Author: rokur

Interesting article here on Icelandic Review, about how Reykjavík sea swimmers are prone to fainting, sometimes during but also often after the cold dip. Physicians encourage people to show extreme caution when swimming in the cold water, as they risk hyperthermia, unconsciousness and even swimming malfunction, causing them to loose mobility, which may lead to drowning. People must also realize that if they immediately immerse themselves in hot pots, as is common practice in Iceland, blood pressure can suddenly drop and cause them to faint. Íslandsbankasjósund 20. maí 2011 from Ragnar Torfi Geirsson on Vimeo. (Video included only because it…

On Life, Death and Synchronized Swimming, a film by Drea Cooper & Zackary Canepari Aquadettes from California is a place. on Vimeo.

Fond memories from back at the Belgrade 2008 LEN European Junior Swimming Championships, when Pál Joensen won gold in the 400, 800 and 1500 freestyle. This particular medal is most certaintly the third and last one he won, the 800 freestyle on the day when the photo was taken, August 2, 2008. I’d lost my luggage, btw, and therefore had only my old trusty Nokia N93 mobile phone and a Sony DSC-HS96E tape-based video camera to take photos with, even having to save battery on the video camera because the charger was in the suitcase. So unfortunately, I have about…

22-year-old Australian backpacker Erin Langworthy fell 20 meters into the Zambezi river after the cord snapped while she was bungee jumping of bridge at Victoria Falls in Zambia. Feet still tied together, with a good part of the cord in tow, into the turbulent waters beneath the world’s largest waterfall. According to MailOnline infested with crocodiles. Nice.

The Air Swimmers sharks mentioned in August have been “extremely popular” gifts this Christmas, and reports of their escapes started almost as soon as presents were unwrapped. Some even before they made it to gift-giving, as for instance when grandpa Brian Thomson lost his on Christmas Day, before his grandchildren had a chance to play with it. Via The Coffs Coast Advocate He inflated it in secret during the morning – but it floated through the kitchen and lounge, up a flight of stairs and across a bedroom before leaving through the bedroom’s external door. “They’re cunning characters, these sharks,”…

USA’s top-ranked middle-distance track athlete Nick Symmonds is auctioning off a temporary tattoo on his shoulder, highest bid now US $3,100 for having “Your Twitter Name on an Olympian in 2012”. Their are restrictions forcing him to cover up the tattoo with tape at all IAAF governed meetings, but he promises wear it under the tape, to remove the tape as soon as the rules permit, to mention the sponsor’s Twitter name in all interviews before and after the event, and why it has been covered during competition.

Karlyn Pipes-Neilsen of Aquatic Edge was recently voted one of the Top Ten Masters Swimmers of All-Time by Swimming World Magazine and currently holds masters world records in both the pool and open water. She lives in Kona, Hawaii but travels the globe teaching swimmers and triathletes how to swim faster at her swim technique clinics and camps. Also, because she lives where the water is warm amongst outrig boats and what looks like runaway aquarium fishes, she is able to produce way more beautiful videos than us poor northerners. Sigh.

So how often does this happen? – Russia’s Stanislav Donets and Arkady Vyatchanin on the Istanbul 2009 LEN European Short Course Championships podium, after both having set a new world record of 48.97, bettering Vyatchanin’s 49.17 from the semis the day before. Donets won gold in all three backstroke events, back then, and bettered the world record again the year after at the Dubai 2010 World Championships (25m), to the current 48.95. Spain’s Aschwin Wildeboer Faber finished 3rd in 49.05, also under the 49.17 from the semis the day before.

Some youngsters from Suðuroyar Svimjifelag in Vágur, Faroe Islands strutting their stuff. I don’t know how ‘perfect’ their form is at times, but they’ve sure got the energy! That last Berns vs SuSvim face-off thing is an internal joke, I think, between the director here Jón Bjarnason (head coach of SuSvim) and Berns head coach René Thomsen, the guy who helps them with for instance the website paljoensen.com)

Authorities are baffled as to who – or what – could have removed the bronze statue of St Francis of Paola, which stands 7.2 ft (2.2 m) high and was securely embedded in concrete 95 ft (29 m) beneath the surface of the sea. One unexpected upside from the disappearance is that when investigating the site, a group of local divers chanced upon the wreck of a 49 ft-long ship, which is thought to be hundreds of years old. Read The Telegraph. (That genius photo off sbirciapaola.wordpress.com)