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The Bantham Swoosh: How to Wild Swim Twice as Fast

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Want to boost your swim speed? No need to put in extra training hours, simply join the Bantham Swoosh, a new event from the Outdoor Swimming Society on Sunday 5th July.

“Unique features of this event include a sandy shallow estuary, which gives a fish eye view of the estuary bed, and a ‘swoosh’ at the end,” says event director Kate Rew. “A combination of tidal flow and narrow estuary mouth mean the closer you get to the end of the swim, the faster you go – the last section feels a little like being superwoman as you see the scenery both underwater and around you woosh past with no extra effort.”

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This is a world class swim – the estuary is shallow and crystal clear, giving swimmers the sensation of snorkelling over sand ridges, fallen leaves and seaweed as they swim. As you approach the end of the swim the estuary narrows, creating the ‘swoosh’: an increasingly fast moving body of water that carries you towards the sea at 2 to 3 times your normal swimming speed.

It’s exciting, invigorating, beautiful and fun.

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This will be a very low key event with minimal event infrastructure, all the better to enjoy ending the swim on one of the Devon’s finest family surfing beaches, with picnics, family and friends. From the beach there are views of Bigbury Beach and Burgh Island, and at low tide there are miles of rock pools. The swim takes you from a narrow inland Devon river, surrounded by hills, into a different landscape on the edge of the sea.

Swimmers receive a swim hat, coach to the start, comprehensive professional safety cover and hot drink afterwards, a limited edition Alpkit Airlok bag, along with timing chips.

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The Swoosh is a 6km open water swim and takes place in Devon on Sunday 5th July. Entries cost £70 and close on 15th June. The swim is not a race and acclimatised swimmers can swim without a wetsuit.

There is full info here.

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