Today is the last day of May - a memorable month of magic and madness.
Magical magnificent swimming conditions thanks to magnanimous mother nature showing her midas touch with golden sunrises and like a magnified magnet, mesmerizing and manoeuvring us down the ramp into rays of liquid gold and our beautiful playground: meditative, flat, calm, clear as a bell with LOTS of fish, cuttlefish and maddening jimbles to keep us on our toes (and fingers).
Mother nature also delivered May madness with majestic swells, the biggest swells surfed recorded off Sydney on the dark side.... And whilst Sydney experienced mind blowing swell, I was in Portugal for a short visit to attend a family wedding, including a momentary visit to mystical Nazareh, home of the biggest wave recorded ever surfed = 115 feet or thereabouts (and the waiter at our port tasting was there to witness it!). Of course the day I visited the conditions were magnificent for swimming and my gumby level of board skills, but melancholy for surfers.
Today is also the day before the biggest decision of this winter - to winter without wetsuit or to keep the neoprene - and cheat shorts count as neoprene - sorry not sorry :) .. details at the end of the blog (so you must read through ha ha)..
Water temp: 17.7 degrees
air temp at 7am 8.4 degrees
conditions: merry and magnificent - soooo many fish sighted today!
Vibe: initial trepidation at stripping off woolly jumpers and ugg boots and entering the relative warmth of the water...
Magic: Happy birthday blogger & magnificent photographer Caroline!
Magic: Natasha returning after a few weeks healing after a nasty foot injury! So good to see you back swimming again and will be once again inspiring us all swimming without neoprene all winter!!
Magic: Mermaids and manmaids infusing liquid golden energy
magic: Kate & Sally warm up with magic hot water after their neoprene-assisted swim - they will not be removing the neoprene for winter!
Magic and madness: Nat (about to embark on a magnificent overseas adventure - we will miss you!), Merilee - won her age group for the brutal Balmoral burn last weekend in a mind blowing time of 2 min 35 seconds!; and Amanda who is a magic stalwart of the WOWs in so many adventurous ways! and of course magical Bindi..
Madness and magic adventure swims: Manmaids Chris, Luke and Mermaid Tania swam from Avalon to Whale Beach on Sunday - they are regulars for "adventure swims" and for Chris and Luke, completed their mission to swim the Northern Beaches coastline .. (except for around North head - that would be madness!) - thankfully they all made it on sunday and apparently it was magic (wearing shark banz of course so the sharks stayed magically away!) - Chris and tania are non-negotiable neoprene, Luke must know that cheat shorts = neoprene ha ha...
magic: Liz and cathy - cathy has started "The swim set" - (https://theswimset.com.au/) a female led start up making wetsuits specifically for women. Liz regularly swims sans wetsuit in the much colder waters of Balmoral beach!
Magic and madness: Susanne (off to London), Shelly (returned from London) and Melissa rugged up - Susanne is joining our own Di Shaffer and others for the annual Henley Classic swim on 25th June - a 2.1km swim on the river Thames in the magic calm of dawn before the madness of the magnificent and famous Henley Royal Regatta - held since 1839 and considered one of the most prestigious events on the British social calendar, and of course pimms & champagne ... swimmers in the rowing fraternity will be pleased to know that Australian rowing crews have, in the past, earned quite a bit of silverware at this regatta (I have been once - its certainly an experience!)
I hope you have all had a magnificent May with miracles of magic to counter the madness.. have a wonderful Wednesday, stay safe, stay kind, look out for and after each other!
See you in Joyous, Jolly, jovial, June - and you will feel jubilant as the temperature drops and you jive and jibe into the water and infuse ALL the benefits of cold water swimming!
Jocelyn
Announcement:
Winter swimming
The Winter swimming season is finally here! Although the water temperature may be a little colder than you might like, there are several advantages of swimming in winter, including flat seas, good visibility and no bluebottles. Perhaps the biggest advantage is that you can also qualify for a WINTER BADGE by swimming a minimum of 20 times between 1st June and 31st August. You must also swim in at least 7 different weeks. If you manage to do all of your qualifying swims without a wetsuit (or other thermal enhancing equipment), you will also qualify for the coveted WWW badge (Winter Without Wetsuit). Start now, and don’t forget to log your swims to qualify. If you don’t know how to log your swims, contact Ian ([email protected])
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