Would Captain Matthew Webb, the first person to successfully swim across the English Channel in 1875, would have worn a wetsuit if neoprene have been readily available in the 1870s? Would he have worn a neoprene hat? Would he have used a shark cage if there were the same number of Great White Sharks and

Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California. Michael Spalding gave a detailed interview of his Alenuihaha Channel swim from the Big Island to Maui in the Maui News here. “I wanted to spend as little time as possible in the dark, especially off the Big Island where I was bitten, because I was a little paranoid

Karen Throsby, a sociology lecturer at the University of Warwick, is leading a two and a half year sociological research project, entitled Becoming a Channel swimmer: identity and embodiment in an extreme sporting sub-culture. The ongoing research can be seen here. Her research is about the experience of becoming (or trying to become) an English

Carol Moore, creator of The Water Blog, shares her views and stories of the open water swimming experiences of The West Neck Pod, a group of open water swimmers of West Neck Beach in Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island in New York. Among her chronicles, Carol is an example of an endlessly optimistic open water

Besides the many open water swims, Buls Werner of Willebroek, Belgium talks about the swim jogging opportunities in Belgium. “After almost every open water swimming competition, everybody can participate to an open water jogging. This isn’t really a competition and you don’t need to be member of a club or having a license. The average

Although they will not be going to London to represent Australia in the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim, Codie and Trent Grimsey will be traveling together to represent their homeland in the 5K at the 2011 World Swimming Championships. Codie (56:32) and Trent (56:43) were the first two Australians over the line in the Australian 5K

Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California. Andrew Chin (on the far right in the photo), one of the five friends and training partners from Cape Town, South Africa who successfully tackled three extreme cold-water swims in Patagonia, reflected back on his adventures in the Beagle Channel, Strait of Magellan and the Cape Horn in a

Their record is remarkable. Their goals are ambitious. Their commitment is unquestionable. Year and year, the Palfrey’s return to Hawaii. Chris and Penny have knocked off yet another channel in the Hawaiian islands. Yesterday, they completed the first of their planned 2011 swims, the Alalakeiki Channel from Kaho’olawe to Maui, a distance of 7 miles

Rachel Golub, an extreme cold water swimmer who once swam the Beagle Channel in Patagonia with a bikini, is hanging up her suit for a while as she goes on tour. Her rhythmic strokes in the cold waters of New York where she trains with the CIBBOWS (Coney Island Brighton Beach Open Water Swimmers) is