I kept missing opportunities to go…
Sylvain Estadieu, aka The Flying Frenchman, came to Ireland in 2008, where he became a Sandycove Island swimmer. He Soloed the English Channel in 2009. So despite his origin and travels around the world, and currently living in Sweden, Ireland and Sandycove will always have a claim on him. During Channel training Sylle became notorious…
As long-time readers will know, Rob The Bull Bohane, Ciarán Byrne and Finbarr Hedderman are all Sandycove Island Swim Club members, English Channel Soloists and very good friends. Ciarán and Rob are two members of our 2010 Magnificent Seven Channel training squad. All three are very experienced open and cold water swimmers, and are three…
It’s with great delight that I have this thought-provoking article from Dr. Karen Throsby. If you are a Channel swimmer you are most certain to know Karen or at the very least know of her. Karen is a Sociology lecturer and researcher in Warwick College in the UK. I first met Karen in 2010 at the…
A couple of weeks after his record-breaking English Channel swim, I put some questions to Trent, from myself and some of you on Twitter, and quite a lot from fellow Aussie English Channel and Sandycove swimmer Craig Morrison. Most the questions are a swimmer’s point of view. I’ve been asked how much long I could…
Wayne’s narrative in grey on the left, Paul’s in green on the right. I was cold. So cold. Colder than I had ever been. I needed this to end. I suspected that I was going hypothermic… as I started to feel warmer… and I hadn’t changed anything – so that was impossible. And feeling warmer…when very cold, is a sign of…
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…
Guest articles are one of the huge joys and honours for me in writing loneswimmer. I always feel lucky to feature one of them and privileged when people agree and I to get to read them in advance. Chris Bryan is from Shannon, Co. Clare (west of Ireland, origin of the Irish Coffee!) and is Ireland’s first international…
Ned Denison is part of the Sandycove group, started by Liz Buckley, Mag Buckley, (not related to each other or me), Stephen Black, Finbarr Hedderman and Mike Harris with a few other regulars along the way. This picture below is appropriate, it’s Ned doing the 2008 Irish Champion of Champion safety briefing. There are a bunch…
Owen is one of the really special young people we are occasionally lucky to meet. Another Sandycove swimmer, Owen was the youngest ever Irish person to swim the English Channel at the age of 16, and not that but was blazingly fast. For those of us infected with the Channel bug, we understand how extraordinary…
Getting blood from a stone would have been easier than getting this article out of Fin. He was the first person I requested to do a guest post, a very long time ago, and many times since. Fin is Sandycove personified (along with Mike Harris, Lisa, Ned, Stephen Black and Imelda). But don’t tell him…
California-based Channel swimmer and sports psychologist Jen Schumacher has previously visited Sandycove and will be returning in 2012 to the Cork Distance Week as part of an aggressive swimming attack on the English Channel and Gibraltar. In 2011 Jen did the astonishing feat of climbing Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the Continental US, on…
From Pool to Open Water I started swimming before I started school, in fact I can’t remember not being able to swim. I swam competitively in Leeds reaching a high level, 1977: achieving English record -1500 free, 1978: representing GB at the European Juniors – 400 free , 1979-1981: GB senior international – 400 &…
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…
A guest post from Julie. Thanks for writing this Julie. (This also means the other people I’ve asked for guest articles are under more pressure! Stop delaying Prez.) Julie is recently married so her married name is now Julie Galloway Farrell, but I wanted to fit as much into the title as possible, no offence to…
LoneSwimmer 