Sea you for a revitalizing swim!

Did you know September is the best month to swim in Ireland. The water is the warmest from July to September with the average sea temperature 14.8 degrees, so there’s plenty of time to get hooked on the sea! My passion is sea swimming, there’s nothing quite like the reset.

I’m getting my little girls into it too and it’s highly addictive, a natural high right on our doorstep. The girls love checking out jelly fish and how much closer to nature can you get than diving into the sea?

I got my pair, great wetsuits in Dunnes Stores for 15 euro each and you can get them in Aldi and Lidl too. Just keep your eyes peeled for the deal!

We are blessed as an Island nation and yet our precious resource is under threat.

If I feel stressed I jump into the sea and all my worries melt away.

I started swimming in the Irish Sea three years ago and I’ve never looked back. In January in the snow myself and my mate Tracy felt so brave jumping into the baltic sea but so refreshed and smug afterwards. It felt like a some kind of cryotherapy treatment.

So many of us in Ireland are now taking the plunge and diving in, but we need to stand together to demand that new sewage systems be put in place so as not to ravage our seas with sewage.

In June I joined the #Seachange campaign to shine a light on the need for change.

There are 33 locations around Ireland where raw sewage is being pumped into our seas and rivers and it’s not good enough.

Myself and my kids and a group of Portmarnock and Howth activists headed to the stunning Doldrum Bay in Howth to erect our poo flag there.

In Dublin for instance, a spot of heavy rain means raw sewage from the Ringsend Wastewater plant ends up in our seas.

The outdated sewage treatment plant at Ringsend, can’t cope with heavy rain!

Solution Not Pollution has loads of effective solutions that don’t involve dumping sewage into our seas.

There are different ways of treating sewage.

In Singapore and Malaysia wetland treatment centres have worked wonders.

Dublin Bay is the only protected UNESCO biosphere in the world, we need to realise how blessed we are to be surrounded by the most beautiful nature.

Such a rarity that we have this site and we’re prepared to put that at risk, our seas deserve to be protected.

When did sea swimming become a thing?

In the late 18th and 19th centuries, docs began prescribing sea swimming for various medical issues.

They’d detail how long and how frequently the patients should be in the water.

I only recently learnt that Using seawater for medical reasons even has a name thalassotherapy.It gets its name from the Greek word “thalassa”, meaning ocean.The therapy uses the salty ocean climate to improve our overall health.In the Roman Empire days soldiers used hot seawater baths to recuperate after battles.Jumping into the sea is a general stimulant, it increases the hematopoietic (Blood cell production) functions.Sea swimming improves blood circulation and helps with breathing. It helps with thyroid, adrenal, parathyroid and sexual glands.Woop if it gets you in the mood ha?It’s great for your immune system and can help with eczema and psoriasis.What’s more my mood always improves after a sea swim.It reduces your stress, helps with joint pain anxiety and depression!

No wonder I always get out of the sea feeling like I can conquer the world.

Last year I bought the booties and the neoprene gloves and a little chest warmer and we swam right the way through.

Honestly join the movement you’ll feel a million dollars.