The longer days and the rain we’ve had over the past few weeks have triggered a burst of spring flower growth, on display in the front gardens of Ashburner Street on the way to the beach. Here are some gorgeous azalea, magnolia and brunfelsia aka yesterday today and tomorrow. The seeds of these trees are...

Blogging for BB is so easy. All the swimmers are bold and/or beautiful or charmingly ridiculous. the waves were quite strong today so I walked to Shelly which is why there are photos of Shelly Beach and swimmers today, for a change. Two thousand for Greg Marinan. Mare is the Italian word for sea so...

Some mornings it can be a tough battle between getting out from under the warm cozy bed sheets and committing to swim at Manly Beach. But then we have lights in our life who make the decision to drag yourself out of bed worthwhile. Fiona is one such person and today she was bright as...

Salps – Life in the fast lane The salps have gone but what are these little critters? The species that we have been swimming with is Thalia democratica, which is found in all the worlds oceans and forms enormous swarms at the sea surface. Salps are planktonic animals which have three different life stages – a...

A warm spring breeze met us on the walk from the car park lulling a sense of hope that the water might have warmed up. The sun was shining and the water was close to a sheet of glass with no wind to speak of. The rest of the week will get lumpier with 4...

Shaun’s charge: one newbie -> 1 cap -> $20   Ramp charge $2 with security by Lesbubbles. BTW Happy birthday Jim.   Resulted in a drastic drop in numbers.   Hmmm..   It’s still pretty cold both in and out of the water, especially for my 5:36am swimming buddies. Thanks for the Pre-dawn shots Roger....

Happy Fathers day to all the dads, stepdads, foster dads, granddads and virtual dads of human, fur, feather and scale children (have I missed anyone?) Hope you all have a great day with your loved ones.It’s a complex gig, being a Dad. Driving from the Queensie end I was heartened to see a mirrorlike surface...

Bold & Beautiful Swim September 1st. The water was a balmy 16.1 degrees. The visibility was murky. The ocean was calm. And the smiles were huge. Today I completed my first ever Bold and Beautiful swim. After taking up ocean swimming last year as a way to challenge one of my biggest fears (ahh, swimming...

Well. Last day of badge swims and winter  and what a day. Cold. Windy. Mixed up sea and some waves. A salp soup. Penny said that the larval form of the salp have primitive backbone in them like we would have had when we crawled out of the sea(although when I crawled out today it...

You know the times you get the biggest insights from the most innocent conversations. Waiting for the swim this morning I said Gooday to a mate emerging from the surf. ‘How was the surf mate?’ I asked, and he replied, ‘I just had one wave but I need it every morning to get the monkeys...