Swimmer's Daily

  • Jack is a champion swimmer and all round great guy. We love having him as part of Autism Swim’s community.

  • Record-breaking endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh has revealed he only saw “a few fish” during his 49-day swim of the English Channel, with plastic plaguing every beach he saw from Land’s End to Dover

  • New goggles ‘usually’ have an anti-fog coating inside the lenses. Who knew? When cleaning their goggles, swimmers often rub the inside of their goggles with their finger or a towel to clean them to help prevent fogging. This de-fogging method may actually do more damage than anything to the anti-fog coating.

    What should you do instead?

    -Try your best to be gentle with your goggle lenses, especially on the inside. Dirt, oil, sand and sunscreen from your fingers and cloths damage the lenses and degrade visibility. This is why you often can’t see very well out of your goggles after a period of time. Plus, poor visibility will often lead to crankiness and fatigue.

    -Invest in some cleaning and anti-fog products for goggles. These are usually found on the same rack where the swim goggles but are also for sale on the internet. Follow the directions. It may sound novel, but many do not take this simple step. Be careful to not get any of these products in your eyes. Use only the recommended amount and rinse your goggles with fresh cool tap water. Again, I must stress, read the directions.

    -After swimming, gently rinse your goggles with fresh cool tap water before storing them away. This will remove any pool chemicals.

    -Never leave your goggles exposed to extreme heat or cold. This will warp or melt the goggle gasket and strap. This is one of the primary reasons the strap ‘snaps’ (often while swimming…big sigh).

    -Use a protective goggle case to store your goggles. Tossing your goggles in your swim bag should not be an option. The chance of them getting scratched by almost anything in your swim bag is inevitable. Imagine the horror.

    -Please do not put your goggles away wet. If you do, they may grow bacteria and mold. Yuk! This can result in eye infections. This might be what you are thinking- “I don’t have time to wait until my goggles are properly dried. I have to get back to work, home, shopping, etc.” Take an extra minute and shake off any excess water the best you can and put them away in a long soft sock. This way they will be safe in your swim bag until you can store them properly. If you are like me, you probably have a couple of lonely socks you could use in your laundry room.

    -Maintenance is the key to the proper care and feeding of your goggles. Your goggles cost a lot of money. You want them to last as long as possible. They will if you take care of them properly. Happy swimming!

    Guest post by Barbie Nelis

    swim goggle photo
    Photo by kevin.gale

  • A 12-year-old Baltimore girl drowned Tuesday at Sandy Point State Park after being pulled under by a current in a “no swimming” area, Maryland Natural Resources Police said Wednesday.

    Rescue crews found Kaniya Kenly’s body about 40 yards off shore at about 11 p.m., after nearly five hours of searching.

    At a news conference Wednesday morning at the park’s marina, Capt. Brian Rathgeb of the Maryland Natural Resources Police said the agency got a call about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday for a potential drowning. At some point, he said, four children were left alone by the beach.

    The children, ages 11 to 15 years old, went into an area marked “no swimming,” Rathgeb said. It’s an area reserved for fishing, he said.

    Kaniya was overcome by the force of the current, while the other children made it to safety, he said.

    See Baltimore Sun

    https://youtu.be/8-v6bQUKWxo

  • Former Olympic swimmer and two-time gold medalist Klete Keller used the app Wag to find a dogsitter, and very much regretted it when he came home to find two shirtless men on his couch with “personal lubricant” and a camera.

    Keller spoke with Colorado Springs–based Fox 21 News and described the scene when he arrived home. His house stunk; there were the aforementioned shirtless guys; there were “bodily fluids” on his couch; and the dogsitter was taking a shower. Oh, and his dog Jimbo was locked in a room, sitting in his own piss.

    Fox 21 actually talked to the dogsitter, who asked to remain anonymous and did not have a convincing explanation for the guys and lube:

    “To be completely honest, I didn’t have WD-40 and my keys were stuck in my car, so I ended up grabbing what I had in my car, for things, that you know, I do on my personal time and I didn’t think to put it back in my car,” said the woman.

    See Deadspin

  • The 48-year-old finished the 560km (348 mile) gruelling swim from Land’s End in Cornwall to Dover in Kent in 49 days.

    He was greeted at Shakespeare Beach by Environment Secretary Michael Gove.

    The environmental campaigner and UN Patron of the Oceans began the challenge on 12 July, swimming 10 to 20km (six to 12 miles) every day.

    Mr Pugh, from Plymouth, Devon, said he felt “relieved and exhilarated”.

    “It’s been very, very long, we’ve been going for 49 days and I’m exhausted, physically exhausted, mentally exhausted, so delighted to be here.”

    He is estimated to have made 500,000 to 750,000 strokes along the journey.

    Read BBC

    https://youtu.be/2HLtPnBmBzE

  • In a world of increasing pressures, it’s easy to let problems manifest. German triathlete Liz Kellerer takes us to the wilderness of the Scottish Highlands to show us how wild swimming can help lead to both a healthy body and mind.

  • ‘Marko Pejcinoski, the youngest swimmer who swam the Lake Ohrid (Sveti Naum – City port).’

    https://youtu.be/lLTW5Wem3-s

  • Keith Ellenbogen and his colleagues aboard a Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary boat had seen a fin on the morning of Aug. 17, about 6 miles north of Provincetown. The slow movement of the fin, and the giant circle it made in the flat water, led the group to decide it must be a basking shark, which are not generally dangerous to humans.

    Ellenbogen, who is photographing wildlife in the sanctuary in the first of a three-year grant, grabbed his camera and slipped into the water in a wetsuit, mask, snorkel and flippers.

    But as the murky water cleared just under the surface, he realized the fin belonged to a great white shark, approximately 16 feet long, that was also near the surface and swimming straight toward him.

    Read Cape Cod Times