Swimtrek's Simon Murie and Robson Green preparing to swim the Corryvreckan

Feeling adventurous and looking for a different type of holiday this year which doesn’t involve lounging around on beaches? Then check out Swimtrek’s website to see what they have an offer.

It’s not cheap (the holidays don’t include flights or transportation) but they do include top quality guides to ensure you don’t veer wildly off course when you are swimming – incredibly easy to do when you don’t have lane ropes!

My wife bought me a Swimtrek holiday to the Lake District last summer for my 40th birthday and though it was bloody, bloody cold swimming some of the lakes (just 10 degrees in Ennerdale Tarn) the sense of achievement was immense – once I’d got the feeling back in my toes!

One swim that has caught my eye for this year is the Swim across Hellespont. Situated in Turkey, The Hellespont is undoubtedly one of the most significant open water swims in the world.

In 1810, Lord Byron the English Poet (pictured right) became the first known person to swim across the Hellespont from Europe to Asia. He swam it in honour of Leander, who in Greek Mythology, would swim nightly across this stretch of water to his lover Hero!

Another challenging swim that was recently featured on Robson Green’s Wild Swimming Adventure is across the Corryvreckan in Scotland – appparently the third biggest whirlpool in the world. There’s another chance to see Swimtrek’s Simon Murie guide Robson Green through the whirlpool as he prepares for his final challenge – a swim to Holy Island in memory of his Dad.

ITV Player

It’s the New Year. Time to make a resolution to do something challenging for a worthy charity this Spring.

Taking place at a pool near you between 16-18 April, the Swimathon 2010 is the world’s biggest swim event. Last year it raised nearly £1.5m for Marie Curie Cancer Care and The Swimathon Foundation.

Your efforts will help Marie Curie Nurses provide more care and support to people with cancer and other terminal illnesses completely free in their own homes.

Enter this month and get half price entry (offer applies to online and telephone Distance Challenge entries before 31 January 2010). Take part for fun or challenge yourself to swim further, faster or longer than ever before.

And don’t think you need to be Michael Phelps to take part. The event is open to people of all abilities from those who want to swim a few lengths on their own or as part of a team to those who want the challenge of swimming 5Km.

You can find out more at www.swimathon.org. You can also visit their Facebook page.

Having fun! Boxing Day dippers at Whitley Bay and Newbiggin. Image from Journallive.co.uk

Given how cold it was over the festive season, it’s frankly amazing that anyone stripped off for a splash in the sea this Christmas. But hats (or should that be swimming caps) off to all those who braved the icier than normal weather for the traditional ‘Boxing Day’ dip.

In Clevedon, Somerset, 78 year old Joyce Peters told This is Somerset that she felt ‘euphoric’ after the annual New Years Day swim dressed in Victorian costume, despite the chilling 3 degree centigrade water at the Marine Lake.

A regular swimmer at the salt water lake, she exclaimed: “It gets your hands and feet first. A lot of the youngsters wear special gloves, but I don’t. Just a swimsuit, not a wetsuit.”

“It’s a euphoric feeling although very cold,” she added.

Even those in the North East braved the icy North Sea. Scores turned out for the traditional Boxing Day plunge at Seaburn, in Sunderland, while 100 took part in the swim in Whitley Bay, North Tyneside. Many wore charity T-shirts and fancy dress and the bravest stripped down to their shorts as they jumped into the water!

Wikipedia – Boxing Day dip

Rich (front) and Tom (rear) prepare for their row across the Atlantic

Spare a thought for Richard Hume and Tom Barnes as you tuck into your turkey in your centrally heated house! The two Londoners are preparing to spend the rest of the festive season rowing naked across the Atlantic in a small boat. Heavy storms have forced a two-week delay on the Woodvale race, the famously gruelling ocean challenge completed by Ben Fogle and James Cracknell in 2005.

Rich and Tom are now keen to set out and hope to leave just on Tuesday December 29 if weather conditions settle down. Rich, 27, and Tom, 30, will spend over two months at sea in a boat the size of a mini-bus. Living space is cramped and there is no toilet, with only the ‘bucket and chuck it’ method for relieving yourself. They will have to eat over 10,000 calories a day just to keep going, and to top it off, Rich and Tom will spend most of their time totally naked to cut down on chafing caused by corrosive salt water.

The pair hopes to raise at least £100,000 to fund vital services and research into the brain condition Ataxia, which has left a friend of theirs in a wheelchair. Neither had rowed before taking on the massive challenge, and Rich, who had 93% curvature of the spine as a teenager, once thought he would never be able to take part in any sport at all.

To sponsor the pair, visit www.justgiving.com/rowingtheatlantic

Today I went swimming in the snow. It was one of the most wonderful swims of my life. And no I’m not some sort of Lewis Pugh type swimming superhero who cracks the ice in the Arctic to swim in freezing temperatures. Instead, it was at my local David Lloyd in Finchley where they are good enough to open the pool for a few hours a day even in the winter without any of those ridiculous health and safety concerns excuses that dog modern life.

Geoff Jones photograph of a Finnish Avantouinti (ice-swimming)

So while the environment may have suffered (though probably not as much as all those p0liticians flying off to Copenhagen for fruitless talks on climate change), me and a barrel chested old boy – who looked like one of those pictures you see of Victorian Channel swimmers – were able to enjoy the not so icy water.

I guess the temperature in the water was around 20-22 degrees, certainly chilier than the 28 degrees in the indoor pool, but perfectly bearable – as long as you keep moving.

Part of the pleasure of swimming outdoors is stripping off at the side of the pool and letting your body face the elements virtually naked. I guess it was probably around 2 to 3 degrees on the poolside so you don’t want to hang around but as soon as you plunge in it feels just wonderful. Best of all though had to be flipping over onto my back after 100 lengths of crawl. Soft snowflakes hitting my mouth as my face faced  the sky. Just bliss. And the perfect escape from the pressures of work and Christmas present shopping!

Hannah Miley won Gold in Instanbul

Scotland’s Hannah Miley has scooped gold in the 400m medley at the European Short Course Swimming Championships in Istanbul.

The 20 year old who claimed bronze in the 200m Medley on the opening day of the championships was hot favourite to win after qualifying fastest for the final. Her winning time was 4minutes 25.66 seconds.

It’s Great Britain’s first Gold medal of the championships and Miley’s first Gold medal at senior level.

Doreen Adcock won the Unsung Award at the BBC Sports Personality awards

A 72 year old swimming instructor has won the Unsung Award at the 2009 BBC Sports personality of the year, proving that age is no barrier to the sport. Doreen Adcock from Milton Keynes has helped three generations of people to swim in the local area and even has her own Facebook page. Olympic swimming champion Rebecca Adlington and snooker’s Jimmy White presented the award to Adcock.

The pensioner who has taught 13,000 people to swim over 35 years said: “The children I teach and the adults with handicaps, to see them in their own surroundings and to know I will have produced a good little swimmer gives me such a warm feeling inside me. Thank you.”

CEO of TW Steel and Ian Thorpe at Nader Jewellers VIP Cocktail Party. (Matthias Engesser/Milestones Photography)

He hung up his trunks a little while ago, but Ian ‘Thorpedo’ Thorpe has just been made brand ambassador for Dutch oversized watch company TW Steel.

A five-time Olympic gold medalist and eleven-time World Champion, Thorpe – still just 27 – retired from competitive swimming in 2006 but has been busy with other projects including his role as ambassador for Armani and now spends much of his time in New York.

TW Steel, which offers a four watch collection, has also just become the ‘Official Timing Partner’ to the Renault F1 Team in a three-year partnership set to run from 2010 – 2012.

British Gas Duel in the Pool takes place Dec 18/19

There’s a chance to see eight times gold medal winner Michael Phelps competing in the UK for the first time as Europe takes on the US in the British Gas Duel in the Pool at the Manchester Aquatics Centre, December 18th and 19th.

Both teams will include up to 18 men and 18 women with British Swimming, Germany and Italy sending a team of six men and six women each for the short course (25m) meet.

(more…)