There are different groups of swimmers to be found at Blackrock diving board at the end of Salthill Promenade. There are the morning swimmers, the lunchtime swimmers and the evening swimmers. There are the summer swimmers and there are those that keep swimming until late autumn. Ther are those who will only swim when the sea is calm and there are those that like to thrash about in the highest of waves. But it’s the folks that seem to wait until there is frost on the ground and it is the coldest time of the year that I admire the most.

Even during the coldest mornings of this winter’s freeze, the same band of hardy swimmers turned up for their daily swim. Most of them didn’t bother with wetsuits either – just wearing trunks or ordinary swimsuits to cover their modesty (mind you, given the extreme cold, it probably took less than usual to cover the afore mentioned modesty). Even among this band of swimmers, there were some who took no chances when it came to swimming in the cold – either hopping in before the sun had risen, or waiting until the sun had set, so that they could swim under the evening star.

Ladies and gentlemen, I salute you all.

This video shows the fog ’steaming’ off the river as sunrise approached.

Another Photowalk hat....

Another one from the Photowalk down around the Point and Oktoberfest. This seems to be getting a bit of a habit. MissusP&B (aka lorraine, my good lady wife) goes on photowalk and ends up shopping for hats! She did the same when we went to the Galway photowalk last month – bought a knitted Arran cap, which incidentally ended up on my head here.

I foresee a series of photos arising out of this phenomenon. I just need a good heading for the series so suggestions on a postcard please……

Cheers.......

Another great Photowalk last Saturday down around the Point Market and the Oktoberfest festival at the IFSC. There was a large range of film cameras in use so looking forward to seeing some results from those. I cheated and just used my digital ‘cos I’m too lazy to do film.

Anyway this shot is from inside the beer tent which was jammed packed and a mile long queue outside waiting to get in. Not quite sure how myself, Lorraine, Eimhear and Annraoi managed to get past security in front of the queues but in we got. The German compère up on the stage was encouraging everyone to drink like mad with various rabble rousing roars (in German of course). He could have been inciting us to invade England for all I know but it certainly worked on the crowd.

10 10 10

Given the day that’s in it I put a huge effort into getting a shot at ten past ten on 10th October 2010 – 10 10 10. Well when I say effort, I put the camera on the tripod, set the self timer, pressed the shutter and hopped back into bed! As an added bonus, we have two sets of ten toes so that’s a lot of 10′s.