First Swims Of June

Queen of the swan, Anji    

Ali telling Susan way doing another channel solo
swim in   2015 sounded like a good idea in the pub     

Wendy 

Birmingham university team   

Richard and Deb on safety duty 

Dan and Colin 

the view as we left around 8.30   

A Lovely Swimming Week In May.!

The new ricks team
some of the future Ricks double channel team 2015/16 

 

 swan pool
Sunday morning 

big kevin 

Stuart   

ricks & beeches ladies    

Clare and Ross ready first open water swim    

Anji
two hrs done  

Ross   

Stuart 

Charlie 

1st open water swim done..
hour +   

carl and the oldbury tri team 

Jeremy and the safety team did a great job,
a lot new swimmers to look after  this morning   

  one small step for an open water swimmer
        one large step for an indoor swimmer       

Wednesday evening   

young Raymond and Dan  

a good mix of  swimmers tonight , from the Birmingham university team  ,
to oldbury triathlon team to the normal channel and fun loving skin swimmers   

Ray helping with safety after hes swim     

Dan and the Birmingham university team  

First Group Swims Of The Year 2014

Sunday morning
great turn out.
 water 13 degree  

safety check  

oldbury tri team 

big kev 

Monday night
captain cash up for the fight
on a windy Monday night    

captain cash falls for the old wet suit trick..  

Welcome To The Swan

Add caption

colin 

ricks are back , with a new team , with new swims planned ...
more on that in the weeks to come

Marginal Gains

Sir David Brailsford’s tips on

Marginal Gains

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14bNOBeBcoQ)

Sir David speaks to BBC radio 5 live Drive Time About His now famous motivational skills. His philosophy of 'marginal gains' and how it can be applied to everyday life. 

we think this can work especially well  with   open water swimming..! where any  marginal gains no matter how little could go a long way to achieving your goals...have a listen to Sir David ... (This clip is from BBC Drive on 11 April 2014.)

The Long Crawl To France

"" Every year, more and more people try to swim the English Channel. Just over half succeed. What drives people to brave jellyfish, vomiting and hypothermia? According to Mike Oram, who spends his summers piloting an escort boat between Dover and Calais, "they're all deluded. They live in a world of dreams, and dreams aren't reality." Both this year and last, swimmers have died making the attempt, both in sight of France. More people have climbed Everest than have swum the channel.
Presenter Jolyon Jenkins joins the dreamers at Dover Harbour, where veteran coach Freda Streeter has run a swimming school since 1982. And he is on board Mike Oram's boat as one woman, Caroline Sims, makes her attempt.""

If you love channel swimming , or just want to know what goes into becoming a channel swimmer ,then we suggest you get a coffee, make yourself comfortable ..and take 30 minutes out of your busy day to listen to this great program done by Jolyon Jenkins on BBC Radio 4 about English Channel swimming .listen to Jackie corbel , Freda , Mike and Ricks 

buddy Caroline Sims complete her channel dream for Susan Taylor..

(Simply click the arrow in the picture above to hear

 what it takes to be a channel swimmer  )

link to show

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/galleries/p01kv8bc

2014

Wishing you joy and friendship throughout the coming year
and may laughter and happiness and swimming fill your world.
-Ricks