Starting swimming, any advice?

jpaul said:
Looe looks like a nice venue, overnight stay ?

you don't have any nearby sea venues with some degree of lifeguard supervision for summer time temp swims ?
I keep eyeing up sherringham in norfolk where you could swim about 100m in a supervised groin section, swimming in the sea in UK always feels more risky than (millpond) Med say,
not to mention pollution issues.
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Sorry I missed this post. Yes gf and I are making a weekend of it, and as it's a 3:30pm start I can have a big meal the night before :)

I'm in Bristol and sod swimming in the Channel, I'd be genuinely worried about getting swept out to sea.

I'm lucky because West Country Water Park is half a mile from home and though it is freshwater, it's a fairly large lake with a lifeguard keeping watch.
 
jpaul said:
Looe looks like a nice venue, overnight stay ?

you don't have any nearby sea venues with some degree of lifeguard supervision for summer time temp swims ?
I keep eyeing up sherringham in norfolk where you could swim about 100m in a supervised groin section, swimming in the sea in UK always feels more risky than (millpond) Med say,
not to mention pollution issues.
Click to expand...

I go swimming from Wells in North Norfolk now and then, not far from Sherringham at all.

Technically I go about midway between Wells beach and Holkam beach.

You can swim out about half a mile and still touch the bottom most of the time although you obviously don't want to be relying on that, but personally I think that's the best place to swim in the sea.

I swam the English Channel a bit earlier in the year and not so much of a fan, but it is noticeably warmer.

Obviously in life there are no guarantees and it depends how confident you are but I used to be a lifeguard and did the open water/sea qualification as well, so I'm not concerned about going swimming in the sea on my own.

Edit; just to clarify I swam in the English Channel, no I didn't swim to France lol
 
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There's quite a parallel tide in Sherringham whenever I've been eyeing it up, so would need to do some homework, also may need a wet-suit.

no lack of experience from regular sunday morning swim along 150m boat line in Med, nothing better than an endless pool, jellyfish excepted, but, not enough insulation for the North sea I suspect.
(some may call the Med a bath though)
 
bainbridge said:
Sorry I missed this post. Yes gf and I are making a weekend of it, and as it's a 3:30pm start I can have a big meal the night before :)

I'm in Bristol and sod swimming in the Channel, I'd be genuinely worried about getting swept out to sea.

I'm lucky because West Country Water Park is half a mile from home and though it is freshwater, it's a fairly large lake with a lifeguard keeping watch.
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It's the wrong side of Bristol for you, but there's the Marine Lake in Clevedon you could try. It's clearly a lot smaller than a lake, but might make a nice change one time.
 
Lane gate ..... a poll ? big argument in the pool at the weekend.
One corded lane has people swimming anti-clockwise - that's the way it's always been.
Several people think adjacent lanes should swim in clock-sense (so alternating for lanes) such that you are always going the same direction as the person in that adjacent lane,
claiming that less chance of arm collision ? (personally I never had one)
personally prefer everything anti-clockwise I'm familiar with it, I breathe on right and accustomed to checking on left for anyone overtaking,
you can also see people coming towards you on adjacent lanes to make sure you don't foul them.
+ you change lanes, you just continue the same thing, too.
 
Ours does ACW, CW, ACW. 2 Lanes each for slow, medium, fast. The signs for pace dont really get respected and you'll often find 2:30+/100m breast strokers in the fast lane. I generally jump in the least populated lane and swim up and down the middle. I'm not a fast swimmer but unles there are some squad swimmers doing a session it usually works out just fine.
 
My pool has two lanes, fast is anti clockwise and medium is clockwise, pre lockdown it was both lanes clockwise and I still haven't got used to the change lol, I prefer swimming opposite directions, less likely to get kicked by breaststrokers who seem to think as long as their head is in their lane their legs will be as well and I still cant turn as well anti clockwise lol. Has to be said though they are horribly narrow lanes.
 
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