It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.   With 16 sleeps to go, I did a little survey today on what everyone’s favourite Christmas movie is.    The winner, by a long margin, was LOVE ACTUALLY.  Maybe we were swayed by the fact that some of the cast joined us for our swim this...

Heading   Encounters with early swimmers Big waves today. how come the water has become difficult for summer badge swimming? these people not deterred. Here is Ed (left) who leads the Manly Hydraulic Lab from which there is a lot of data that is used by apps we consult for information about the sea. Having...

Before we start today’s blog we had better put Lisa’s mind at rest – the girls were there bright and early this morning to reclaim the wall, so it is once again “Women of the Wall” territory – none of this talk about the blokes infiltrating – nice try. Despite the lumpy sea, a bit...

  Well it didn’t take long, Lisa Boyle took off off on an extended holiday yesterday and already the men have moved in and taken over the wall! Here they all are, gloating about it. It looks as if traitor Di is in on it too! The morning started off like this, the air was...

Well from the look of Michael’s face you can see that its still freezing, 18.1 today and the air temperature was only 19 degrees. There was plenty of rubber out today and I even saw someone with a bottle of hot water. (Its December?)   Michael still looked cold at Breaky even after a hot...

  6:30 crew.     Lisa’s mob.     The gang.     Girls.   Looking. Drinks express. Shark boat. Don & John. Teeth. Working. Pearl ear-rings. I still beat the Bishop. It was freezing. Swimmers: 190 swimmers, 3 newbies Temp: 17.6 but it felt like 15.6. Have a great week ahead. Simon Summer badges;...

A beautiful morning but we were once again met by challenging surf conditions and the water temp had dropped to 17.4 degrees. However, still they came and stayed. 11 newbies today all eager to don the pink cap for the first time. Newbie Ian next to Veteran Ian Belinda   Braedon and Jess Kean and...

While driving to Manly this morning I heard an interesting piece on the radio about the forecast weather patterns in Australia. It appears  the tropical Pacific Ocean is approaching La Niña thresholds, and we are verging on a La Niña alert. This likely 2017-18 La Niña event is forecast to be short-lived and weak, with sea surface temperature patterns in...

Pretty challenging today It is great to be alive. I am always reminded of that when I see the sea. Last week our Karen and Maryanne swam in the Coogee Island Challenge having done it last year in quite challenging conditions. Look at the smiles and enthusiasm   Sarah also came back to swim the...

So this week the hype has been around the royal engagement and the upcoming spring wedding.  But when you think about it, Bold and Beautiful Swim Squad really has a lot of similarities to our what is happening on the other side of the globe. Our queen is of course Julie Isbill who set up...