2024 Review & Highlights

It’s that time of year again…we’ll take a look at 2024 and some of its highlights. Over the last couple of years we’ve been putting in a lot of effort to extend our season into spring and autumn. Part of that effort has seen us buy a sauna tent (highly mobile), just this week!

Mid-winter (as usual,) involved a lot of reconnaissance and research. We found a new swimming spot or two and figured out the logistics.

2024 saw us start way back on 30th March (our earliest start to date). A stunning ‘sauna, dips and coaching tips’ session. Weather was beautiful, water was about 8 degrees(!) and everyone had a great time.

2024 saw the sea warm up very slowly, it did stay warm for longer than usual though…but was definitely cooler than usual until mid-late June.

Shortly after the above session we started various private coaching sessions. With the next proper swim on April 2nd, around St Michael’s Mount. In all, we completed around 40 swims around St Michael’s Mount, with around 12 of those ‘slow swimming’ sessions, having to cancel or re-arrange around 7…due to poor/dangerous conditions.

Amongst other swims in April-May, we completed the Devil’s Frying Pan a couple of times. Which was one of the highlights….and a glorious Gannel Estuary swim or two. It was nice putting on a few Gannel swims, as the north coast had poor conditions for sea swimming, for most of the summer.

For the first time ever, we took a group around Goose Rock. The rock that sits just off Pentire Headland and Crantock, in Newquay. Not always possible, as you need the right conditions but everyone had a great time and a few swimmers put a big tick in one of their bucket-list boxes.

Porthbeer Cove (or Mears Beach) was another new swim for us, in 2024. It offers a stunning walk around from Coverack, a stunning beach and a stunning swim. Beautiful white sand beach, in a beautiful part of the world. It’s in quite a remote location, so normally nice and quiet.

Lots of one-off swims followed…including more swims in the Gannel Estuary, swim across Fistral Beach, Mousehole island swim….and a ‘5K Day’ event, originally aimed for north Cornwall but had to retreat to Gorran Haven and Vault Beach due to the conditions. Gorran and Vault however, offer great options and a great day had by all.

One of my personal favourites had to be a swimming double at Porthcurno/Porthchapel. We visited the two because of strong winds and got the location perfect. Shortly followed by a perfect day at Kynance Cove and 3 swims.

This year the ‘Slow Swimming Day Out’ on the Helford was a touch more challenging than usual but we still managed a good 3 swims and very pleasant conditions…finishing at Trebah Gardens, where swimmers got the chance to check out these stunning gardens in the sunshine.

Having had limited access to the 3 Bears Caves swim in 2023, as all the sand on the beach had been ripped away in a storm, we took full advantage of the beach partial come back and put on some cave swims this year. Had some thoroughly happy swimmers!

Next up were a few swims in the Mousehole area and a bit of activity in St Mawes. Some glorious swims in near perfect conditions, over this period. As well as a 4km swim in Mousehole, with a bit of swell.

Charlestown to Porthpean was next up…and later in the year we returned to the Mevagissey area. I’m not a huge fan of St Austell as a town but it has some stunning surrounding areas and is a great swim destination! Including another first, near Mavagissey (pictured below).

Over the next month was a series of one-off swims, mainly around the St Ives and Penzance area. Carbis Bay and Porthminster were visited frequently to avoid strong southerly winds.

Along with Goose Rock (mentioned earlier), we sadly had to cancel a couple of swims that are very condition dependent…such as Polly Joke to Crantock.

SWIMMING HOLIDAYS

We had a number of really enjoyable swimming holidays but I think for us the highlights were the Lizard Peninsula swim hol and the end of season swimming holiday.

A swarm of jellyfish made the Lizard Peninsula holiday interesting but we simply moved coasts and had some glorious swims neat Church Cove/Poldhu. We then managed to up the ante and put on a simply world class swim at Polurrian Cove and the 3 Bears Caves…finishing a great weekend in the Lizard, at Kynance Cove for an exciting shorter route (escaping the wind).

Sadly we had to cancel the last swim on the end of summer swim holiday but 4 glorious swims on the Friday-Saturday more than made up for it. Starting at Carne Beach and then stopping at the lovely De Barra Cafe in St Mawes and going on to swim at Tavern Beach (which is always a joy). Saturday was the turn of Towan Beach on the Roseland (another first for us) in amazing sunshine and finishing at Porthscatho.

Late summer is night swimming territory. This year we went back to Trevassack Lake…always a pleasure and added the Cornish Tipi Campsite to the list. Both stunning lakes, that offer sheltered conditions, great food and a sauna option, this year.

One of my favourite swims was supporting my auntie around St Michael’s Mount. She wanted to do it for years and she lives in Australia…so it was great seeing her swim the island.

A visual of some of our 2023-2024 highlights…

Full Moon Swim in the Lizard

2023 saw us take on a new swim. A night time, full moon swim. We picked Trevassack Lake, as it has high walls for shelter, great facilities and uninterrupted views of the moon and stars.

We offered 2 groups, at 6.30 and 7.30pm. The 6.30pm group had far more ambient light and witnessed the moon rising over the far cliffs and into the night sky. The later group experienced ‘proper’ dark and the moon and stars high in the sky.

The forecast was quite harsh, with 35kmph winds, with the odd wind gust. We picked the lake as it offers great protection from the wind and it delivered. We made slight adjustments to our original plan and used the west side of the lake and cliffs as protection from the wind. The swimmers experienced little to no chop at all. The water was also 15.5 degrees. It was warmer in the water than out!

Both groups then popped over to the onsite cafe and had a hot vegetable stew and hot drink (the water safety team opted for the hot chocolate!).

We had great feedback from the groups and will look to create a bigger and better event for next year.

*What the video doesn’t show is how stunning the moon looked. Rising on the east side (to the left).