The festive season brings with it many traditions, turkey and stuffing, holly and ivy, Santa and Rudolph and of course, best of all, stripping down to your trunks and getting jumping into a freezing cold sea for charity.
This year there are some absolute belters, and the various charities which benefit from them, need your support more than ever.
WALRUS BOXING DAY DIP AT PEMBREY COUNTRY PARK
Brave the chill and join in with the 36th annual Walrus Dip at Pembrey Country Park!
Join hundreds of others and take a dip in the sea on Boxing Day to raise money for a cause close to your heart, but if you’re not brave enough come along anyway to witness this crazy and spectacular event!
The Walrus Dip was established in 1984, and has run every year since, except on two occasions – one due to an oil spill another when the sea froze over! People of all ages take part for a variety of charities, with most donning fancy dress and colourful Christmas costumes.
Participants and spectators should arrive at the park by 10.30am latest, and be at the starting line by 10.45am (due to tidal conditions there is likely to be a 10-minute walk to the start line from the main entrance to Cefn Sidan sands). – the amount of time you spend in the sea is entirely up to you! The event is supported by the RNLI and Coastguard who will both be on duty throughout the event.
Participation is free and certificates will be handed out to all participants. Admission to Pembrey Country Park is free. For more details on the Walrus Dip. just go HERE.
* The event will only be cancelled in case of extreme weather conditions that would threaten the safety of participants and spectators, or in event of an emergency. Keep an eye on our Facebook and Twitter pages for information on the day
PONTYPRIDD LIDO BOXING DAY SWIM
After a rollercoaster year of early morning swims in all weathers, family fun in the sun, and the return of our cold water swim sessions, Lido Ponty is wrapping up 2023 the traditional way – with a Boxing Day Swim.
Cllr Ann Crimmings, Rhondda Cynon Taf Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment and Leisure told us…..
“Boxing Day and New Year’s Day swims are the final events in the Lido Ponty calendar before we close down to get ready to do it all again at Easter time – and we cannot wait!
Over 117,000 people visited Lido Ponty in 2023, and we have loved welcoming each and every one of them to our beautiful attraction – rain and shine!
The cold water swim sessions were introduced as a trial and, with water temperatures dropping to 15 degrees in winter, we were not sure how these would go, but we were delighted so many people visited from near and far to get involved.
Boxing Day and New Year’s Day are the last sessions to get your Lido Ponty fix for a while, so make sure you get your tickets.”
Boxing Day tickets are £7, including a hot chocolate. Under fives swim free. Please bring your own Christmas hats – they’d love to share them on the socials.
Sessions available are:
8:00am – 9:00am
9.15am – 10.15am
10.30am – 11.30am
11.45am – 12.45pm
1:00pm – 2:00pm
New Year’s Day swims yickets are £7 and, again, under fives go free.
Tickets are on sale at HERE
PORTHCAWL CHRISTMAS MORNING SWIM
They are back this year and it’s time to paint the town red – we say, make our bodies blue with the cold.
The organisers are delighted to announce that the 58th Christmas Morning Swim will be going ahead this year. They ask you all to join them and Paint the Town Red to celebrate whilst also marking 21 years of their headline charity Wales Air Ambulance.
Wales Air Ambulance covers the whole of Wales every single day. Each year their helicopters attend around 2,500 missions, covering rural countryside and our bustling towns and cities. This includes the length of our Welsh coastline and across our vast mountain ranges. Their four airbase operations in Caernarfon, Llanelli, Welshpool and Cardiff are ready to saves lives wherever needed.
Find out more about Wales Air Ambulance Service HERE.
The Porthcawl Christmas Morning swim, is (unsurprisingly) on Christmas Morning. It’s a 10:30am gathering, entering the sea at 11:45am. For more information, head to their site HERE. Or you can email them christmasswim@gmail.com
MAYORS NEW YEAR’S DAY DIP IN PEMBROKESHIRE
Newport Boat Club in Pembrokeshire is the place to be if you want to blow off the New Years Eve excesses. your host for this chilly dip into the estuary at Parrog (and yes, the mayor really does take part). Mercifully, it’s just a short dash back up the slipway for a mug of soup and a hot shower in the Boat Club.
The New Year’s Day Dip is obviously on the 1st January 2024 – 11am to 12noon at high tide – followed by hot soup and hot showers at the Club. Start the New Year with a bracing swim!
It gets underway at noon at Newport Boat Club in Parrog. Not many details as yet but as soon as we get more, we’ll let you know. In the meantime, go HERE.
SAUNDERSFOOT NEW YEAR’S DAY SWIM
This charitable event just gets bigger and better and quite frankly more elaborate year on year. Thousands now take part in this event with as many, if not more supporting and enjoying the spectacle.
On January 1st 2024 wthey will celebrate our 39th Saundersfoot New Years Day charity swim. It started in 1984 with 10 swimmers and in 2023 we had 2254 in the sea with a crowd of roughly 9000 watching. The swim has developed into an incredible spectacle and is classed by Pembrokeshire County Council as a major event. It is also the biggest festive dip in the UK and to date has raised over £750k for charities.
The crowds are entertained by the Cold Cup (a fancy-dress horse race over obstacles for local pub teams), fireworks and a mass dance warm-up. Last year’s fancy dress included a team of warriors who arrived on the beach inside a giant wooden Trojan Horse. As for the swim, the rules clearly state: ‘Your head must go under!
This really is a massive fun day for the whole family and this year they have Great British Bake Off contestant Michelle Evans-Fecci starting the swim off in style.
The shirts are a big thing for this event, in fact, take a look at their website and you’ll see why and who has been wearing them over the years. The last New Year’s Day swim had a friend of South Wales Life, GBBO’s Michelle Evans-Fecci sporting hers.
ENTRY TO THE SWIM IS £5 FOR ADULTS AND £3 FOR UNDER 16’S. FOR YOUR ENTRY FEE YOU WILL RECEIVE AN NYDS WRISTBAND WHICH WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR COLLECTION IN THE NEW NYDS HUT WHICH WILL BE ON THE STRAND FROM 28TH DECEMBER AND ON THE DAY OF THE SWIM AND AFTER THE SWIM YOU CAN COLLECT AN NYDS MEDAL.
PLEASE NOTE – 0NLY SWIMMERS WITH NYDS WRISTBANDS WILL RECEIVE A MEDAL
TO ENTER THE SWIM YOU CAN EITHER CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO BE TAKEN TO THE ENTRY SYSTEM OR YOU CAN ENTER IN PERSON AT OUR NEW NYDS HUT ON THE STRAND FROM 28TH DECEMBER. BEFORE YOU ENTER THE SWIM PLEASE READ THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS AS YOU WILL BE REQUIRED TO ACCEPT THEM TO ENTER
Take a look at their website to find out more – SAUNDERSFOOT
TENBY BOXING DAY SWIM
Named as one of Britain’s top ten barmiest winter dips, TENBY’s famous Boxing Day Swim has been an institution in the small West Wales town for decades and has recently featured in the ITV Wales series The Harbour, which was filmed in Tenby and shows a year in the life of the seaside community.
The Tenby Boxing Day Swim is organised by the Tenby Sea Swimming Association, which also stages the summertime Caldey Swim from the monastic island to the Tenby mainland.
The two events have enabled TSSA to raise nearly £300,000 for local, national and international charities and good causes over the years.
The 2019 Tenby Boxing Day Swim saw a record-breaking entry of nearly 800 dippers who took the plunge in the sunshine and numbers remain strong and consistent for this year’s festivities.
Swimmers can collect for their own good causes or the charities nominated by TSSA.
The legendary event has been absent from the Christmas scene for two years because of the Covid pandemic, with last year’s Welsh Government regulations scuppering it with just seven days’ notice.
But this year, the fundraising swim will be back in style as it celebrates its 51st anniversary.
It first took to the water in 1970 with just a handful of people as an out-of-season publicity stunt.
Over the years it has snowballed into one of Wales’ top festive attractions and is ranked in the top 10 of Britain’s barmiest seasonal swims.
The 51st Tenby Boxing Day Swim takes place on the North Beach on Tuesday, December 26th 2023, from 11am.
The stampede for the sea is signalled at 11.30am, and swimmers can look forward to the warmth of the beach bonfire and hot soup on their return to the beach.
And to celebrate this special swim, the Mayor of Tenby will be handing out commemorative medals.
So, if you would like to join this very special event, please register here and to collect sponsorship, please download your sponsorship form here.
LLANDUDNO LIONS CLUB BOXING DAY DIP
There are prizes for the first brave female and male to enter the water and also for best fancy dress at this popular annual dip. The water is usually a bracing 9°C, but a bowl of hot soup back at the St George’s Hotel should revive the spirits. Suitable footwear to be worn.
The dip takes place on Boxing Day, 26th December. Chick in is at 10am then into the water 11.30am. Meet at St George’s Hotel, Llandudno.
Find out more about the HERE.
