Week 12 - Disappearing beaches
Weekly Review
NB Please scroll to the bottom for a selection of the photos taken
On Tour!
Saturday was our monthly ‘On Tour’ day. We have the choice between Hythe Ramsgate. Both are gorgeous locations that give a more ‘real’ training experience. The harbour gives us protection, which is brilliant as it means that we can pretty much always train, regardless of the forecast. Also experiencing open conditions with more rolling swell and the impact of the tide keeps it real.
When I looked at the forecast, both locations would work, so I still had a decision to make. I look at the weather forecast in the way that ‘normal’ people do and decided that based on what I know of the two locations that Hythe was likely to have a lot of other water users attracted by the heatwave, which would cause hazards.
So, Ramsgate it was.
Ramsgate is beautiful. A long, sandy beach. It was a spring tide and the tide was out when we arrived.
Mandi gave the location specific briefing, including clear turn around points, she told swimmers to stay in close. She made it clear what would happen if swimmers went beyond the turnaround points and what to do if that happened.
Pretty much everyone followed the guidance. We did get a bit animated when we saw a couple of swimmers swimming way, way out. Beyond the tripod that had been mentioned in the briefing. The binoculars came out. Swimmer one was wearing a red hat, grrrr. But the other swimmer wasn’t wearing a hat. Hummm. Were they with us? Along came the beach lifeguard, turns out they were a couple of Aussie swimmers who wanted to make it to the tripod, it had taken them over an hour already. We didn’t need to go after them and redirect them - phew!
I was glad that everyone did as requested. Well done everyone!!
The tide started coming in. We did the usual of moving the feeding equipment & crocs in with the tide.
We know about the rule of 12ths and how fast the tide can move at various points and nature didn’t disappoint! Our beach completely disappeared pretty quickly! There was a rush to get everyone’s kit off the beach and onto the prom - and what a lovely vantage point we had from there 😊.
It was a tough swim for those who swam and a great swim. Well done one and all.
We won’t mention the bobbing……. but did you really have to do it in front of the beach?! 🙄
Sunday
Sunday was back to Dover and what a scorcher of a day it was. The briefing was again different to usual. I spoke about the risk of additional water users and for people to apply additional caution around the slipway. I spoke about the likely air and water temperatures and that if anyone wanted additional feeds or water that we would happily provide them.
The tide was again a long way out. You could see people a long way out still only at hip height in the water. So, I set a challenge - a race to the red buoy, but by running, not swimming. It’s really hard work running through water and from the beach it looked like a casual saunter, but I know that it’s actually really hard work. A few decided it was easier to swim - well done whatever you did, it was a little bit of fun to start the day.
The beginning of the day was extremely hot on the beach and that was before the forecast peak in temperature. In the water was definitely the place to be!
All the beach crew had a dunk or two to cool off. Bliss! The water has literally never been warmer in July since I’ve been in the sport.
Luckily, as the temperature went up, there was a small breeze that made it bearable. It was probably also a lot cooler there than it would have been inland and at home!
Well done to everyone who swam this weekend. It’s a weekend that I won’t forget in a hurry.
Shout outs
Training
Congratulations to:
Geoff, Kenneth & Jane for their back to back 7&6 swims
Philip for your 7 hour swim
Yoel for your 6 hour swim
Channel swimmer on the beach
Michael Payne - Channel swimmer!
Another week that saw success in multiple bodies of water, including:
Lucy Bessant - on a very speedy Windermere swim on12th July in a time of 4hrs 44mins
Aspire Zebra for their channel relay in a time of 14hrs 11mins
Girls who just wanna have swim including Catherine Stefanutti, Christine Van der Spuy and DCT Alumni Deborah Vine on their epic adventure including a Jersey to France relay followed by a Round Guernsey relay the following day!
Dunkirk Dynamos including Amanda Maunders for their Ramsgate to Belgium channel relay in a time of 26hrs 22mins
Philip Brice, Julia Maguire, Kristen Smith, Zoe Green, and DCT alumni Steven Boyle & Andrew Ainge for their successful Ullswater swims.
Swim stats
Note: Water temperature taken during the swim session in the harbour. Air temperature, wind direction & wind speed taken from the Port of Dover app. Please remember that we get a lot of shelter in the harbour thanks to the walls.
Saturday:
Swimmers: 15
Water temperature: 20.9C
Air temperature: 22.6C
Conditions: Flat water, F1 NE. Sunny & glorious
Sunday:
Swimmers: 18
Water temperature: 20.0C
Air temperature: 20.1C
Conditions: Amber weather warning for heatwave. Sunny. F4 ENE. Busy beach and lots of water users.
Volunteers & beach crew
Thank you to everyone who helped out this weekend - either a little or a lot. It was lovely to see Dirk on the beach again. Thank you to everyone who helped at feeds and with the arches.
Thank you to all the swimmers who helped with feeds and flashmob arches once their swims were done.
If you want to join the fun, why not pick a date and join the fun on the beach!
The adventures of Dover Dave
Dover Dave spent the week with me. I think I wore him out! We started the week crewing for a swim. He experienced seasickness, spotted jellies and enjoyed the sun. Then the rest of the week was full of zoom meetings. I tried to tell him that it wasn’t appropriate to go on a Teams call in your trunks, but he wasn’t having any of it! He also helped me with exec coaching, tested the pool chemicals, had a swim and gave me some coaching tips. He helped load the information for Saturday training on the app and helped load the car. That’s just for starters. He also helped dig a trench & do a post run.
Dover Dave really enjoyed kicking back and relaxing on the beach on Saturday following such a busy week.
This week he is having a new experience and is spending the week with Helen.
Dave continues to live his best life.
Paddlefish Ponderings - Super Powers
“The things that make us different, those are our superpowers.”
What’s your super power?
Not all super heroes wear capes. We each have a very special super power and you might not be aware of it.
Our super powers are easy to us (think back to the stages of competence Paddlefish Pondering). We take them for granted and down play them because they are easy and we assume that anyone can do them.
Those same people will look at others and their super powers and wish they could do those things, not realising that they have their own super power.
So what is your super power?
Do you find enjoying training easy?
Do you find it easy to handle the cold?
Do you have speed over distance based on the work that you’ve done as a child or an adult on your technique?
Do you have a high level of resilience and the ability to bounce back from set backs?
Do you find it easy to feed fast?
Perhaps you can pee without stopping swimming?
Do you have a rock solid constitution and never succumb to sea sickness?
The list of super powers is almost endless.
The challenge is recognising your super power and appreciating it. If you think about it, have you ever had another swimmer say ‘I wish that I could….. [do the think you find easy]’ You may have dismissed it. Next time, pause for a moment and appreciate this skill that you have that others do not.
Think about how you can use it to your advantage.
There can be a downside though. Does your super power have a shadow? Does it have the potential to turn into a weakness?
Examples I have seen include those swimmers who love training, but also have a limiting belief about their preparations and use their super power to unintentionally over train. Or those who are so good at reframing when things go wrong that they don’t get the motivation that they need to face the fact that they’re way off target with their training.
Have a think about your super power and have a think about whether there is a potential shadow or kryptonite that you also need to be aware of. Once you know this, you can be more self aware and vigilant - maximising your super power and minimising the impact of the kryptonite.
I’d love to hear what your super power is.
Reminders
Remember to book your sessions online.
Bookings can be made up to 48 hours ahead and be cancelled or rescheduled up to 48 hours ahead also. The system doesn’t arrange automatic refunds, so if you would like a refund, please check out our refund policy and get in touch if you would like a refund.
If you miss this deadline then I’ll book you in if I have the available time and I have your disclaimer. There is an admin fee if you don’t use the self-service option.
Those of you with training subscriptions, enter your email address and click in the discount code box and your automatic voucher should appear. Let me know if you have any trouble with this.
Arrive on time
Wear the right colour hat - red for soloists, yellow for relay swimmers
Attend the mandatory safety briefing
Those of you who are members, please remember to cancel your membership when you no longer want it. You can do that within a membership period and still have all the benefits of it, this will prevent it from auto renewing next year. You can do this within your account, by following the link in the confirmation email when you took out your membership, or by asking me to do it for you.
Looking ahead
On Tour
Future On Tour dates:
Saturday 20th August
Saturday 17th September
The location will be either Ramsgate or Hythe and the location will be decided on the Thursday before the swim.
Spotlight in the shop
The simplest way to get a feed to a swimmer is from a reel. Simple. We have them in stock. We also sell small and large carabiners if you need one.
This is a builders line with 100m of string on it. You can either use the string as is or ditch that and replace it with a fine rope and keep the reel. This is useful for feeding on solos rather than having heaps of tangled rope to content with!
Photos
A few photos from the weekend….
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