The Sandycove Island Swim Club (SISC) was set up as a Swim Ireland affiliated “open water club of convenience” for adult competent open water swimmers who wish to swim in open water events. The club was set up in the summer of 2010. It has now become a strong club in its own right with members representing the Club both in masters events in the pool and Open Water Events in the Summer. There are no set training times for this club, members train where is convenient to them.
For some of the Munster OW swims, participants need to be a member of a Swim Ireland club (in the ‘competitor’ status). The Sandycove Island Swim Club was set up to accommodate swimmers who wanted to swim in these events, but who were not part of a swim club and so did not have Swim Ireland membership. (As an aside: belonging to a Triathlon Ireland club does not meet the insurance requirements, and sorry, but we can not sell a one-day license for the swims)
Club Leadership Team for 2021-2022:
Chairperson – Carol Cashell
Treasurer – Riana Parsons
Secretary – Donna Galvin (clubsec.sandycove@gmail.com)
Membership Secretary – Aidan O’Herlihy (membershipsandycove@gmail.com)
The remaining members of the Club Leadership Team are: Eleanor Courtney, Lisa Cummins, Angela Harris, David Merriman and Eoin O’Riordan.
Member Documents:
The links below are to documents containing information about the Sandycove Island Swim Club and membership details.
Club Constitution
Member Information
Member Fees
Joining the Club:
Club membership is open to anyone aged 18 or older who has done an open water swim of at least 1,500m in Ireland (or similar temperature waters) in past few months. This can be wetsuit or togs and could have been the Lee Swim, a Sandycove Island lap, Olympic Triathlon, etc. Any committe member can verify a swim for you.
If you haven’t swum a mile in the last year (or so) to meet the criteria – then we can’t take your membership (for safety reasons). Go get in shape and build up to your mile qualifier and we’ll be happy to have you join.
In Ireland over the next year, there will be more than 100,000 open water swims of 800m or longer. The vast majority of these will be a small group deciding to meet at a certain time and going for a swim. Locations like Sandycove Island, Inniscarra, Lough Ine and Myrtleville in Cork see large groups gathering for regular swims, and groups of triathletes will often train as a club. Then we have some mass participation swims like the ‘Vibes & Scribes’ Lee Swim and Sandycove Island Challenge. NONE of these require a swimmer to join a Swim Ireland Club for insurance reasons…and there are some super swims out there – ENJOY!
There are about some events which are insured by Swim Ireland during the peak open water period – some of these in Munster. They range from:
- 1.6km Bulman Swim
- Sandycove to Dock
- Champion of Champions
For these swims – you have to be a currently registered (at least a week before the event) as a competitive member (it is a class of membership – it doesn’t mean you have to race) of a Swim Ireland (or an international FINA) club. IF you are a Tri Club member, check with your club secretary if your Tri Club is also Swim Ireland Affiliated.
They are not our rules – so please either sign up or don’t swim. The committee have taken enough abuse about membership – so please spare us more abuse!
PLEASE DO NOT ASK: WHY…?
Simple: Swim Ireland doesn’t want to insure you if you don’t belong and, probably more importantly, belonging to a club increases the chance you can swim safely. In addition, we organisers don’t want to put our houses on the line if someone gets hurt. Finally, more and more, the volunteers (like the person who brings a safety boat) also doesn’t want to put his house on the line.
So, if you want to take part in these swims – join a swim club affiliated with Swim Ireland as a competitive member.
If it is Sandycove Island Swim Club you want to join then:
- Email Aidan O’Herlihy (membershipsandycove@gmail.com) with your open water experience and get pre-approval for membership.
- First Time members need to Download the Swim Ireland membership form here (right-click on the link, choose ‘Save link as’ or ‘Save target as’ and save the form to your computer). Complete the form, save it and email it to membershipsandycove@gmail.com (do NOT press the ‘Submit’ button). Then print, sign and scan it (or take a photo on your phone) and email the scanned version to the same address (membershipsandycove@gmail.com). If you need to post the signed version back, please email for details.
- To pay or renew membership, click on this Active link and purchase one of the two membership options:
– Annual membership (runs from 1 September 2019 to 31 August 2020) : €50 – Social Membership (no swim Irl Number, non competitor) : €5 - Swimmers who are 65 or older as of 15 October 2018 may join the Sandycove Island Swim Club for €0 fee – provided that they have evidence of a 1 mile cold water swim in the previous 6 months, verified by any committee member.
carolcashell
lecummins
sandycoveadmin
theloneswimmer
Sandycove Swimmers 