The Fifth Annual Kingdom Swim
10 miles, 6 miles, 3 miles, 1 mile, 1/4 mile, 100 yard
Saturday, July 6th, 2013
Our 2010 YouTube video is available on line by clicking here
Some Photos of 2012 - Register online here
Hosted by Northeast Kingdom Open Water Swimming Association
Sanctioned by WOWSA
and venue of the
WOWSA World 10 Mile Open Water Championship
Kingdom Swim is a true celebration of open water swimming held on Lake Memphremagog in the heart of the summer in the heart of the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. We are proud to host the 2013 WOWSA World 10 Mile Open Water Championship in a world class venue with world class accommodations.
The NEK is one of the very first geotourism areas in the world specially designated by National Geographic. Lake Memphremagog has been selected by the Daily News of Open Water Swimming as one of the top 50 open water swimming venues in all of the Americas.
Jay Peak Resort now offers a grand hotel experience with all the amenities for our athletes. And our landscape is scattered with some of the coziest Inns and B&B’s in New England and some wonderful camping options right at Prouty Beach and throughout the area,
In addition to the World Championship, Kingdom Swim is a competitive and recreational swim for all skill levels, young and old alike, now offering distances of 10 miles, 6 miles, 3 miles, 1 mile, 1/4 mile and 100 yards on Saturday, July 6th, 2013.
In 2013, there will be two waves in the 10 mile course. Wave One will be the WOWSA Championship course. Wave Two will be wet suits, youth, and those choosing not to compete for the championship. The 6, 3, and 1 mile courses will each host two divisions, wet suit and non-wet suit.
At 8:00 am, the Championship 10 milers will leave from Prouty Beach, in Newport, head out of the bay, past the lighthouse, north to the border, around Black, Belle, and Cove Islands and back. The next wave of 10 milers will leave the beach at 8:30 am. 6 milers will leave at 9:00 am and the 3 milers will start at 9:30 am. The 1 mile, 1/4 mile, and 100 yard swims will be run from Prouty Beach in Newport Bay in the afternoon starting at 2:00 pm.
Kingdom Swim is hosted by the Northeast Kingdom Open Water Swimming Association and has been sanctioned by the World Open Water Swimming Association. During this first year of WOWSA sanctioning, WOWSA membership is optional. We encourage all swimmers to check out the WOWSA web site and to support WOWSA’s efforts to support open water swimming around the world.
Registration for each distance in 2013 is now open. Each wave of the 10 mile course and each of the other courses are limited to the first 100 participants who are registered and paid. These limits have been set to assure that we can adequately support each swimmer who makes the commitment to join the swim. Registration for all courses will be closed on June 1st 2013 or when the cap is reached, whichever occurs first. Youth under 18 can participate in any of the six events. Participants in the World Championship Wave must be 14 years and older. Adults can participate only in the 1, 3, 6, and 10 mile swims.
All those swimming the 10, 6, and 3 mile courses are required to be accompanied by a kayak or paddleboard. Kayak rentals are available. A limited number of volunteer kayakers are recruited each year to help out. However, we cannot guaranty availability and strongly recommend that each swimmer try to bring his or her own support person.
Registration online for Kingdom Swim as well as all of NEKOWSA’s 10 other 2013 swims and more information is available here.
The prior open water swimming experience of all registrants for the 10 mile, 6 mile, and 3 mile swims will be reviewed by our Advisory Committee to assure that they are sufficiently qualified to enter the event. We expect each swimmer doing the 10 mile swim to have completed at least a 3 mile open water swim prior to registration and at least one 6 mile open water swim prior to June 15, 2013. 6 milers should have completed at least a 2 mile swim prior to registration and be committed to completing a 4 mile swim prior to June 15th . 3 milers should have completed a 1 mile open water swim and a 2 mile swim before June 15th. These swims do not have to be part of an event. They can be informal swims. They must be open water. We also offer ongoing assistance in planning, preparation, and training to assure that swimmers with limited open water experience can become qualified in time for the event and also to help any and all entrants get the most out of their Kingdom Swim experience. For more information, please check out Technical Support.
We encourage and support recreational as well as competitive open water swimming. However, 7 hours after the start of the 10 mile event, we reserve the right to pull any remaining swimmers out of the water. Our volunteer flotilla of patrol boats will need to get ready for the evening’s activities and we can’t expect them to stay on the lake beyond that point. We also reserve the right to pull 6 mile swimmers after 5 hours, and 3 mile swimmers after 3 hours.
Those interested in participating in the youth swim are invited to check out our Youth Swim section on this web site. Youth swim registrations will be limited to the first 100 paid registrations we have received, however youth swim registrations will close on June 1st, 2013, unless we have 100 registered youth swimmers before then. All youth swimmers must also be certified by their coach as qualified for their distance. Youth swimmers in the longer courses still need to complete the distances described above and be deemed qualified by us. 1 mile, ¼ mile, and 100 yard should have completed a prior open water swim of at least that distance. Again, this can be an informal swim. However, swimming with a group of other swimmers is not the time to try something new.
All fees are non-refundable. We expressly reserve the right to delay, reschedule, or even cancel the swim in the event of extremely adverse weather conditions, high winds, a substantial threat of lightening, or dense fog seriously limiting visibility.
This is a charity swim. Prizes will be offered for highest pledges, largest groups, biggest families, furthest traveled to the event, plus the fastest times. We’ve got some great prizes lined up already, including an entry into Ned Dennison’s Long Distance Swim Camp in Cork, Ireland and a guided Alcatraz Swim in San Francisco Bay donated by Swim Art and a Cobra Kayak. We will be adding prizes right up to the day of the event. Please check out our Last One Back to the Barn Award, a complete autographed set of the works to date by Howard Mosher. We also offer the George Hunihan For the Love of the Swim Award, for that swimmer who best reflects the spirit of Kingdom Swim, a dinner for two at the Eastside Restaurant. A very special prize will be awarded to anyone who spots and photographs Memphre, our very own lake creature: A lifetime registration in all of our Kingdom Summer Games including, Dandelion Run, Tour de Kingdom, Kingdom Swim, and Kingdom Triathlon.
We invite all of our swimmers and yackers to join us for the Frontier Animal Society’s Pet, Swimmers, and Yackers Parade on Friday, July 5th starting at 6:30 pm. Swimmers are encouraged to bring their state, provincial, and national flags and club banners to fly in the parade. They are also encouraged to dress in costume. This year’s theme: Vikings. For photos of last year’s parade (Johnny Depp Pirate look-a-like contest) click here. There will be a Swimmers and Yackers pasta dinner at the Gateway Center in Newport immediately following the parade. Follow us on Facebook.
For more information, please contact Phil White at phil@wilsonwhite.com For more information on the Youth Swim, please contact Peter Stuart at pstuart@NCHSI.org, or Charlotte Brynn, cbrynn@theswimmingholestowe.com
Aerial photo of Newport, VT courtesy of Scott Wheeler