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…

Swimming holiday accommodation assistance

For 2025 we’re hosting a number of swimming holidays in the west Cornwall area. We love west Cornwall for the simple fact that we have countless world class swimming options and coastline that points in every direction of the compass! Since 2015 we’ve held just one swim in a lake (and it’s a beautiful lake), due to a lack of safe sea swimming options! You can almost always find somewhere out of the wind or swell…if the weather gets a little wild.

Booking a holiday is very straight forward. A click of a button in some cases. So over the course of this blog I’m now going to take you through a few more of the logistics.

HOLIDAY :

SLOW, SHORT & SOCIAL HOLIDAY. WEST CORNWALL. (JUNE 3-5). CLICK HERE DETAILS/BOOKING

SLOW SWIMMING HOLIDAY, WEST CORNWALL / LIZARD AREA… (JUNE 10-12). CLICK HERE DETAILS/BOOKING

SLOW SWIMMING HOLIDAY, WEST CORNWALL (JULY 8-10). CLICK HERE DETAILS/BOOKING

TRANSPORT

Cornwall Airport (Newquay), covers routes to a number of domestic city airports and some international ones. More info - CLICK HERE

Trains stop at Penzance. There’s also the ‘sleeper’ from London to Penzance.

Car - drive to Cornwall.

CAR & TRANSFERS

You will need wheels to get from swim to swim. You can drive down or get the bus/train to Penzance and hire a car.

EUROPCAR (from Penzance train station) - a quick search and you could get a small car from around £50 per day.

ENTERPRISE (Long Rock) - cheapest vehicle from around £120 for a long weekend. Up to 9 seater vehicles are also available from £450 (ideal if you come down as part of a group).

Companies like KAYAK are also showing availability and come in at aeround £100+ for a long weekend.

* We also encourage car shares, where possible. This could be an option with other guests, once here.

ACCOMMODATION

BUDGET :

YHA Hostel

Tremorvu Campsite (5 miles outside of Pz)

Arch Lane Campsite (outskirts of Pz & bargain price). Limited opening season

Mousehole Camping

MID-RANGE :

Kenegie Manor

The Coldstreamer

Glamping @ Foxglove Field

The Beach Club

The Queens Hotel

Keigwin House

HIGHER END :

Boutique Retreats

Venton Vean

EATING OUT IN WEST CORNWALL

The Mexico Inn, lovely pub in Long Rock, with great food.

The Tolcarne Inn, Ben Tunnicliffe has held a Michelin star…runs this seafood restaurant.

45 Queen St - Very quirky restaurant in the middle of Pz.

Seafood at the Barbican Bistro

Orange Cafe - Vegan Cafe/restaurant in the beautiful village of Mousehole

Friday nights are pizza night at the Cabin Beach Cafe

A number of food vans operate on Pz Promenade, good weather option