Lockdown has been pretty boring for a lot of people!. Luckily for us we have been able to return to swimming outdoors. This really is our passion. So once Boris gave us the go ahead, we could be found most days on the beach at Lee on Solent and in the sea. We were responsible and socially distanced, unlike the visitors to Bournemouth. If it was too crowded as it was on a few days we stayed away.
Those first steps in, we wore our wetsuits because we needed to acclimatise. However it isn't easy pulling on a wetsuit without any help! And its even harder trying to get it off!!
We struggled through the first few times and then we decided to jut go without!! This is the way we usually end up getting in with just a costume on or "skins" as the open water fraternity call it!
It feels like its been a long summer and there are still a couple of months to go before we have to leave our salty solitude and return to pools for swimming. Neither of us swims all year round these days, but we enjoy a walk along the beach, so if anyone does fancy partaking in an ice swim, you can always ask us to be your on shore spotter!
While in Lockdown we took the opportunity to catch up on some training courses and in doing so, we joined The Open Water Swim Coach Training, which was hosted by none other than the Olympic 10k swimmer Keri-anne Payne. Our "classroom" was held virtually in Zoom. Somewhat daunted we logged in from our separate homes and met up with our fellow wannabee open water coaches. But it felt ok after 10 minutes or so. Introductions were done and it was really no different to being in a classroom!
Two weeks later we met up at Eastleigh Lake to do our assessment. We all recognised each other instantly! We had a fun afternoon of coaching and assessments with Keri-anne and her husband David (another Olympic swimmer!). We came away buzzing with our newly acquired knowledge and lots of inspiration to get out there and coach!!
What a wonderful achievement for us both! We are both delighted and happy, but still waiting to celebrate properly..!
For now we are offering a Community Swim at Lee-on-Solent on a Monday at 6:30pm. Everybody welcome. We want to share our love of the sea, so if it is something you have always wanted to try but not found anyone to swim with, this is an ideal opportunity to try it out and it costs nothing! Just the price of a bright hat....now there's a thought...Solent Sea Swimmer Hats!
Linda and Carol x
©Solent Swim School 2020
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