Category: Swim the Planet

Despite passing some wonderful swimming milestones last year, they did not extinguish my burning desire to complete the Freedom Swim in South Africa, so frustratingly cancelled by organisers on the eve of the event last year. I once read that a distinguishing attribute of open water swimmers is that, when they see a stretch of … Continue reading Swim The Planet – Freedom Swim 2020

This historic body of water is called the Hellespont in Greek and the Dardanelles in former Turkish times. In modern-day Turkey it is known as the Strait of Çanakkale. The Strait separates both the Asian and European land masses and has been a natural barrier for invading armies for millennia, including King Xerxes I of … Continue reading Swim The Planet – Hellespont / Dardanelles Strait

Inasmuch as New York is the city that never sleeps, it is also the city that, possibly due to all this ‘unsleeping,’ seemingly never swims. I could find just one Olympic-sized swimming pool in Lower Manhattan. It was the aptronymically named Hamilton Fish Pond, so-called after former local luminary Hamilton Stuyvesant Fish. The ‘Fish Pond’ … Continue reading Swim The Planet – Swim NYC

On 15th August 2019 I completed The Lake Memphremagog 11.3 kilometre marathon swim which is part of the week-long Kingdom Games in North Eastern Vermont. Twenty eight swimmers started the race at 9.30am with an average water temperature of approximately 21C and air temperatures around 22C. The breeze was minimal and the water conditions were … Continue reading Swim The Planet – Memphremagog Marathon

On August 15, 2019 I will be participating in a marathon swim with the North East Kingdom Open Water Swimming Association in the pristine mountain lake called Memphremagog between Vermont and Quebec. The lakes of The Kingdom are a mecca for open water swimming and the Association hosts the annual Kingdom Games with swims conducted in these … Continue reading Swim The Planet™ – Swim the Kingdom

This morning our intrepid group of 28 swimmers set out from St Francis Beach at 9.15am in San Francisco Bay for the 14th annual Swim Around The Rock. The thick fog had lifted just enough for us to sight the northern point of Alcatraz as we set off. We swam with a waning flood tide … Continue reading Swim The Planet – Rockin’ It

On Saturday 10th August 2019 I will be swimming in the 14th Annual Around Alcatraz swim in San Francisco Bay. The 5.8km swim involves water temperatures around 13C with fast tides and complex currents and is considered the most difficult of all the Bay swims. We will start at 6.30am at St. Francis Beach and swim … Continue reading Swim The Planet™ – Rock Around the Rock

The Winter Rip is an extreme open water swim. Our historic crossing on 2nd June 2019 confirmed this description. The story of our crossing is worth telling.   The Unravelling This photo shows our group of four swimmers some two kilometres and one hour into our crossing and about one kilometre from our finish at … Continue reading Swim The Planet™ – The Rip Wants You Dead

This morning at 7.10am I jumped into the sea just off Point Nepean and swam across The Rip to finish at the Front Beach in Point Lonsdale. Sea conditions were difficult with water temperatures between 12C and 13C, a 10-15 knot westerly wind and a developing flood tide which grew in intensity as the swim … Continue reading Swim The Planet – The Winter Rip Crossing