May 2008
My First really rough swim
In May 2008 I met the "Eastbourne Masters" for the first time. They were a great bunch of experienced swimmers and it was really good to tag along with them. They mostly swim around the pier / Langham hotel area during the sessions and will sometimes do a longer swim when conditions permit.
As pictured above, the first swim of the season was a particularly rough one and for me it meant that I was even slower than usual. Standing on the shore the waves were as tall as I was, and getting in and out had to be done with very careful timing or you would end up flat on your face.
Once you were in the the water, the waves were like walls of water throwing themselves at you, and the current made it like swimming through treacle!!
I am always impressed by the group that meet in Eastbourne, they are a special bunch of people who brave the waves in almost any conditions. On a swim that we did recently, it was so rough that the life guards warned us prior to getting in that if we got into any sort of trouable, they weren't coming in to get us out.
20/08/2008
Today I did my first night swim. I set off through the locks of Eastbourne Marina in the company of Tony Wakefield and Gary Earthrow.
We used a rib that was very low in the water, but we lit it with a torch so we could be seen. I swam about half a mile out from shore for the first time in the pitch black. I found the motion of swimming obviously the same but the blackness of the night was all to obvious. I think that if you actually stopped and looked at what you were doing it could really freak you out. The lights in the distance were blurred and hazey and the water was deep and black.
It was a good experience but not one that I would want to repeat to often, especially after watching JAWS!!