You're never too old!

Last night I stumbled across a very interesting report in the Welwyn and Hatfield Times about Mr Andy Nation who at the age of 60 has launched his latest fund raising event...

Swimming 147 miles from London to Calais in 2012 (that's a length of the Thames followed by the Channel) to raise £1 million for charity!

You can understand why I would be impressed having taken 73 minutes to swim a mere mile in the Thames earlier this year. Andy is expecting the swim to take 14 days, and the money raised will be split between Hertfordshire MS Therapy Centre and the Herts Air Ambulance.

Andy has been fund raising (and clearly a great swimmer) since 1970 when he swam 240 lengths of Barkingside Swimming Pool to raise £400 for a cancer charity. Quite an achievement in those days without the benefit of Just Giving, Facebook and Twitter to name just a few.

Do take a look at Andy's event page Teddington to Calais 2012 and read more about this extraordinary challenge and ways in which you might be able to help him reach his target. As well as Just Giving, there is an autograph book and an auction after the swim.

Good luck Andy from all of us at FunSwimShop, we will follow your training with great interest!

Hunks in Trunks!

Jon "the hunk" and FunSwimShop Carla

Yesterday temperatures were rising at the FunSwimShop office and no, I wasn't having a middle aged moment! Just a natural reaction to a couple of visiting hunks in trunks!

If you've not heard of this competition then nip over to the Aussie Facebook page to find out more.

You can apply to win a Hair Rescue and if you're selected then the product arrives at your office in a purple Lifeguard truck and is presented to you by two strapping young men in purple shorts.

Jon, Carla and Drew

I wish everything I ordered off the internet came with that kind of Postage & Packing!

I decided to enter as I had put my hair under a lot of stress this year and it could use a treat. Firstly swimming four or five times a week whilst training for the British Gas Great London Swim, closely followed by the FunSwimShop World Bog Snorkelling Championships.


I tried to forget about how bad my hair was getting taking inspiration from something my 8 year old daughter said to me.

"Who cares about hair when there's adventure in the air!"

However I could no longer ignore the fact my hair needed some pampering and that is the only reason I entered the competition... well that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

I will now have to teach her the Aussie hair quote which is:

"There's more to life than hair, but it's a good place to start!"

Why wear a wetsuit?

Well I'm not quite sure why I waited 46 years before owning one, but I can tell you I will never be without one again! This summer my 7 year old daughter also wore a wetsuit for the first time and we both breezed through a rather windy Welsh summer holiday without whinging about the cold.



This year I learned to swim and took part in the British Gas Great London Swim. I wriggled into full length black neoprene for the first time and was at the mercy of the Thames for one hour and 13 minutes as I tried to complete this one mile swim.

The cold only started to bite in the last ten minutes and from that moment on I realised what I had missed out on all my life! You can see from the holiday photos that we had the beach almost to ourselves as everyone else was feeling way too fragile to brave the waves without a wetsuit for protection. I felt like a Super Hero as I was able to go into the waves with my daughter and supervise her body boarding fun.

Other parents entrusted me with the few children who were brave enough to venture in wearing only swim trunks or costumes. I would not have let my daughter go in alone, so with the 'old Mummy' her holiday would have been nowhere near as much fun.

The wetsuit also served to protect my modesty as I was able to go and play with her in a water park in the middle of the holiday village. It was surrounded by food and drink outlets and being the wrong side of forty I would not have felt comfortable running around in a costume with lots of adult onlookers.

If you are planning to get away during the October Half Term I can strongly recommend packing a wetsuit. Check out our full range for all the family.

Let us know how you got on with any of our products and upload a photograph on Facebook to share with other readers.