'I channelled all my grief into the water. I gave myself to the sea'

I have really enjoyed reading this book and found it inspiring and informative.
I love going for a cold water swim and have been doing this for the past 6 years. I live in the UK. I start in October and continue on weekly basis until end of March, full 6 months. Daytime only though. Absolutely love it, there is nothing better and the ability to 'give myself to the sea' is so cleansing. Great tool for mental health!
I have picked up this book, hoping to read about similar experiences and find some guidance, and I am not disappointed.
Well written, beautiful personal perspectives! I feel part of Al Mennie's community now.

Thank you Watkins Books and NetGalley!

Thoughtful, meditative and lingering
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In this inspiration-laced memoir, international surf pro Mennie introduces us to a liminal world that human beings were never meant to know: the sea at night. We are not waterborne creatures and human beings are made for the sun, so to willingly enter this littoral zone without the use of one our primary senses—and in all honesty, without any of the others to any real degree—is to give yourself up to a medium, a place, a force, perhaps even a wilfulness before which we are completely and utterly powerless, a return to the womb, a foretaste of the grave. We read that the journey is the destination, but in swimming the sea at night, neither the journey nor the destination are the aim, but instead the aim is having achieved both, to have entered, to have been there, to have returned, which is the heart of the Hero’s Journey.

I can swim quite well but I doubt I will ever do any of the amazing things that Mennie recounts and suggests; but in a way, reading about them is a proxy for doing it. We cannot all be Shackleton or Earhart, but we can admire the fact they did what they did, that they truly lived while they were alive, that they were the best of us. And Mennie shows us another world to be conquered, by human power alone. A thoughtful, meditative book that will linger.

Four and a half stars

This book is fantastic if you’re looking for walks and swims/dips in the wonderful night It offers such inspiration from someone who clearly has great local knowledge of the area. It’s such an easy book to follow and the author’s passion for Nighttime swimming is so apparent throughout. An added bonus are the photos which are amazing.

I love my sea swimming which I regularly do on the south coast of England. I have never swum at night and thought this might be an interesting and helpful guide. This is very much a guide to swimming through the darkness of life as much as swimming at night. The author has clearly found this a very healing practice for him. I know safety is important when swimming at sea but the repetitive warnings of its dangers has almost put me off my own swims! The pure joy of cold water swimming isn’t really given as much attention as the fearful constant warnings of its perils in this book. Rather than encourage me to swim at night I felt this book scared me off too much. I don’t think this is what the author wanted to achieve. As a memoir of how he has worked through his life challenges this is a readable account. However, if you are looking for a guide to doing your own night swimming this is not really it.

I’m a lifelong swimmer, find it restorative, and read quite a few books about swimming - both memoir and fiction. The idea of purposely swimming at night was nevertheless new to me. The author is fortunate to live near the sea in Ireland, is an accomplished surfer, and found night swimming a freeing practice in the pandemic. He also has done night swimming to raise awareness about mental health. He mentions being somewhat neurodivergent as well as color blind. The author also shares the pain of the loss of his father who died suddenly relatively young.

This book might serve as a practical guide for those with easy access to the ocean and the ability to buy equipment and have others to support safe swimming at night. It seems Ireland and the UK have more of an infrastructure and tradition for these kinds of activities. (I was in Wales last week and saw a large group of people who both climb the cliffs and also jump in the water to swim. There is a name for this activity although I can’t recall it. So far, I haven’t heard about it in my part of the US which is lower New England. We do have polar plunges and some surfing communities but I’m not aware of other activities.)

So, an interesting read about a swimming practice that the author finds meditative, if not particularly practical in terms of being able to add this to my own life. There are some sections that get a bit lengthy/repetitive about things like bowing before swimming - a ritual of the author’s. These could be tightened up or easily skimmed by the reader.