Blog by Andrew Wallace

Although there are many factors to consider before getting to the pull phase in freestyle, the correct arm angle in the pull phase is critical to maximise power and stroke efficiency and thus propulsion through the water.

Here we analyse stroke techniques of two swimmers.

Swimming style or triathlon wetsuits are designed as they are to be more flexible to allow maximum movement during the swimming motion.

The downside of this is that they are often not much more than 3mm thick and in some cases such as the high end wetsuits, 1.5mm, which means they are especially pron...

Live on the edge - go sea swimming at night!

This video is from our night swim event on 11th November, about 200m offshore.

After a safety briefing each swimmer was issued with a bright glow stick and rubber band to secure it to their goggle straps.

A beach side fire pit contained a roaring fire and ...

Who ever said sea swimming is just something you do in daylight?

Get even more thrills from your open water swimming experience by swimming at night.

Swim Pembrokeshire will be doing a night swim at Freshwater East early November.

We'll all have neon glow sticks and will be accompanied by safety kayaks...

Luckily, most jellyfish in the waters around Pembrokeshire are harmless and their stings are mild, similar to a nettle sting.

Late September however saw the arrival of quite a few 'Portuguese Man o War' jellyfish.

Although not common in the seas around Pembrokeshire they're not unheard of, but do som...

Keep Warm and Look Cool at the Same Time!

We're pleased to announce the availability of our Swim Pembrokeshire hoodies and t-shirts, shown below, which will help you to keep warm and look cool at the same time, wherever you may be swimming.

If you would like to get one of these great bits of kit, cont...

The fastest stroke and the most popular for long distance and sprint events such as triathlon, front crawl, also known as freestyle, is probably the most important stroke you will need to master both as a recreational and competitive open water swimmer.

Mastering front crawl however takes time and a ...

Love them or hate them barrel jellyfish (rhizostoma octopus) are regular visitors to Pembrokeshire, sometimes in large numbers and are still around in September although not as many as in the summer months.

They are large, sometimes reaching up to 1m in diameter, and have a mass to them so if you swi...

Here's video of a swim on 1st September 2017 from Stackpole Quay to Barafundle Bay. The conditions were perfect: weather, water clarity, sea conditions.

Just outside Stackpole Quay we came across our first dogfish, a member of the shark family, commonly found around UK waters but not so much so that...

One of the most common problems people face in swimming, especially those who are new to the sport, is poor leg positioning in the water.

Lowering of the feet and legs causes additional drag, which in turn affects the energy used to move through the water.

This problem can often be attributed to one o...

The head is probably the most important element of your swim stroke - basically the body will follow whatever the head does: over turn the head during the breathing, you will over rotate the body; keep the head up too high, you will lower the legs.

Tim is a newcomer to the sea swimming scene and - ha...

Here we see Tim practising his arm stroke, which needs more of an extension on the arm entry, glide & catch phase and the right arm needs work to extend to enter the water going forwards and not in front of the head, which it tended to do when Tim got tired. This causes immediate resistance in t...

This is nothing new to SCUBA divers, but the ability to take notes or draw diagrams in the water is quite useful when doing open water swimming coaching.

We use this writing slate and pencil from Mares, primarily designed for SCUBA diving, simple but highly effective.

This is us taking notes on a stu...

Here we can see our swimmer's leg positioning needs work to improve hydrodynamic efficiency and reduce drag.

The kick could be stronger to give more propulsion, but on long distance swims 4 or 2 kick/pull cycle will conserve energy, however if the legs are apart and if there is not much flexibility ...

Sea swimming is always safer and often psychologically easier when you do it with one or more swimming buddies.

It's important to check your swim buddies when sea swimming though, as they are sometimes hard to see in strong sunlight or rough conditions and also may veer off on a different route to y...

If you have not been out in the sea yet in Pembrokeshire, you don't know what you are missing!

We've been down to the beaches around Pembrokeshire pretty much every day over the last few weeks and the water has been fantastic!

The water visibility lately has been exceptional, making for somegreat swim...

Swim tows are useful in many ways, not just to increase visibility, they can be used to conserve energy too...

Contact Us

Contact us to join one of our open water coaching sessions or sea swimming routes.

When the sun is in your eyes and you cannot see features on the land itself as they are silhouetted by the sun, it's often hard to sight on anything noticeable when open water swimming.

In this case, you can use the horizon itself, a feature on the horizon, even a small dip or rise, something that is...

This may sound like a daft topic for a blog but in fact is a common question - where to leave your car keys when you go sea swimming?

If you have the old style key as opposed to the electronic variety and rather than leaving them on the tire or behind the wheel I used to wear a nylon belt under my w...

Sea swimming is a very cost effective way to get fit and enjoy the outdoors and you do not need all of the expensive kit as you might do in other watersports such as SCUBA diving or boating.

All you really need are the essentials:

Sea Swimming Westuit

Of course, if you are a hardcore swimmer you may n...