Go wild, go west: Bantham Mini-Swoosh

Rebecca Hilton headed to Level Water’s Bantham Mini-Swoosh with her 12-year-old daughter – find out how they got on

I should have realised something was amiss about four weeks before I found myself frantically trying to swim at a pace that I was most unaccustomed to. Yet, despite my best efforts, I was still failing to keep up with my 12-year-old daughter, Tilly. We had signed up for the Bantham Mini-Swoosh at some point in the spring and I had then largely forgotten about it. Not so Tilly, it seems!

She quietly and methodically set about a training regime that involved taking any opportunity to visit our nearby open-air lido, building up her strength and working on her freestyle technique. She did this without ceremony throughout the spring and into the summer, until the week of the event when she proudly announced that she had hit her target of swimming 100 lengths without stopping. Even then, I didn’t clock what was about to happen….

The Bantham Mini-Swoosh is an annual event organised by Level Water, an organisation that runs events throughout the year to raise funds for swimming lessons for children with disabilities across the UK. There are two simultaneous events – one is a 6km swim for adults, the other is the mini-swoosh, aimed at children of all ages and abilities. The Swoosh isn’t a race, and the children certainly don’t require the strength and stamina Tilly had set her sights on. It’s about setting out on an adventure, building confidence and enjoying the open water.

This particular stretch of water on the south Devon coast is not only an idyllically beautiful spot but, when the tide is right, it’s also a natural phenomenon that is exceptionally good fun. Bantham was once a busy trading port, bustling with paddle-steamers, fishing boats and barges. Casks of smuggled French brandy, hidden under the blacksmith’s forge or in the seaweed on the beach, would once have been commonplace. Alas, no unclaimed bounty these days, but the area is a bucolic collection of white-washed cottages and the river estuary’s tidal mud flats and marshes are a haven for wildlife.

So, it was a very jolly bunch of around 70 neoprene-clad bodies of all ages that congregated at Bantham beach at the all-important, tide-determined time to hear the safety briefing and to run through the plan. We were to take a short walk up to Bantham Quay. There, we would jump into the River Avon and allow the outgoing tide to ‘swoosh’ us to the finish line, 1km away on Bantham Beach.

The planning and organisation were meticulous. Regulation orange swim hats for all the children meant the army of paddleboard-riding lifeguards could keep tabs on the orange dots bobbing along in the water.

It was a gloriously hot and sunny day, so it was a relief to wade into the water and, once the official gave the command, we were off! That’s when it became apparent that Tilly and I had very different ideas about how this swim would go… No leisurely drifting and wallowing for us, she was in full ‘race-mode’! Added to that, through her meticulous training, her strength and swimming technique had evidently become significantly more advanced than mine. I quickly became aware that I didn’t have a chance of keeping up with her and it was all I could do to just about keep her in my sights.

The current picked us up and hurtled us downstream apace, flying past the river banks at a speed of roughly eight knots, around four times the normal swim pace. This is likely to be the only time I will ever experience what it’s like to be an Olympic swimmer! Whether you doggy paddle, float on your back with your feet up, or choose to free-style it, the current of the water whizzes you down river, through a fun chicane that runs past an old thatched boathouse on a rocky promontory, and on to the finish line at the beach, where an army of lifeguards ensure that no one misses the exit point and is inadvertently carried out to sea.

I can’t tell you how much fun it was. We were both buzzing. Tilly was so proud of herself and, once I’d got my breath back, we ran up over the sand dunes back up to the start to do it all over again!

The Bantham Mini-Swoosh is an open-water event, designed for children to experience all the joy that swimming offers and I can safely say that it well and truly met that objective. Tilly is keen to get straight back into the water and is hoping to find a race she can continue to train for. As for me, well, I’ve obviously got a bit of training to do, but I think I may well sign up for the full 6km adult Swoosh next year. Perhaps Tilly has some good pointers for me on where to start!

The Bantham swims raised £250,000 this year, funds that will keep children in lessons and mean they can join the swoosh each year; levelwater.org