Swimming Through The 32

There he blows…

aving managed to paddle board across The Irish Sea last August, Greystones’ #1 water baby Damien Wildes is now taking on a whole new challenge.

Namely dipping more than his toes in the rivers, lakes and coastal seas of each of Ireland’s 32 counties.

Which is probably why he’s called this impressive fundraiser The 32, the money raised going to Make A Wish Ireland and the local branch of the RNLI.

A man who clearly believes in preparation, Damien even sent us through this handy cut-out-and-keep Q&A about his latest big splash…

When and where do you train?
Training for The 32 began last October when the idea first came about. At the moment I’m covering up to around 35km a week between the pool and open water. Having a family and working a full-time job can make things quite challenging but you just end up training super early or super late, and maximise your time when you can.

What sort of water will you be swimming in across the counties?
Rivers, lakes, the Irish Sea or the Atlantic, I’ll be in each one at one time or another. Each brings its own complication – tides, swell, flow, temperature, buoyancy – and that’s before you add the Irish weather.

The schedule must be pretty tough…
Very hectic particularly on the first day. Friday will be a 4.30am swim in Balbriggan and we have 14 counties to get through so that equates to 13 1km repeats. This means less drive time, so less recovery time.

Saturday will be around 11km including 3 2km swims, where we cover two counties in a single body of water such as the Barrow for Kildare and Laois.

Sunday is the shortest day in terms of swims at about 7km but with big counties like Cork and Kerry to get through. Our support crew is in place but safety during the drive is just as important as during the swim so we have to make sure people are resting and eating well at all times. We should finish in Greystones around 6pm or 7pm on the Sunday.

What’s going to be harder, all the swimming or the driving?
Probably the driving. It’s frustrating when you know you just have to sit there and can’t make any ground in the water. It also means your shoulders and whole body cool down so trying to keep everything loose and easy will be difficult.

And finally which swim are you looking forward to the most?
Even I swim there all the time, I’ll be looking forward to Greystones as it will be the last swim and I’ll get to see my wife, SarahJane, son Dylan and daughter Easkey. Scenery-wise though, there’s plenty of places I haven’t swam in, so I’m just looking forward to the adventure as a whole.

Happening on the weekend of June 16th, you can help Damien on his way – and two great charities – right here, and follow The 32 map on Instagram here.