Admin January 11, 2012, 11:48 pm h.
Sometimes inspiration comes from the smallest things and thats why I am writing this post to compliment a seemingly random piece of amateur video footage. Watch the clip and you will see me escorting my friend Ondrej into the 5c Vltava river in Prague, Czech Republic last Sunday. Ondrej is blind, thats why I helped him. He hasn’t been swimming since some time last year but decided to come for the traditional January christening of winter swimmers. It took courage for him to get into the water. As you will see he only swam for a short time but it proves again that there are no barriers to getting in to open water, even in the winter!
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Admin December 7, 2011, 1:59 pm h.
Usually held a week later, this year the contest had been moved back after the the early onset of winter in 2010 led to the contest being cancelled for technoical reasons – namely unsafe/unworkable ice conditions. No danger of that this year with air temperatures so faronly negative through the night. However, the wind was blowing and the water temperature was officially recorded at 3.7c although it was reported as low as 3.2c in a place.
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Admin November 27, 2011, 9:08 am h.
Sometimes in sport puzzling things happen. Cricket is a good example where a match can be decided by “the duckworth-lewis method” if rain interrupts play. To a lesser extent in football a team leading by 2 goals in the second leg of a cup competition may resort to extreme defensive tactics to preserve their lead. A more abstract yet common example would be snooker where players avoid easy pots opting for ”safety” in a long term strategy.
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Admin November 9, 2011, 2:43 pm h.
Last year after an early autumn snowfall in the Czech/Moravian highlands the water in the Pavov swimming pond near Jihlava had colled to 5.4c and an awful gale was blowing. It was a soothing thought for the psyche when preparing to face the same pond this year with a temperature of 7.5c. No sign of any gales, just a pleasant autumnal day, the bright colours of the trees in stark contrast to the dull water of the pond making a nice scene.
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Admin October 31, 2011, 4:16 pm h.
Long distance open water swimming takes place during the summer months with an average water temperature of 18-22c. Occasionally the water temperature can drop in a smaller body of water after a period of cold weather or heavy rainfall. 16c is quite cold when the swimmer has been in the water for 2 hours. Hence one of the difficulties that swimming across the English channel presents is upwards of 10 hours in 16/17c water. FINA, the governing body actually doesn’t allow competitions when the water drops below 15c.
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