Selection of safe Swimming Guides
/If you’re looking for swim-spiration for the 2022 summer here it is! I’ve selected a few safe swimming guides.
Planning a swimming trip / holiday in Cornwall
/Cornwall is packed full of world class open water swimming options. In the wrong conditions however, these can be unpleasant (at best) and sometimes quite dangerous. If you want to get the most out of your swims you’ll need to do your research and give yourself plenty of options. You’ll need to consider the following points :
LOCATION : as picturesque as some areas are you need to pick a location that offers swims facing at least two different directions ie. west and east. If you picked Newquay as your destination, for example, a strong westerly wind and/or swell pretty much rules out any local swims! This is the exact reason we based a lot of our swimming activity in Penzance and the Lizard…lots of options.
BE PREPARED TO TRAVEL : getting away from the wind and swell may require travel. If you’re planning to swim summer season, this in turn may also require planning…as you may need to park up early (in the popular spots) and get the tides right.
RESEARCH : do you research. We offer safe swimming guides to a number of our blog posts. Talk to local swimming groups, look up articles specific to your swim, speak to local lifeguards…Don’t just turn up and swim.
CONDITIONS : Look up the conditions for the swim as late as possible, so that the forecast is as accurate as possible. Ideally you want a light off-shore wind. Always best swimming on a neap tide and avoid the first hour after high tide…particularly on a Spring tide.
SWIM IN NUMBERS. Contact local open water / wild swimmers that may want to join you. Try and find swimmers of roughly the same fitness levels / pace. Fairly easy contacting swimmers through social media.
GUIDED SWIMS. Find a local professional swim guide. You don’t need to do this for all of your swims but if you want to get adventurous or go off-grid, this is definitely advisable.
RESCUE EQUIPMENT. Get yourself a tow float that allows you to take a mobile. Well worth getting a waterproof phone pouch also. Just be aware that you won’t always get phone reception!
PLAN YOUR SWIM ROUTE. Most people get in real trouble because they PANIC. Plan your swim route. Try and figure out multiple exit points. Think ‘worse case scenario’….and how you’ve navigate these situations.
RIVERS. Cornwall has a phenomenal coastline but it also has a number of beautiful rivers. If you can’t get in the sea, head a little inland.
Most of all though…have a great time!
Open water swimming safety courses
/With decades of beach lifeguarding experience between the team, in both Cornwall and all over the world - Sea Swim Cornwall have put together a beach safety swimming course. We’ve focussed our efforts on teaching the participants about reading the conditions both at the beach and from home. We then go through rip currents, how to identify them, common myths surrounding rips, how to manage yourself in a rip current and what to do if you see someone else in one.
There is also a practical element to the course, provided the conditions are suitable. For the participants that would like to participate - we’ll take them out in a rip current in small group and go through what to do if you get caught in one. We’ll obviously have water safety present throughout. If the conditions aren’t appropriate we’ll put on a demonstration.
We have set date courses running through April / start of May - ready for the summer season. We then resume running set date courses in October. You can also book private group session through the whole of the summer, simply get in touch.
Swimming at Lizard Point
/I still haven’t done this swim! I’m going to tick this off my swim list this summer! Stunning dipping opportunity here, well worth the drive. Beware that this isn’t a very safe spot to swim. This area is very exposed to the elements and you can get a lot of water movement, in most tidal states.
Swimming in the Praa Sands area
/This is a really easy area to ‘sell’ but we do recommend swimming around the Praa Sands area with some caution. If it’s pan-flat conditions and the wind is light the area offers some stunning swims. The reason we’ve mentioned being cautious is simply because of the remote location of the swims. Swimming around some of these headlands offer very limited opportunities to passers-by to spot you, should you have any issues.
With either of the following swims - always swim in a pair or group…or even better, take someone along on water safety / get a guide. Both swims can easily be extended in length and offer a stunning swim, that’s a little off the beaten track.
Praa Sands does regularly get swell. However, in the peak of summer…when we’re (potentially!) surrounded by high pressures the swell often subsides and we get nice flat, calm conditions.
Here are 2 guides to a couple of swims in the Praa Sands area.
Safe Swimming in surf and on the beach
/Whilst having a chat with the Sea Swim Cornwall team (including our part-timers) we realised that we have over 50 seasons of beach lifeguarding experience between us! Mainly in Cornwall but also seasons spent in Australia, India and a few other locations!
From here we decided to put together a straight forward open water swimming safety guide. In it we dispel some common myths people have around sea swimming, we look at rip currents, how to spot rip currents, how to swim out of a rip current, reading the sea and conditions…
We’ve priced our safe swimming guide at just 49p (with any other purchase) or you can buy a multi-pack…for yourself, family and friends. It is a lightweight guide, so we would recommend either laminating it or sticking it in a waterproof bag and then leaving it in your kit bag.
The guide obviously won’t guarantee your safety but there are lots of common sense suggestions and advice that should keep you out of trouble! Available for purchase or given out on our beach water safety courses, which we’re rolling out in April. Either book individually or as a private group.
