Sam Krohn rescues someone who had been drinking and attempted to swim in rough conditions, Christmas Day 2015

How To: Advice for Christmas or New Year swimming in cold water for beginner or casual open water swimmers – What Would Santa Do?

At Christmas time, many people who would never consider getting in cold water will be thinking of a Christmas Eve, Christmas Day or New Year’s Day dip. If you are wondering WHY you might or should do it, apart from; taking part in a local tradition in many places; having a hot punch  at the…

Cold Turkey

The Internet sucks, doesn’t it? There you are, doing your best and still struggling. Everywhere you look online everyone else is telling you how amazing they are. That’s how I feel about it most of the time anyway. Just considering swimming, everyone else says they are swimming farther, longer, faster and better. They are also swimming colder and…

The Worst Three Minutes

Over a year ago I wrote a popular post called The First Three Minutes, which investigated just the first few minutes of a cold water swim. (A real cold water swim, not your balmy 10 degree Celsius getting a tan (50F) water for softies). We know, us cold water swimmers, that passers-by focus on the water…

Is the water too cold to swim?

This article is, once again, a variation of the most popular question here: “What temperature of water is too cold to swim in”?, which I’ve written about before. The temperature at the Guillamene last Sunday week (October 16th, 2011) was about 13° Celsius (55° F). That’s far warmer than what most people will imagine, not…

Like fish in a barrel

An Indian summer was predicted for Ireland and the UK for the last week, and the UK certainly reaped it, along with much of Ireland. The south coast though, as I mentioned last week, had either blanket fog for days or continuous rain. In fact I decided to take a break from swimming. But this…

Home to T-bay

After a week in Dover, with two hourly swims, it is a bit tough to come home. The water temperature in Dover harbour was a glorious 17/18 degrees Celsius. By week end we were worrying about getting soft. Hurricane Katya, an ongoing back ache and lack of focus in swimming kept me out of the…

Project Copper – reflections and debrief

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…

Newtown & Guillame swimming website

Some of you may have noticed a new link in the sidebar. I put together another site for Tramore’s Newtown & Guillamene swimming club some time back. We’re just starting to add content to it. There are plenty of photographs going back up to 80 years to come (probably slowly), along with stories and anecdotes. Now…

Swimming Range in Tramore Bay

After years of swimming T-Bay, I’ve gotten to know it reasonably well. A few years back I drew up a map of the pertinent features, from a swimming point of view. That map is a bit out of date, I’ve made a few discoveries since then, but I just keep it in my head now.…

An Snámh Fada 2011

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…

Always wear a belt

It was one hour and ten minutes after I got out of the water that I started writing this, and I was still not fully warmed up. The temperature had dropped to 9.3 °C from Wednesday’s 11.0 °C, due to the northerlies for the past 36 hours, I guess. The day before I swam about 4600 metres,…

Spring at the Guillamenes

Problem: Out of ideas of what to write about next. Solution: Go for a swim. From the Guillamenes down to the pier and out the headland, ( the “Guillamenes Double” as I call it, though I only went halfway out to the headland yesterday, due to Half-Claw). Water was 9.c C under the ladder, maybe…

Waterford Coast high-resolution

Given that Google Earth doesn’t cover Tramore Bay in higher resolution, here are some pics from the OSI. First is the whole bay, some of the currents can be seen. Next is the stretch of coast on thw west side where I swim, from the Guillamenes in the centre down to the headland with the…

An Snámh Mór Fada

“Let them think what they liked, but I didn’t mean to drown myself. I meant to swim till I sank — but that’s not the same thing.” — Joseph Conrad (The Secret Sharer and other stories) The Newtown & Guillamenes Swimming Club runs the Snámh Fada (long swim) every August. In reality it just runs…

Cold spots

I measured the Guillamenes at 12.5C yesterday, a full 3.5C warmer than a week previously, sun in the sky, and no wind. However swimming outward past Newtown Cove the temp dropped, and halfway to the Metalman I’d say it was only about 9.5C. There was no particular sensation of gradually warmer water as I swam…

Guillamenes and Newtown images.

Took a slightly better picture this morning. Nice view of the Guillamenes concrete apron area taken from the road above. As you can see from the reflection path, we’re facing directly south here. Two series of steps for entry or project yourself from the lip. If you look to the below the top of the…