SandyCove

Cork24

Just wonder do any one know if their are much open water Swimmers out in that Area ? during high tide. don't like swimming in open water on my own..

Milly33

god I would think today there would be but that would be just taking a guess..can you not bring someone

Balmed Out

loads, a whole club i think

edit:
a quick google later
http://sandycoveswimmers.com/about/

Cork24

Yeah I saw their time table with June dates and times for Swims Thur 8pm for a swim..

i was going head down their my self to check it out and see what kind of swim you can have.

Cork24

Milly33 wrote: »

god I would think today there would be but that would be just taking a guess..can you not bring someone

Well i be going out on my own but someone who don't swim will be on the beach watching;

murphym7

My buddy swims two evenings a week down there. There are always others swimming, but to be honest you are pretty much on your own down there. It is no joke doing the swim around the island if you are not experienced, you need to be fit and know what you are doing. If you get in trouble and are out there, even though there are others around, there is not a huge amount the guys can do for you if you do get in trouble. Its not swimming close to the shore on a lifeguard controlled beach, it is serious swimming. You get guys training for channel swims, Iron man competitions and tri-athelon's. Serious swimmers down there.

Cork24

I went down their last night low tide, so their was not much around, i'm training for Tri, and hoping next year IronMan 70.3 if its running in Galway.

if not i'll be doing the lost Sheep,

swimforever

I'm a regular swimmer at Sandycove, I've done more than 500 laps of the island over the past 5 years. It's one of the most popular locations in the world for training for long distance swims, and it's very popular with triathletes too, as well as lots of recreational swimmers, kayakers, families, etc.

If you want company to swim with, the best time is high tide. It's the safest time to swim because there is a reef going out towards the first corner that's covered up then but that you have to climb around if you want to do a lap at a lower tide. The times on the website are suggested times only-there's never a guarantee that there will be swimmers there, but it's the time that you're most likely to have company. They are based around high tide times.

As murphym7 says, swimming around the island is not something that should be taken lightly. It's at least 1,600m around, more if you go wider. A good portion of is will be out of sight of the slipway, and there are very few places along the back of the island where you can climb up if you get tired or panicked. So we advise people to come down a few times and swim inside the island first-both to get used to the water temperature and the landmarks, and also to meet some people. If the regulars get to know you and can see that you're a competent swimmer and can do the distance, almost any of them will be happy to go around with you (myself included). We do advise that people don't swim around the island on their own, particularly until you get to know it better.

I hope that I'm not making it sound scary or uninviting - Sandycove is a fantastic place to train and I have met some of my best friends through swimming there. Your best bet for starting off there is to pick one of the scheduled times, probably at a weekend, and turn up and just get chatting to whoever's there. Feel free to PM me if you want more info!

swimforever

I just noticed too that this is in the Cork City forum (a friend had noticed the question and sent it on to me so I just clicked on the link). You'd probably get a better response to your question in the swimming forum, there are plenty of open water swimmers on there.