Sea Swimming Blog #62

Day 101 Sea Swimming.

#62 of the blog.

It wasn't intentional… but yesterday I lied.

I said that my 100th consecutive sea swim day would hold more significance than my 101st… how wrong could I have been?!

After an afternoon teaching photography and taking in the sights, sounds - and sometimes smells - of Jersey Zoo, I started driving back towards my house… having to pass my mum and dads in the process…

It had previously crossed my mind that I needed to try and get my mum in the sea (though it’s a challenge to get her to go in during the Summer months let alone the end of February!) as for every positive reason I can assign to it i.e. physical health, mental health, community, belonging, confidence, achievement, personal triumph, oneness with nature along with many more I’ve no doubt missed, I knew that this magic medicine would be beneficial to her in some way shape or form.

I knocked on the window and told her to grab her gear and join me down Bouley Bay… and she gave me that puzzled look like I was mad… or joking.

Well I wasn’t joking.

I told her to focus on her breathing, using big deep breaths to help gain control of the desire to gasp for air as the cold tries to stamp its authority.

Get over the initial 1 minute (or so) shock of it and you’ll be fine…

And what an absolute trooper she was!

Her smile says it all :)

Hopefully this will be the beginning of a new adventure for her like it has been for me and many others too.

An absolute highlight of my sea swimming journey so far… I may have missed tonight’s sunset but I wouldn’t have missed this for the world.

“The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery”

- Mark Van Doren