Swimmer's Daily

Category: Open Water

  • Here’s a tub of terrified sea lampreys

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    The sea lamprey is a parasitic eel-like fish found on the Atlantic coasts of Europe and North America, in the western Mediterranean Sea, in the Great Lakes and even in the Thames. It has a suction-cup like mouth full of sharp teeth, and it doesn’t take prisoners, but let’s them bleed to death or die…

  • Wild swimming with Martin Strel in Slovenia

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    Ha ha ha, funny intro to this article on The Guardian: “You are going to meet Martin Strel?” a woman says to me in Ljubljana. “You know who he is?” I ask. “Yes, of course. He is famous in Slovenia … But a lot of people here think he is a bit weird.” That doesn’t…

  • Long distance swimming is “a moving meditation”

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    I like that description: After about six hours I am usually deep inside my own head. My body takes over and my mind drifts off somewhere…a moving meditation. At night I will try and narrow my attention to a single light or glow stick on the boat or kayak. I close my eyes periodically to…

  • Ronan Keating injures leg ahead of epic swim

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    Irish Boyzone pop star Ronan Keating took to the sea off the east coast of Britain today in preparation of the 10-member charity swim from Ireland to Wales next month, but then revealed on Twitter that he is facing “disaster” after pulling a muscle in his leg. Now, this is the moment when his coach…

  • Waves – A portrait of Maria á Heygum

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    A beautiful short film here by Faroese film maker Heiðrikur á Heygum, about his grandmother Maria á Heygum. Nicknamed “the swimming granny”, she had been swimming in the ocean out of Vestmanna for 48 years, when this movie was produced. Imagine, every day in 7°C warm water (44.6°F), no matter the weather, no matter the…

  • Fundraiser avoids nude walk by swimming double distance

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    Interesting motivation here: The singer/songwriter left Hurst Castle to swim to Fort Albert, but the strong current of the tide dragged him towards Southampton. In the end, he ended up swimming about 5,000 metres — double what he had planned. Gareth said: “It was tough but for some reason I didn’t seem to get tired.…

  • Diana Nyad forced to abandon her big swim

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    Attempting to become the first person to swim between Cuba and Florida, Diana Nyad was forced to abandon roughly halfway through her journey, struggling with ocean swells, shoulder pain and asthma. Still shell-shocked from Faroese media’s coverage of the World Championships, I’m sure that the gutter press will write “Nyad gives up, only manages to…

  • Diana Nyad has started her big swim

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    Sunday evening August 17th at 19:45.10 ET, 61-year-old Diana Nyad started her 103-mile swim from Cuba to Florida, attempting to set a new long distance world record in ocean swimming without a shark cage. You can follow her progress in near-real-time here on CNN, and read more here on diananyad.com.

  • Swimming across the Corryvreckan whirlpool

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    The Corryvreckan Whirlpool is a mile of swirling, turbulent water that separates the Scottish Inner Hebrides island of Jura from northerly Scarba. Rumour whirls around this murky place, they say it is the third largest whirlpool in the world, that the Royal Navy classify it as officially ‘unnavigable’, that an unfortunate Norse king was swept…