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All those participating in NSVL's third annual Boxing Day Swim must have got rather a big shock when they woke up on the morning of the big event to find that Whitley Bay was covered in snow. Not only that, but it was still snowing quite heavily...great conditions, then, to be going for a swim in the North Sea!
 Boxing Day swimmers
And so it started - the battle of wills with the crowd on the beach. Some people braved the water for a few minutes. Others stayed in for ten. Some up to fifteen. By this point the crowd were starting to get bored, and cold. Not so for the people still in the water who had a great time in the waves. By fifteen minutes there were only four people left. Joe and Kevin Welsh, Steve Poulton and Geoff Wade. The four were going to go in after fifteen, but decided to stick it out to twenty. When twenty was reached, well, they thought they might as well go for twenty-five - after all Kevin was being sponsored by the minute, and he particularly wanted to get as much money as possible from a stingy person who'd only sponsored him 10p a minute.
After twenty-five minutes the four got out of the water to a greatly reduced crowd and, after warming up, it was time for the presentation of the signed certificates of insanity by Joe. First to receive the certificate was the Mayoress, who had raised around £300 from the venture for her chosen charity.
After the certificates it was off to the Avenue to warm up properly where, on the TV, we got to see the Sunderland swimmers stealing our thunder. There may have been a thousand of them, but it wasn't snowing there and they didn't stay in half as long as we did!
However, we remain resolute and, despite the 'never agains', the Boxing Day Swim looks set to continue...
Further images from 2000 can be found here. Back to main Boxing Day Swim page |
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