Lane Ropes for Kingsbridge Kingfishers!

Kingsbridge Kingfishers are a swimming club based at Quayside Leisure Centre, celebrating their 25th anniversary as a club this year. Unfortunately, our lane ropes are almost the same age and have become badly damaged. We expect it will cost £3000 of the club's money to replace them.

In the month of August, several older swimmers will be teaming up to swim 111 miles from Kingsbridge to Jersey. That's a lot of miles!

Q1: What on Earth are lane ropes?

They divide our swimming pool into five parts, allowing our swimmers to train properly. Each lane rope needs to be able to restrict waves in the pool, which is very important when you are trying to swim fast, or swim with good technique.

Q2: Why do we need them so badly?

The current lane ropes we train with do not reduce waves. This means the next generation of super swimmers are finding it almost impossible to train properly. We are also unable to host proper races.

Q3: Who is swimming?

A group of former swimmers, coaches and parents will be adding their miles together, to reach Jersey as quickly as possible. They are Sharon Bellamy, Karen Dorey, Conor Morgan, Holly Gunner, Will Rawlinson, Daniel Quiggin and Richard Forman. We may yet be joined by other swimmers who wish to chip in! Who knows? If we reach Jersey quicker than expected, we might even try and swim back to Kingsbridge before August is up...

Q4: Why do we care?

We've all been a part of Kingfishers before, training with the best equipment that allowed us to be at our best. Butterfly and Breaststroke are particularly hard without wave reduction, as breathing is meant to remain low, close to the pool's surface. Getting a mouthful of water when you breathe is a very unpleasant experience!