Author Topic: Wild swimming  (Read 22423 times)

urban_biker

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Re: Wild swimming
« Reply #25 on: 04 August, 2010, 10:26:50 am »
All except a cave.

I've only got 20 minutes into Alice's programme on iPlayer so far. I had to pause it to go for a wank...

You're a very rude man - but I laughed out loud  ;D
Owner of a languishing Langster

Re: Wild swimming
« Reply #26 on: 04 August, 2010, 10:27:53 am »
All except a cave.

I've only got 20 minutes into Alice's programme on iPlayer so far. I had to pause it to go for a wank...

Careful you don't shake any bolts loose.
"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

Woofage

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Re: Wild swimming
« Reply #27 on: 04 August, 2010, 11:07:26 am »
All except a cave.

I've only got 20 minutes into Alice's programme on iPlayer so far. I had to pause it to go for a wank...

You're a very rude man - but I laughed out loud  ;D

Indeed. Keep it up! It's not often I share snippets of yACF with anyone, but I had to tell Mrs W about that one (and your recent post in Members Photos).
Pen Pusher

woollypigs

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Re: Wild swimming
« Reply #28 on: 04 August, 2010, 11:29:16 am »
Just watched the first 15min of the program. It is funny to hear her explain things I take to be so natural, just something you do.
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Wowbagger

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Re: Wild swimming
« Reply #29 on: 04 August, 2010, 11:50:27 am »
I love the quote "breaking the rules and doing something naughty". That's the essence of liberation, whether it's cycling, wild camping, wild swimming. No rules, no regulations, just perfect freedom.
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Regulator

  • That's Councillor Regulator to you...
Re: Wild swimming
« Reply #30 on: 04 August, 2010, 12:21:56 pm »
Regularly take a dip when on tour, usually in the buff.   Coniston Water was the coldest dip I've taken - it was bloody awful.       

I was fortunate enough to enjoy free swimming (disabled) but this gubbishment have removed this benefit.   A friend suggested that we take a dip in the river Avon instead!

Just for clarification, the free swimming for people over 60 (and under 18 if they wished) was a national programme, with additional central government funding of £60 million from April 2009 to March 2011, that was open to all councils to sign up to.  Councils could also opt to extend the free swimming to other groups, such as those with diabilities.

However, not all council's chose to sign up to the scheme - about 20% of eligible councils didn't sign up and not all extended the scheme to under 18s or the disabled  - in which case eligible people were able to swim in pools provided by other councils who had signed up.  Many councils didn't sign up until the programme had been running for some length of time.

Council who had already been (in 2008/09) providing free swimming for both age groups were allocated £10 million worth of 'one off' grants to improve their facilities.  The other £50 million was for capital grants in 2009/10 and 2010/11 for ' new sign up' councils to modernise existing facilities or help build new ones.  There was also some additional funding to provide 100,000 free swimming lessons.

The current financial crisis has meant that the 2010/11 central capital projects funding is no longer available to new sign ups. 

Councils are perfectly able to continue to offer concessionary prices or free swims to particular groups - and many are continuing to do so.  Some have applied for NHS funding to defray any additional costs.

Council are quick to blame the government for 'withdrawing funding' - but  it should be borne in mind that this was never meant to be ongoing or permanent funding, but short term capital funding to improve facilities.
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andygates

  • Peroxide Viking
Re: Wild swimming
« Reply #31 on: 04 August, 2010, 12:54:24 pm »
Schweppes are currently doing a free-swim-with-a-bottlecap promotion ("Schwim") - one of the TriTalk massive in an impecunious state has got his season's training in by bottlecap donations. 
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onb

  • Between jobs at present
Re: Wild swimming
« Reply #32 on: 04 August, 2010, 04:29:44 pm »
Thoroughly enjoyed the Wild Swimming with Alice program last night.

If I could work out how to add a poll I'd set one up but a quick survey..

Have you wild swum:

in a river?

in a large freshwater lake?

in a small mountain tarn/beck/loch/llyn?

in really cold water?

in a rock pool/natural tidal lagoon?

in a cave?

in the buff?


For me the answer is yes to all but the last.. The cave was the most eerie (Kingsdale Master cave - the taller guys I was with could just about still walk on the bottom.)


Considered wisdom for SAs in Rowten Sumps is keep to the left. ::-) Thats on the way in BTW





Yes
yes
No
Yes
no
Yes
Yes
.

David Martin

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Re: Wild swimming
« Reply #33 on: 04 August, 2010, 04:32:35 pm »

For me the answer is yes to all but the last.. The cave was the most eerie (Kingsdale Master cave - the taller guys I was with could just about still walk on the bottom.)


Considered wisdom for SAs in Rowten Sumps is keep to the left. ::-) Thats on the way in BTW

Not sure which way we went in. Through a couple of barrels covered with a dustbin lid fairly near the road, along a passage that was walkable for me (just) but the tall guys had to stoop. Down a ladder into the stream, and then it got deeper till I was swimming. We turned round before the sump.
"By creating we think. By living we learn" - Patrick Geddes

itsbruce

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Re: Wild swimming
« Reply #34 on: 04 August, 2010, 04:40:23 pm »
Thoroughly enjoyed the Wild Swimming with Alice program last night.

If I could work out how to add a poll I'd set one up but a quick survey..

Have you wild swum:

in a river?

in a large freshwater lake?

in a small mountain tarn/beck/loch/llyn?

in really cold water?

in a rock pool/natural tidal lagoon?

in a cave?

in the buff?


All of the above.
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Zoidburg

Re: Wild swimming
« Reply #35 on: 04 August, 2010, 04:48:29 pm »
Just don't swim or in particular go jumping/diving in an old quarry.

Death on a stick, the one that sticks in my mind is Cosmeston in south wales, every summer you would go to your grans in Penarth and every summer some bugger would drown in Cosmeston while you were there.

Having said that my grans neighbour was partial to taking a daily swim in the bristol channel - year round.

I have swam in most kinds of water but never a cave - as a very small sprog I can still remember when Penarth swimming baths were filled with unheated sea water.


Re: Wild swimming
« Reply #36 on: 04 August, 2010, 04:49:23 pm »
All apart from large freshwater lake.  :thumbsup:
If it ain't broke, fix it 'til it is...

Re: Wild swimming
« Reply #37 on: 04 August, 2010, 04:57:53 pm »
all except a cave. The coldest I've been was in the north sea on easter day when it was sleeting, I had to stay in (swimming) for 2 minutes to win a 50p bet with my dad.   I won, then blew the lot on the 2p shove machines in the arcade at Felixtowe.


Re: Wild swimming
« Reply #38 on: 04 August, 2010, 05:30:50 pm »
all except a cave. The coldest I've been was in the north sea on easter day when it was sleeting, I had to stay in (swimming) for 2 minutes to win a 50p bet with my dad.   I won, then blew the lot on the 2p shove machines in the arcade at Felixtowe.

Felixstowe? I would have stayed in the water.
"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

Re: Wild swimming
« Reply #39 on: 04 August, 2010, 06:04:04 pm »
Have you wild swum:

in a river?

The Thames at various points from its upper reaches to as far downstream as Richmond. Various other rivers and streams mainly when cycle touring. The Susquehanna in Pennsylvania though this doesn't count as wild swimming as it was an official swimming "beach".

in a large freshwater lake?

Does the boating lake at Dorney Reach count? A sprint tri is not really wild swimming, is it?

in a small mountain tarn/beck/loch/llyn?

A few mountain lakes in Norway. Fabulously clean, clear and cold water. More of an inlet really, darkish but not totally underground dark.

in really cold water?

The sea has probably been the coldest. Even in a swimming pool when I used to swim every day as a ten year old. The lifeguard told me to get out as I had turned blue. Not wild swimming of course, and nowhere with ice in the water.

in a rock pool/natural tidal lagoon?

No.

in a cave?

In Greece in a cave accessible only by boat. Not in a cave as in properly underground.

in the buff?

Long hot summer of '74 in the US.  :-)
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rogerzilla

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Re: Wild swimming
« Reply #40 on: 04 August, 2010, 06:37:43 pm »
I first learned to swim without armbands at Frensham Ponds  :)

The best place I've swum was Lake Geneva, technically Lac Leman because it was near Evian.  It's crystal clear down that end, and if you dive underwater with a mask or goggles you can see for a huge distance.  I saw a big pike looking back at me  :o  The Zeller See is also good, but absolutely freezing because it's fed by mountain streams.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: Wild swimming
« Reply #41 on: 04 August, 2010, 07:49:48 pm »
I've only recently got into wild swimming as a spin off from triathlon:

in a river?

Thames, Eden in Cumbria

in a large freshwater lake?

Annecy in France - best swimming place that I've been to, Ullswater, Windermere

in a small mountain tarn/beck/loch/llyn?

Not yet, but it's gotta happen

in really cold water?

Ah.  Err, no.  And being a wimp, I probably won't.

in a rock pool/natural tidal lagoon?

No

in a cave?

No

in the buff?

Yes...

Semi-wild would include Highgate men's pond - which feels pretty wild once you are in and racing moor hens.  The Serpentine isn't wild above water but is pretty weedy below. 

Dorney Lake, the lake at Blenheim, but they don't count as they were in a tri.
Peter

Re: Wild swimming
« Reply #42 on: 04 August, 2010, 07:54:03 pm »
Just don't swim or in particular go jumping/diving in an old quarry.

Death on a stick, the one that sticks in my mind is Cosmeston in south wales, every summer you would go to your grans in Penarth and every summer some bugger would drown in Cosmeston while you were there

Why is this?

I often seem to read about some unfortunate soul drowning in a quarry, but what's so dangerous about quarry water? Yes, it's colder because of the depth and volume, but is that it? People swim in very cold water all the time without trouble, so why are quarrys so dangerous?

Zoidburg

Re: Wild swimming
« Reply #43 on: 04 August, 2010, 08:04:30 pm »
Just don't swim or in particular go jumping/diving in an old quarry.

Death on a stick, the one that sticks in my mind is Cosmeston in south wales, every summer you would go to your grans in Penarth and every summer some bugger would drown in Cosmeston while you were there

Why is this?

I often seem to read about some unfortunate soul drowning in a quarry, but what's so dangerous about quarry water? Yes, it's colder because of the depth and volume, but is that it? People swim in very cold water all the time without trouble, so why are quarrys so dangerous?
Quarry water has hidden rocks and stolen cars in it.

Dive in.

Break neck.

Most quarries are chemicaly dead as well with no life just very clear water, I think the clear water combined with hugely variable depth must do some funny things with convection and currents when the sun is fierce, which also happens to be the summer which is when people get tempted to jump in.

A quick search makes for depressing reading.

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Andrij

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Re: Wild swimming
« Reply #44 on: 04 August, 2010, 08:13:30 pm »
in a river?
A number of times, always the same river.

in a large freshwater lake?
In a few.  It this one large enough?  ;D

in a small mountain tarn/beck/loch/llyn?
Not yet.

in really cold water?
Subjective.  I've swum in water I found quite cold, but nothing coming close on the 'daft' scale.

in a rock pool/natural tidal lagoon?
Not yet.

in a cave?
Not yet.

in the buff?
Often.
 
;D  Andrij.  I pronounce you Complete and Utter GIT   :thumbsup:

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Wild swimming
« Reply #45 on: 04 August, 2010, 08:18:40 pm »
I am a very poor and reluctant swimmer, but oddly the only items on the survey I can say yes to are the cave and the lagoon. It just happens that they were both on the same occasion, and the water was Samoa-warm, otherwise I'm sure I'd say no to all.
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andygates

  • Peroxide Viking
Re: Wild swimming
« Reply #46 on: 04 August, 2010, 10:21:57 pm »
There's a lot of skinnydippers here.  Is it this common or are we all flashers?
It takes blood and guts to be this cool but I'm still just a cliché.
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Zoidburg

Re: Wild swimming
« Reply #47 on: 04 August, 2010, 10:35:09 pm »
There's a lot of skinnydippers here.  Is it this common or are we all flashers?
It depends on if you do it in the public swimming baths or not.

αdαmsκι

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Re: Wild swimming
« Reply #48 on: 04 August, 2010, 11:04:09 pm »
There's a lot of skinnydippers here.  Is it this common or are we all flashers?

Whereas I find it odd that some people have never been skinny dipping at least once in their life. However, that's probably more of a reflection on what I consider normal.
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Regulator

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Re: Wild swimming
« Reply #49 on: 05 August, 2010, 06:51:34 am »
There's a lot of skinnydippers here.  Is it this common or are we all flashers?

It's genetic in New Zealanders....  ;)
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I completely agree with Reg.

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