Friday, November 27, 2009

A Great TV Promotion For Open Water

Colin Hill and Nova International have done it again - visually and dramatically as few others do in the open water world.

Today is the launch date of the new Great Swim Series website that has become one of the standard-bearers of open water online promotion and exposure.

In a fantastic new television commercial for the Great Swim Series (shown here), Colin beautifully explains through words and images how the Great Swim Series will take over the lakes, locks and docks of Great Britain on four days in 2010, including the British Gas Great East Swim on June 19th, the British Gas Great London Swim on July 3rd, the British Gas Great Scottish Swim on August 21st, and the British Gas Great North Swim on September 4-5th.

The 2009 races will be broadcast in the UK on the following dates and times:

British Gas Great London Swim on November 29th on Channel 4 at 8:00 am, the British Gas Great Scottish Swim on December 6th on Channel 4 at 8:00 am, the British Gas Great North Swim on December 13th on Channel 4 at 8:00 am, and the British Gas Great East Swim on January 3rd.

As English Channel swimmer Colin explains, "There are no walls, no lanes, no chlorine, just the great outdoors at the Great Swim Series."

Copyright © 2009 by World Open Water Swimming Association

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

what i don't quite get is how lewis pugh is reconciling his drawing attention to global warming and his overwhelming use of carbon to get him to all his locations around the world, including icebreakers in the Arctic and planes to fly to Everest ?

Why offset your carbon use (which is an unproven method of reducing carbon in the atmosphere anyway) when the best way to offset carbon use is

...not to use it in the first place !

swimming in itself is eco friendly anyway. there is no need to define it as 'eco-friendly' or 'eco- swimming'. it is by it's very nature the most low tech sport in the world.

in the end 'eco-swimming' just becomes another marketing buzzword to sell more stuff and make us feel better about ourselves.

Steven Munatones said...

We respectfully disagree with your statements Anonymous, but we would love to interview you to get your perspective and opinions in the public realm for our community to ponder. Perhaps your opinions are in the majority?

We believe Lewis' efforts are useful for a few reasons: (1) the incredibly arduous physical demands of his swims help re-shape the bounds of human understanding of our physical limitations, (2) the sheer drama of his swims help draw positive attention to the sport of open water swimming, (3) the creativity of his adventures is a joy to behold and observe, (4) his post-swim storytelling is compelling and inspirational, (5) his swims help the world's media and many people around the globe understand climate change on an easy-to-understand, visually dynamic manner, human level.

To completely eliminate petro-chemical products in modern society is very difficult, so calling attention to creating limitations on a personal level is a good thing from our perspective.

The definition of an eco-swim vs. other swims is useful because of its wide definition and application. Eliminating Jetskis and motorized boats in relay swims is an innovating approach by The Clean Half Marathon Swim. We think calling attention to this is newsworthy. We think people raising money for charities - another type of eco-swim - is helpful to many who are less fortunate than us.

Eco-swimming can be seen as a marketing buzzword, but it is also a definition as are charity swimming, stage swimming, night swimming, expedition swimming, marathon swimming, wild swimming and rough water swimming in our open water world. You may think it is a means to sell more stuff, but many newcomers in our sport want to know more about the sport and providing information to them to help them distinguish the 3,000+ open water swims in the world are useful.

At the end of the day, no one is forcing any swimmer to purchase any products or services. The words, definitions, stories and data we present here at The Daily News of Open Water Swimming are meant to inform, entertain, inspire and, perhaps occasionally, frustrate or infuriate our readers. However, it is always good for many mainstream swimmers and newcomers to know they are part of the greater and growing global open water swimming community. Our community is diverse and the number of available venues are innumerable. We believe there is room for all.

Please send your email to headcoach@10Kswim.com so we can arrange to interview you, if you so wish.