Big Ricks Swim Team: The Great North Swim 2014

Friday, 20 June 2014

The Great North Swim 2014

Ricks

Make a Splash at

The Great North Swim.

2014

The Great Swims...

round 1

The Great North Swim.

The Biggest Mass Open Water Swim Event In The UK

The great swim

Europe's biggest outdoor swimming series

it was a fabulous weekend
where over 10,000 people took the water
in lake windermere
http://www.greatswim.org

Its Time to Check In

Today Water temp in Windermere
was a delightful 17.5 degrees..
extremely warm for the middle June

Sundays list of races

( this is the third day of the Great North Swim event ..

you have choices of swim distances to enter from

1/2 mile , 1 mile , 2 mile and 5K )

* all swims are wet suited swims *

The course

the full lap is One Mile..

the check in..

you are allowed to check in for you allocated wave

30 minutes before the start time..

average size of each wave is 300 swimmers

one the great swim lifeguards standing by waiting for the next group

of the swimmers to enter the Acclimatize zone

Acclimatize zone is where you after checking in..

its your first chance to try out the water..

and check out all is okay with your suit , goggles, timing chip , hat etc

before the off

The 12.00 , 2mile white wave on Sunday..

all smiles before the start

Great Britain's finest ever swimmer

The fabulous Rebecca Adlington

Beckie is the Great swim Ambassador and started the first wave of the event

she was at the event all weekend always on hand to chat and help..

and somehow Great swim and Steve Parry talked Beckie into taking part on the Saturday .. so 10k in Rio Beckie..?? lol

she is a true superstar of our sport

http://www.rebeccaadlington.co.uk/

its an amazing sight seeing 300 swimmers take to the water

the yellow 1 mile wave

closing in on the finish

throughout the weekend the elite swimmers

gave tips and advice before starting each wave ..

hear is Ricks buddy the beautiful and charming super swimmer

from the USA Lexie Kelly

http://www.lexiekelly.com/

somewhere hidden in between the 300 wet suits is

Ricks supa swimmers Darran Redman Dyke,

Daz was in Fridays afternoons two mile pink wave ..

Supa did a great swim as always coming home in 3rd place in the wave..

the man is legend .!

Supa Daz..

Darran all smiles now the 2 miles is done and dusted..

thinking about having a beer or 2 watching the England match in world cup..

now his race is over..

Ricks swimmer Paul basher Bates its somewhere in

Sundays two mile red wave

basher big smiling after finding out

he had got one over on his Rick buddy daz..

The ricks channel guys both did great

coming top 5 in their old man age group

and top twenty overall out 1000+

swimmers who completed the two distance..

top effort men.

the finish line..
best sight of the day for some ..;-))

made it...
i finished the great north swim

the great swim is fantastically well run

, not only for the enjoyment of the swimmer

but just as important the enjoyment of family , friends and supporters..

everywhere is will signposted and easy to find for the swimmer

good job , as we are open water swimmers after all , who have been eating and sleeping

and thinking nothing but swimming for months..

so finding the toilet ect..is hard work

The swim village
the light bus experience
http://www.lightbusexperience.co.uk

lake district national park
http://www.lakedistrict.gov.uk/

the double Decker bus
used as a viewing point at the start of the race

the virgin trains

party tent

www.virgintrains.co.uk/

the big boys of open water where in the village
swim trek http://www.swimtrek.com/
dry robe http://dryrobe.com/
chillswim http://www.chillswim.com/

h2open water http://www.h2openmagazine.com/

great swim http://www.greatswim.org/

the view for the road as we walked back to
ambleside to catch the windermere ferry back to
bowness and home...it had been a fine day

its all gone quite...

not a swimmer in sight ....

roll on.

The Great North Swim.

2015

The Great North Swim.

2014

memories of a great Sunday in the lakes

but wait that's not it.....

you've seen the pictures , now lets walk you through

what its actually like for a great north swimmer

in the 30 minutes leading up to the start of

The great north swim ..!!

start the countdown

Four..

Acclimatize..!

okay..for those of you who have yet to enjoy of any of the Great Swims around the UK yet...
lets walk you through how yesterdays 12.00p (2 mile ) white wave was started ..

okay its around 11.30 , you are called to check in , once checked in , then you are directed have a little warm up in windermere....

first question on your mind how cold in is water ...;-))

good news it was a lovely 17,5 degrees yesterday

Three ..

The pro swimmer ....!

once, everyone has completed their short warm up in the lake,
it’s about 11.50...so around ten minutes till the off...everyone is feeling nervous and exited...this is when the guest pro swimmer comes to have a chat with us all... to give a few tips of advice and encouragement ..today it was the brilliant double Olympic medalist David Davis

Two ..

The Warm Up...!

great north swim - fitness instructor ...

its now ,less 5 minutes till swim time....!!!!

its time to have a dance
and really get those legs and shoulders warmed up

with Great Swim fitness instructor...
12.00pm (2 mile ) white wave

One..

Race Time.....

The Great north swim...

5,4,3,2,1........goooooooooooooooooooooo

its time. you've trained hard ...now its the fun part .You about to swim

thee most iconic open water venue in England lake windermere ....enjoy
5,4,3,2,1........goooooooooooooooooooooo
Great Swim
The Great north swim 15/06/14
12.00pm (2 mile ) white wave

wait still more to come ..!

The Elite Ladies