For the first time we’ll be hosting a swim around the island (Asparagus Island) at Kynance Cove. This Bank Holiday Monday (31st Aug 2020). It’s a rare opportunity to get a guided tour around this stunning area.
For more info visit - https://www.tickettailor.com/events/seaswimcornwall/412048
We’ve been hosting quite a few swims over the month of August. Including loads of swims around St Michael’s Mount, some exciting cave swims at an undisclosed beach near Penzance, one of our faves - Carbis Bay to Porthkidney… swim coaching sessions at numerous locations. It’s been a great month.
Booking available : either set a date and we’ll pick the best swim for that day’s conditions or keep an eye on our social media, where we typically announce what we’re doing with a few days notice.
A new one for Tom and I can’t quite believe that I’ve never swum here before. Mother Ivey’s Bay was stunning and easily one of my favourite beaches during our charity challenge (and we swam 22 of them so it’s quite the compliment!). We swam it in the perfect conditions and stood on the lifeboat slipway…which is a must!
Avoid the rocks at the end of the point (visible in the middle of the shot below). You can get some weird water movement around and through the rocks.
This year we’re putting on a series of last minute swims. We’ll access the week’s weather forecast and by Tuesday / Wednesday we’ll publish where we’re putting on swims for that weekend. We’ll try and include bucket list worthy locations like Porthcurno, St Michael’s Mount, Kynance Cove, the Island in St Ives…
You can book once we’ve published the swims or pre-book a group or individual swim and we’ll match up the conditions with an appropriate swim. This way you get the most enjoyment out of your swim possible, in the safest conditions possible.
£30 per head.
Having taken a few bookings for St Michael’s Mount swims that I’ve had to reschedule and cancel I figured we might be doing things the wrong way around. At which point I had a brain-wave.
We’re going to look at the week’s conditions on a Tues-Wed and then put on swims that weekend based on the conditions. This will mean that we can plan swims around St Michael’s Mount, Porthcurno, the ‘Island’ in St Ives, Mousehole Island etc with real confidence that the conditions will be ideal for that swim.
This will effectively mean that you can complete a world-class, bucket list swim in the ideal conditions!
We’ll arrange time slots for that weekend that you can book. Each slot will cost £100 and you can have up to 8 people (6 in some cases) per slot…meaning some swims will cost as little as £12.50 per head. With current Covid restrictions, if you arrange a group of 6-8 we’ll simply split you into 2 smaller groups. * If you’re an individual or couple without a group let us know and we’ll try and marry you up with a few people in the same situation so the swim is affordable.
We’ll also possibly look at evening swim in the week.
WE’LL ANNOUNCE SWIMS THROUGH OUR SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS - SO KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED
*** CRAZY CHARITABLE SWIM ***
It's that time of year again. Each year Tom & Jo train up, swim loads, get on the weights, board paddle, run, build some good core strength and conditioning... this typically happens directly after they do a crazy, endurance charity challenge and this year is absolutely no different!
On Friday 10th July (with the 17th as a back up date) we'll attempt to swim 1km on as many beaches in Cornwall as we can in one day – (hopefully 25-30) to raise vital funds to help other, less physically able people to experience the joys of the water.
Our story starts with my partner's Gran, Joyce Cooper who - at 92 and after a lifetime of open water swimming - is desperate to return to the sea, possibly for the last time. Having gradually lost mobility, she is now in need of all-terrain wheelchair access to the water, and we’d love to generate enough money for the iconic Jubilee Pool in Penzance to have a permanent sand chair so that a range of older and disabled people can be granted easy access into the new geothermal pool and the sea via the neighbouring slipway off Penzance promenade.
Joyce was at the Jubilee’s original opening in 1935 and has continued to swim there with four generations of her family ever since. She is proof of the positive impact that both swimming and seawater have on physical and mental wellbeing – and how important it is that everyone can have the chance experience this.
Wouldn’t it be a fitting finale to her Jubilee Pool story for Joyce to enjoy another sea dip and to pave the way for others to find similar freedom in the water?
Please share her story and donate what you can.
Thank you!
LINK : https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/wheelchair-for-jubilee?utm_term=6kEKPgnPe
One of Sea Swim Cornwall’s favourite swims and the area has something for everyone.
Simply swim in the harbour at high tide
Swim around the harbour and through the harbour mouth and immediate area (be really careful moving through the harbour mouth). Although it is a quiet harbour the odd boat still comes through. With an outgoing tide you also a little current moving through the mouth.
Swim around Mousehole island (St Clements Isle)
Newlyn to Mousehole
Adventurous and longer swim - Lamorna Cove to Mousehole *You’ll need to put some research into this one and take safety precautions, or employ a guide
Also a great area to get young kids into the water in a safe environment
Mousehole is a sleepy fishing village tucked away on the outskirts of Penzance. The village is centred around a stunning harbour, that isn’t quite as busy as it once was but now provides a centre point for this stunning area.
The harbour mouth provides you with a stunning landmark to swim in and out of. The island is surrounded by sea life and offers an incredible underwater landscape to look at as you swim over. The best of the lot is the Newlyn to Mousehole swim. Beautiful landscape and underwater scenery. A little pit stop at the lifeboat station on the half way point is worth a stop.
Easily one of our Top 10 Cornish swims.
*Book available end of June 2020 - £1 from every book sold goes to the Jubilee Pool over the first month and pre-order period CLICK HERE TO VIEW
Tom was looking for a colouring book of Cornish swims and couldn’t find any…so I made my own. Designed for adults but his kids have thoroughly enjoyed colouring them in during lockdown!
We’ve gone and designed an A4 Mindfulness-style Colouring Book. 14 pages of world class swims to choose from. Including the iconic St Michael’s Mount, Porthcurno and Mousehole Harbour. Simply colour in some of your favourite swims using your imagination, view sample images on the internet or use the book as the perfect excuse to visit Cornwall and swim some of these incredible swims….and then colour the pages first hand!
Photos by Salt Water Images / Word by the talented Hannah May
With the recent addition of a load of stock, we’d like to officially open our online shop. With all of the products and parts sourced from UK-based companies and one of them made in Cornwall! We’ve designed a whole range of products for open water swimmers. We’ll give you a brief rundown and then we’ll leave a series of images below and supply you with a direct link : CLICK HERE FOR SHOP
Pocket make-up mirrors, pin badges, birthday/greetings cards, swimming bags, tow floats, dry-land resistance cords, stunning photographic print, swimming hats…
Tom & Jo (team Sea Swim Cornwall) have been looking to add to the online shop on the website for a number of months. Although we’re obviously very disappointed in number of the events and holidays we’ve had to cancel the lock down situation we find ourselves in has presented us with the opportunity and the time to do this. A few days ago we added our own brand of resistance cords to the shop and are looking forward to introducing a range of pin badges, tote bags, pocket mirrors and a number of other products to add to our greeting card range. All of our products are inspired by open water swimming and feature elements and characteristics of both open water swimming and the type of people that partake and are dedicated to swimming in the sea, rivers and lakes across the country.
In addition to the products we’ve also added instructional videos - particularly around the use of the resistance cords.
There’s a lot written about the health and mental health benefits of swimming...particularly open water swimming and swimming in cold water. I usually just switch off when I see an article related to the topic. I’ve read far too many of them and they’re everywhere!
I have however, made a couple of observations during recent weeks and the lockdown situation we find ourselves in that I’m going to share. Firstly, just how much you (most anyway) take sea and pool swimming for granted when it’s on your doorstep and how lucky many of us are to be in that situation. It seems only now that I’m unable to swim that it really hits home. Secondly, how swimming completely re-sets your brain. I’ve been running and doing a lot of weights over the last few weeks and I’ve found that if something is playing on my mind, it continues to do so through these activities. There’s no respite. When I swim I shut my brain and thoughts off to the outside world. It completely re-sets my mind and mood. Even when I get out of the pool or sea I seem to get a period of ‘peace’. I’m just thankful that I don’t have any major stresses on my mind at the moment…other than the obvious!
I’ve found myself taking baths and dunking my head under for a minute or so at a time to switch my brain off a little and taking the odd cold showers. Whilst it clearly isn’t the same, it temporarily does the trick.
We (the Sea Swim Cornwall team) hope everyone is staying safe and we hope to see lots of you in the sea some time soon.
Now that the ‘new year’s resolution’ crowd is starting to thin out a bit and hopefully the lanes are less crowded, I thought I’d write a little piece on your current training (probably mainly pool based). At this stage of the year you should be looking at the summer season and figuring out exactly what you’d like to achieve, setting goals and basing your training around those objectives.
I’ll mention the usual bits about setting realistic goals…but what I would like to focus on is making sure that all of your training has a point. It’s far too easy to get into the pool and simply swim up and down, or blindly follow someone else’s training programmes that aren’t necessarily designed to suit your needs. You also need to do is listen to your body. If you’ve hammered out a leg session in the gym or been on a hard run, doing a leg session/set in the pool the very next day probably isn’t advisable. So try and be flexible. I obviously write my weekly session (through the newsletter) but I find it incredibly difficult because I’m writing a session that isn’t specifically designed for an individual. As such, I generally write a session that has bits of everything and try my best to mix up the objective of each session. These sessions are perfect for general swimming fitness but might not suit you…if you’re training specifically for a sprint event or marathon swim. I also regularly mention the fact that my session should be adapted and altered to suit you, your fitness levels, ability and needs. Hopefully when completing these sessions or reading them you look at the structure and sets and start to get a better idea of how to write your own sessions and create your own imaginative sets.
GOALS : Look at your seasons goals and figure out what you need to achieve through your training. If you’re training for an Otillo get the hand paddles out and regularly use them in the pool (along with a appropriate weights programme), on occasion swim more than once a day… If you’re signed up for a few open water events and want to do well, keep in mind that a lot of your open water training will be lower intensity open water swims (during the summer) so make sure you still swim in the pool and hammer out some shorter, high intensity sets and swims. Most swimmer don’t get a lot of drill work done in open water, so if there’s a flaw you need to work on do it in the pool now….
SESSIONS : Like I’ve already mentioned, start to write your own sessions designed for you. Your sessions should follow a basic structure ie.
WARM UP – MAIN SET – KICK/TECHNIQUE – SPRINT WORK – KICK/TECHNIQUE – SWIM DOWN
…but you can throw in a second main set, extra this-and-that. You may need to change up the session if you swim in public session and it’s busy. Always have a Plan B. Keep this in mind.
Don’t simply turn up to the pool and swim “whatever”. Every session should serve a purpose and have an objective. Put some thought into your session.
BOREDOM : My business partner Jo used to hate pool training. Said it was boring. When we started up our training squad and following structured sessions, within 2 weeks he was loving swimming in the pool. If you get really bored in the pool you’re simply not training correctly!
COMPANY – swim with friends, meet people of a similar ability/speed, join a masters group…swimming by yourself can get boring, there’s no competitive element to the training, no social factor. If you’re swimming at a different speed to friends simply handicap the training. Get the ‘fast one’ to wear drag shorts/pair of old shorts (slow them down), or get them to breath every 5 during the session. If you use your imagination, it can be done.
USE THE CLOCK! – always use the clock when swimming in the pool. Use it for rest periods and take your times. You can even use if to take your pulse (6 secs x 10). Nothing better to get you moving, control your rest periods, make training more of a challenge and chart your progress.
TRAINING AIDS : Use them. Some are great for correcting technique (check out Finis products), some are great for getting you to work harder and longer, some are great for keeping you going when you’re exhausted. Add these aids into a session when you look to write one.
FEAR : There’s no better motivator than fear…as I discovered training for a 40km Otillo a few years ago, my first endurance event, at the age of 36. I’ve never completed as many sessions or trained as hard as I did for that event. Go Big! Enter an event you know will really push the boundaries and slightly scares you.
For all the pool haters out there this is one of the main reasons it’s good to stay in the pool, use the clock and break down the session into sets – even for a limited time whilst you swim the summer season in open water. Let’s say you swim 1km in open water at a 2 minutes per 100m pace…so 20 minutes to complete the 1000m. 2 minutes being your comfortable, go-to pace. Most of the time whilst swimming in open water you’ll use that pace (lower intensity-distance pace). Working reasonably hard, whilst still being comfortable. You’ll swim that pace all summer season long. The problem is that eventually that’s the only pace you can swim. You get fitter but not faster. You get to a race and when you try and shift through the gears and speed up, your body isn’t used to it and you’ll eventually drop back to the safety of the ‘go-to’ speed. Now let’s say all winter you’ve been swimming 10 x 100m (so 1km) going off 2.10, aiming to come in on 1.45-1.50 with around 20 secs rest. Over the winter your body will get used to swimming at this pace. So when it comes to the summer, whilst you’ll struggle to swim at 1.45-50 pace (without that 20 second rest interval) you should still be able to comfortably hold a 1.53-1.55 pace. Thus getting faster and improving your general distance speed, as well as fitness. Plus, if you do a few of those 100s (towards the end of the set) at a faster pace, your body is also used to speeding up and if you need to ‘kick’ at the end of a race, you have the training under your belt to do so.
Also, worth pointing out that you should regularly change up the rest intervals and the times for set distances that you ‘go-off’. In the example above, if you start to get comfortable with swimming the 100s off of 2.10 either increase the number of hundreds (ie. 12 x 100) or reduce the time (ie. swimming off 2.05), or eventually both (ie. 12 x 100 off of 2.05).
As much as we try and explore new waters, make every holiday different, constantly keep pushing to make our swimming holidays exciting and new there are certain swims we’ll come back to time and time again. Even if we know some of our swimmers have done this swim before we’ll do it again!
Mousehole Harbour is one of those swims. You get it on the right day there are few swims that will beat it. Crystal clear waters, stunning backdrop, minimal boat traffic, you swim through the dramatic harbour mouth…we love it! You have the option of swimming around Mousehole Island (St Clement’s Isle). Well, well worth a visit.
Our open water swimming guide to Mousehole.
A very cool Gin bar in Penzance at the minute. That cool in fact, that I can't find any trace of it online. You find the Sea Swim Cornwall logo on the map and you'll find the bar.
We run a number of holidays and events throughout the year. We try to be as inclusive as we possibly can but try as we might, not all of our activities will suit all abilities. Here’s a run down of what you’ll need to know.
YEAR ROUND WILD SWIMMER
If you’re less about the Ks and more about your year round swimming days then the Porthleven Food Festival and swimming weekend looks like it’s the trip for you. It’s our favourite food festival of the year. Set in the stunning Porthleven Harbour and attracting around 40,000 people every year, it’s a fantastic weekend. As the water is a little colder we’d recommend this trip to the hardcore year round swimmer. The distances will be a little shorter and we’ll also explore some of the hidden rock and natural pools the west coast of Cornwall has to offer. APRIL 17-19 2020, currently open to small - large group bookings.
MIDDLE-OF-THE-PACKERS TO YOUR MORE COMPETITIVE SWIMMERS
The 10K Big River Day might be the afternoon out you’ve been looking for. It’s a stunning swim up the river Fal in crystal clear waters. You’ll receive a little boost from the incoming tide from St Mawes up to St Just in Roseland…finishing at one of the most stunning harbours we’ve ever seen. At the harbour you’ll have a refreshments break (plenty of fluids and cake) before returning back along the same route with the outgoing tide. *There are swimming speed requirements on this event. Check before booking.
OUR ALL-INCLUSIVE EVENT
We try to be as inclusive as possible with this event but you have to have a realistic chance of swimming 10km over the course of one day…it’s the 10K Magical Mystery Tour. Set up as more of a challenge than a race, you’ll look to swim 10km over 4 swims. The challenge takes place over the course of around 8-10 hours. We also put on a coach to ensure it’s a nice and social event. Swims may include St Michael’s Mount, Porthcurno, Mousehole, Penzance bay, Carbis Bay and St Ives… During the latter stages we also arrange shorter routes for those that may be struggling.
ALL-INCLUSIVE HOLIDAYS
Again, we try and make our holidays as all-inclusive as possible. The reality is that you need to be able to comfortably swim 1-3km in one go. We can make exceptions but you need to call us before booking. These holidays and the swims are based on the conditions of the day. We pick the most enjoyable and safe swims as we can. We are swimming in the sea but you’ll never be expected to swim through surf or rough conditions! This year we’ve lined up all of your holiday dates with local festivals so you have double the reason to attend.
ST IVES FOOD FESTIVAL : set on the beach and including great live entertainment it’s a great holiday
GOLOWAN FESTIVAL : is a massive festival put on each year in Penzance. They shut the towns roads down and turn the who thing into a pedestrian-bar. There are precessions and live music and dance throughout the whole weekend, as well as craft fayres and food stalls.
DESIGN YOUR OWN
If any of the above doesn’t suit simply contact us and design your own trip or swim. We offer open water coaching and bespoke swims, days and holidays.
The second some of us get out of the pool, into the open water and no longer have a thick black line to follow we struggle. There is a definite art to swimming ‘fairly’ straight. We’ll try our best in the following few points to get you on the right path.
BREATHE BOTH WAYS. If you were to breathe to your left every time, when your head comes up to breathe you roll your body that extra few inches. This means that you extend your right arm forward that extra inch or two. If you’re right handed you’re extending your dominant hand forward an extra inch or two. Doesn’t sound like much but that extra inch or two over and over again starts to make a difference and you generally start to via to the right. It’s like rowing a boat with one oar that’s slightly longer than the other.
SIGHTING : You’ve probably read a million and one articles about sighting. I won’t bore you further…other than to say, you don’t have to sight forward. I had a recent discussion with a swimmer about swimming into the sun. You can sight to the side, and use the beach or river bank provided it’s relatively straight. You can also use the depth your swimming in to a certain extent - provided you know the water and know the consistency of the bank / sea bed.
RUDDER SWIMMING (AKA THE ‘HEAD RUDDER’). I tend to drift the opposite way to the way I breath. To counter this I breath every 2 for 3 cycles, then every 3 for 1 cycle and every 2 again for 3 cycles…and repeat. This keeps me straight. Experiment a little with your breathing and see if it has an influence.
SIGHTING FREQUENCY. Everyone is different. Again, experiment a little and see what works for you.
DRAFTING. Draft off of someone’s feet and you don’t have to sight. Just make sure they’re swimming in a straight line!
Best of luck.
A lack of swell meant that we had to call off attempt no 1 in June!
So….attempt number 2 will be happening at Towan Beach on Oct 5th, plan B Fistral if small surf. We’ll carry out a little coaching session for any newbies from 11. We’ll then have a safety talk at around 11.45-11.50 and look to have our first attempt at 12.
Rules are the following :
None of the body surfers are allowed any buoyant device other than swim fins and handplanes.
No body surfer is permitted to be pulled into the wave by a water craft.
The wave can be natural or created by a boat. If the wave is man-made it must be created by a single boat.
The duration of the surf is a minimum of 5 seconds. Any riders who fail to meet that minimum time must be discounted from the record total.
Slightly odd rules but basically don’t bring a wetsuit (although you can wear one in the coaching session from 11) but you can bring a hand plane and swim fins! Definitely bring swim fins if you own some.
The current World Record is only 25…so very beatable.
Straight after the world record attempt(s) we will hold an unofficial body surfing Cornish Champs, based purely on distance on the wave.
More details to follow…
This has been around for decades. It happened when I was a child (I’m now 37)….but seems to be getting worse. Possibly down to the popularity of social media and people’s need to broadcast every achievement (be it their own or children’s) online…I’m not sure. Definitely getting worse though!
Children in all sports develop and improve at different speeds. They hit long plateaus where they don’t improve and then all of a sudden they improve rapidly…with what looks like no rhyme or reason. The classic example is the big kid at school. A child suddenly grows (a lot) and dominates on the rugby field, for example. They’re faster, stronger and heavier than the other kids. They run though them…the problem here though is that it’s too easy. They don’t put the time in to learn and perfect vital skills because they don’t need to. Over time all the other kids grow just as big and strong and fast and the child prodigy is left behind and often then put off the sport, as for the first time they find it quite difficult and no longer have the same degree of success.
Time and time again I see parents hassling coaches to put their child up into the next group or squad. ‘’….all their friends have moved up and my daughter/son hasn’t…it’s not fair…they’re good enough to move…’’. Worst case scenario and again this happens quite frequently, is that the disgruntled parent joins the committee and tries to influence the club’s direction from the inside. From my experience this only hurts the whole swimming club…and whilst parents and children move on, stop swimming, move clubs etc the club continues to suffer long term because of misguided parents making decisions for all the wrong reasons.
The problem with promoting a child too early (in swimming particularly) is the following. If they haven’t mastered all of the strokes or a particular stroke, as they go up through the squads/levels they won’t get the time or attention to improve the stroke later on. If your child has a problem with a particular stroke and they’re promoted too early they may never swim that stroke correctly. Where you think you’re helping your child, your actions are actually having the opposite effect.
The other issue is that all children progress at their own speed. I was hopeless at Butterfly until I was 12-13 years old and made the slightest adjustment to my stroke and went on to be county champion and represent Cornwall swimming butterfly. Whilst I had early success in backstroke, from around the age of 14 I never got any better and it became one of my worst strokes. The fact is that your child doesn’t need to be the best swimmer at the club to become the best swimmer at the club. Nor do they need to be in the best squad. What they need is to develop at their own pace and ensure that technically they’re good enough to move up the ladder. Progress to the next squad isn’t necessarily down to speed (they might simply be quick because they’re stronger than everyone else). Technique is fair more important.
ARE YOU MAKING THE BEST DECISIONS FOR YOUR CHILDREN?
If you find yourself a little angry or upset. Frustrated at your swimming club / sports club’s decision not to pick or promote you or your child, here are some questions you might want to ask yourself, or some actions you might want to take.
1. This isn’t an easy question to ask but you have to…and be brutally honest. Is part of your frustration at your child’s non-selection or position in a team down to your own ego? Are you angry that other children of the same age are moving up whilst your child has not.
2. Has your child simply hit a bit of a plateau and is this the reason they’re not improving…Are they in the middle of a growth spurt and perhaps they’re tired. Or simply playing too many sports…
3. Are you putting too much pressure on your child? Are the goals they have their own or yours?
4. Do they lack motivation or are they distracted? In which case it might be an idea to ease off the training and allow them to start to enjoy swimming again.
5. If you’re not happy with your child’s progress perhaps you should have an open and honest chat with the coach. Find out what your child has to do to continue to progress.
6. If you seriously think your child is being held back by a bad coach or bias of some kind then look at the cold hard facts. Is it because the squads ahead of them are overpopulated? Is there an issue at the club ie. a lack of boys or girls that progress. Are other parents in the same boat? Is there actually a problem or do you simply want there to be one as it’s suits your situation?
7. Could your child’s lack of motivation be overcome by a side-ways move. Perhaps taking up waterpolo, open water swimming, surf lifesaving might ignite their interest.
In around 30 years of swimming in squads I’ve seen some fantastic coaches driven out of clubs by parents and poorly run, misguided committees. Swim coaches, especially in smaller clubs, are often poorly paid positions and often the coach takes the position because of their love of the sport, volunteering hours of their time for free. Not in every case but in a lot of cases they’re not shown half the appreciation and respect they deserve. There is a national shortage of swim coaches. Are you putting unnecessary pressure on a coach you should be praising?
Working on a Sunday! Whatever next. This Sunday we decided to conduct a little recce and find a new beach that we’d heard about. Bit of a scramble down the valley, through what was described as the ‘jungle’ but if I can do it in flip-flops with a 14kg toddler strapped to my back….I’m sure most can.
With smaller groups and 1-2-1s we like to get off the beaten track and find secret, tucked-away beaches that you’d never find by yourself. This is one of those beaches. Had the whole beach to ourself, in Cornwall in August…with the sun out!
Photos courtesy of www.saltwaterimages.co.uk
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This little beauty can be found (or not) in the Zennor area.
It seems only yesterday I was editing this all togther. What a great year of open water swimming.
