the early morning draws smile from Tom Kean, Jeremy Laming and Georgina Tomkins, the trio behind The Henley Swim.
Combine an iconic location with their drive to provide a reasonable challenge for people from all walks of life, and The Henley Swim is the result. The Henley Swim offers the Henley Classic, Henley Mile, Bridge to Bridge, Queenford Classic and Queenford Relays: a series of opportunities that helps draw more and more people to the sport, and is a nominee for the 2012 World Open Water Swimming Offering of the Year.
The new award is meant to identify products and services that (1) best support and assist open water swimmers achieve their goals, (2) are innovative, unique and beneficial to open water swimmers, race directors, coaches or administrators, and (3) have made the most positive impact on the world of open water swimming during the calendar year.
The nominations are meant to recognize some of the best and innovative commercial and free offerings that open water swimmers can enjoy.
Extreme swimmers, disabled swimmers, ice swimmers, marathon swimmers, professional swimmers, administrators, coaches, pilots, and swimmers from all walks of life have used, purchased and benefited from an increasingly number of products and services introduced over the few years.
The nomination of The Henley Swim reads,
Throughout the year, Tom Kean, Jeremy Laming and Georgina Tomkins work year-round to cast a wide net and introduce multitudes of newcomers to the open water swimming world. Dawn swims in iconic locations warmly welcome neophytes and veterans alike at the Henley Classic, Henley Mile, Bridge to Bridge, Queenford Classic, and Queenford Relays. Their welcome mat, hospitality and genuine care for newcomers and triathletes figuratively bear hugs the participants and draws them inside the open water swimming lifestyle. Their efforts to expand the groundswell of interest in the sport are seeds that are blossoming every new season. As their events grow, their collective creative efforts bring joy and challenge to an increasing lot of individuals from all walks of life. The constant vortex of improvement, enhancement and energy are generating excitement in increasing larger social circles. For their constant stream of innovation, for their ongoing promotion of the sport to newcomers, for their sharing of their passion of the open water with others, The Henley Swim is a worthy nominee for the 2012 WOWSA Open Water Offering of the Year.
The 2012 World Open Water Swimming Offering of the Year nominees are (listed in alphabetical order):
1. Big River Man by Martin Strel
2. Channel Swimmers’ Chat Group by Nick Adams
3. Cork Distance Week by Ned Denison
4. FINIS SwiMP3 X18 by John Mix
5. Foggle by Karen Smidt-Allard
6. In My Element by Theodore Yach
7. iSwimToo by Stephen Coulter
8. Marathon Swimmers Forum by Evan Morrison & Donal Buckley
9. Midmar Mile Facebook Integration by Wayne Riddin
10. Night Train Swimmers by Vito Bialla
11. Ocean Care Solutions by Ron Adley
12. Open Water Swimming Insurance by Travis England
13. Oceans Seven Project by Red Bull Media House
14. RC Helicam by Andrew Martens
15. SWIM Channel by Patrick Wrinkler
16. SwimIT by Rick Senn
17. SwimPhone by Club Assistant
18. SwimTrek by Simon Murie
19. TakeItLive by Chris Lundie
20. Toa o le Tai Program by Bruckner Chase
21. The Henley Swim by Tom Kean
Online voting will take place here at WOWSA until December 31st.
One of The Henley Swim event is the Henley Swim Classic, co-founded by Tom Kean and Jeremy Laming, is an opportunity to swim one of the most famous stretches of open water in the world, at what is one of the most beautiful time of the day, dawn. It is unique in that it is a straight line point-to-point swim and takes advantage of the 2.1 km boomed course of the Henley Royal Regatta in the early morning hours. A key feature of the event is the fact that you arrive in darkness, and walk half a mile to the start into the sunrise. Once the safety briefing is completed getting into the inky black water at that time is a slightly surreal experience.
Photo by Iain Weir.
Copyright © 2012 by Open Water Source