GregInTheWater

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I had noticed that an ice swimming event had been arranged at Bardowie Loch on the north side of Glasgow, to be held in February 2018. After dipping my toe in the water of an ice event at the GB Champs in Loch Lomond in February 2017, I decided to train for this event. My plan was to enter the 1km ice swim. Now you might ask what an ice swim is?… Read More

The Great Scottish Swim returned for their annual swim at Balloch on the shores of Loch Lomond on the weekend after the Pier to Pub swim. This year they had introduced a 10km swim event on the Friday afternoon, and I entered during the winter based on the plans to make each lap 2.5km. However, as the event got closer, it became clear that the 10km event would use the standard course,… Read More

My 100th blog post. When I started this blog it was to record my various ocean swims races or open water swims as they call them in the UK. I just looked at my very first blog, and it talked about places to swim around the world that I might get to. Well I have swum at all of them and more. I started doing open water swim events in my former… Read More

The glorious weather continued after the Bardowie race, with sun from dawn to dusk for two weeks. At this time of year dawn is around 430am, with sunset about 10pm, and then the long twilight takes over, with complete darkness a mere dream of colder days. The local media were talking about the heat wave as the maximum temperature sat above 20c for days on days. Memories of the stunning summer of… Read More

  It is now mid October, and usually at this time I look at the calendar of open water swims at http://www.oceanswims.com, to start planning for the upcoming season. There are normally some old favourites I like to do, such as the Dawny swim at Balmain in Sydney Harbour, and the Australia Day swim at the Opera House. I also like to see when the various swims at Bondi and Malabar are… Read More

A different photo to start a report on an ocean swim. This photo was taken on the way to North Bondi beach for the Classic swim, the second of two swims held at this beach each season. The first swim is held in early January, but I was enjoying the delights of a New York winter at that time. So I was keen to do this swim in early February. Now February… Read More

The first Sunday in February is the date for the Coles Classic at Manly Beach in Sydney’s northern suburbs. It is named after the Coles family who started the event at Bondi, before it was moved to Manly. It is now operated by one of the oldest newspapers in the country, and they like to proclaim it as the largest swim in Australia. Well it is the largest in NSW, but its… Read More

Here is a copy of a talk I gave on Wednesday 2 October 2013 as part of a swimming yarns program. There were nine speakers, and I was fortunate enough to be one of them. The night raised money for cancer research, and was held at the Woolloomoolo Bay Hotel in Sydney. It was a fantastic evening with some great yarns told around the theme of my first time. THE FIRST TIME… Read More

Today is April 25, which in Australia and New Zealand is ANZAC Day: the day we commemorate and remember the 100,000 Australians who have lost their lives serving our nation in war and peacekeeping operations over the last 100 years or so. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and the day was first observed in 1916. On 25 April 1915 under the orders of Winston Churchill allied forces made… Read More

The Easter long weekend and this year I was doing two swims. I had done the race over 1.5 km at Freshwater on Friday, and Sunday was the turn for Bondi to host its postponed event. There were two races on offer, the 1 km, and the longer 2.1 km. This year I had decided to only enter the longer swim, and it was race seven of sevenĀ  in the oceanswims series…. Read More