I Wonder articles are where I go off the rails. Contain some of the articles I enjoy writing most, and therefore some worst waffle on the site according to others
A couple of years later, I am still a little surprised that LoneSwimmer.com won the inaugural 2012 Irish Blog Awards for Best Sport and Recreation award (when the site was also a finalist in a second category). Ireland is a sport-obsessed country, even more than many others. Football (soccer), football (rugby), football (Gaelic), football (compromise rules) and even…
In the original Star Wars A New Hope movie Harrison Han Solo Ford famously said that the Millennium Falcon had “made the Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs“. I still remember how annoyed I was, because even as a kid I knew a parsec was a measure of distance, not of time. (No thanks,…
I asked artist, college lecturer and marathon swimmer friend Rosin Lewis some months ago to write a guest article for me on a specific subject, that of the link between open water swimming and creativity. it hasn’t arrived yet, I think Roisín will eventually write it, but I’m not sure how long it’ll be, so…
I came across this article on 25 signs that you might be a marathon swimmer, by Steve Munatones, on active.com because of a sudden slew of mentions of the article on Twitter. I think it was written some time ago, but I’m not sure. I thought I’d see if I had the potential to be…
Ireland loves football. So does your country you say. Soccer, Aussie Rules or NFL, whatever. Ireland likes all football: Soccer, rugby, compromise (Aussie) rules, Gaelic football. All have huge followings. That outnumbers your single national football version. And the biggest is Gaelic football, which is only played within the country and is better supported than…
For some, there is no greater sporting event than the English Channel. Sporting event isn’t even a good description. The Australian surfer Nat Young once said the worst thing to happen surfing was that surfing was seen as a sport instead of art. Similarly, for most swimmers, Channel swimming should be thought more as a…
These are typical swimsuit ads, you see them all over the place. You know the only cold that this pair has ever felt was when he left his cashmere scarf behind that one time in that lovely little boutique in Chelsea after he came back from a weekend in a yacht in St. Tropez and…
I swam toward the promontory, passing various unsurfable reefs, the vertical cliffs high and bright in the southerly sun, reminiscent of Dover and the White Cliffs, except red and ochre, and my own. About three-quarters of the way down, I stopped to listen. To the sound of swell. You know what waves sound like. But…
Given the farcical state of the Irish Presidential election, the dogs and I sat down and discussed it and I decided to throw my name into the contest. Now I know many of you are overseas, and desperate as you are to vote for me, I thought I should explain the Irish Presidency is a…
Most of the swimmers and many others reading this will have heard of the Richard Branson / Ronan Keating Irish Sea Relay swim. By the way, look at some of the headlines. (“Richard Branson to swim the Irish Sea”). We had a bit of fun about it on the Sandycove email list when it was…
Nice for a computer wallpaper.
Edit; Hmmm, a sudden surge in interest in this post on a day where I get abused? So you do know behind the front page I can see where traffic is coming from, right? Chuckle. -I’d had a bad morning. It had been the worst day I had this year, I think. So I went…
Ossi forwarded a survey this morning to the Sandycove email list from the Dublin Swimming Club: Warning, blue font ahead in my response! “Dublin Swimming Club is 130 years young this year– making it the oldest swimming club in Ireland – it even predates the GAA! As part of the club’s anniversary activities Dublin Swimming Club…
Anyone having the misfortune to have a surfer as their partner will know how capable surfers are of missing any occasion regardless of importance. Something that’s common amongst surfers while out surfing is an enhanced sense of relaxation and a decreased sense of time. It doesn’t always happen but it does seem more prevalent on…
EDIT: when I look at my list of potential future subjects, after I’d written this, I began to think I had a few subjects that I might consider Big Questions. This is the first. Much of this is true for me (maybe 90% +). I wonder how well it correlates with distance swimmers as a…
LoneSwimmer 