Heaven on Earth: Bantham Swoosh & Boomerang 2026
That’s a lot of Swimmers… (Photo by Freddie Fryer)
Two days. Wall-to-wall Devon sunshine. Around 1,600 swimmers across two swims on the most beautiful stretch of coast in the country. £350,000 raised and counting, almost £100,000 more than last year.
That will fund somewhere in the region of 23,000 adapted swimming lessons for disabled children. And at this event more than any other, you could see exactly who those lessons are for. But we’ll come to that.
Bantham is our flagship. It’s the most sought-after ticket in outdoor swimming, and when entries for 2026 opened, they were gone in half an hour. Stand on that beach on a July morning, and you'll understand why.
Two Swims, One River
For the uninitiated, there are two very different ways to take on the Aune Estuary.
The Swoosh (Saturday, 6km) is the classic. A downstream point-to-point starting up at Aveton Gifford on the high tide, riding the outgoing water all the way to Bantham Beach. The estuary is shallow, clear and sandy-bottomed, clear enough to watch crabs going about their business on the riverbed below. Then comes the finale. In the final kilometre, the river narrows, the ebbing tide funnels through, and swooshes you toward the beach at up to four times your normal swimming speed. There is nothing else quite like it.
The Boomerang (Sunday) is the Swoosh's big brother. An up-and-back swim heading upstream on the incoming tide, turning when the tide turns to swoosh you home. Two Swooshes for the price of one. There’s no fixed distance, most swimmers cover somewhere between five and ten kilometres. As one Boomerang swimmer told us, the appeal is simple: "Such a beautiful river... and to try and get further up the river next time!".
Around 800 swimmers took on each, spread across one glorious weekend.
Nervous Excitement and Sea-Salt Calm
There is a particular feeling to a beach at first light. Bantham had it in spaes: that mix of nervous excitement and well-worn comfort you only find by the sea in the early hours.
Over in the campsite and the event village, Saturday's swimmers were up early. Breakfast on the go. Wetsuits half-on. Bags packed, checked, then checked again before boarding the coaches up to the start at Aveton Gifford.
The beach was immaculate. The village was gorgeous. Swimmers rated the weekend an incredible 4.75 out of 5, calling it a "brilliant relaxed atmosphere in a fantastic location". Honestly, it was heaven on earth.
Community Under Canvas
At the centre of the weekend were our top fundraisers, put up in style in bell tents donated by our headline sponsors, Vivobarefoot.
In one of those tents was Josh Waddy. Josh’s weekend was the whole charity rolled into one person. As one of our inclusion specialists, he does the on-the-ground work delivering our mission to the children we support in Bristol. He was also one of the top fundraisers of the entire weekend, bringing in over £1,000. On Friday night, he took to the stage in the Stretch Tent to talk about why inclusion in sport actually matters, drawing on the work he does every single week alongside fellow specialist Karen Forrester.
On Saturday night, the tent filled again. Lewis Edwards from Vivobarefoot and Lucia Guerriero-Davies from SwimTrek spoke about what access to the great outdoors really means. We even got to have a conversation with four-time Ironman World Champion Chrissie Wellington. She didn’t just talk a good swim, either, she got in and did both the Bantham Swoosh and Boomerang.
Off the Sand and Into the Estuary
The Bantham Swoosh got underway at 10am and the Boomerang at 9am but they were both under that same big blue sky. The Bantham Swoosh used a rolling start, swimmers filtering into the estuary in a steady stream of brightly coloured hats. The Boomerang went off in three waves the following morning.
The mood was chilled, and genuinely fun. For all that this is a serious distance in wild water, Bantham never feels like a race. Swimmers described it as an "incredible organisation and such a wonderful vibe". It feels like the best kind of day out, one that just happens to involve swimming several kilometres down a tidal river.
And then, of course, the finale: that glorious, tide-powered final stretch that flings you toward the beach. It's the highlight every single year. It never, ever gets old.
Our Guests of Honour
Every year, we invite children from the Level Water programme down to Bantham as our guests of honour. And every year, they take on the Mini-Swoosh, a shorter, under-1km version of that famous final stretch.
Taking place on Saturday for young swimmers aged 8 to 15, each child is paired one-to-one with an adult and shadowed the whole way by lifeguards on paddleboards. The outgoing tide does so much of the work that a child who'd rather float than swim can simply be carried gently along. Like everything else at Bantham, it sold out.
These are the children the whole weekend is built for. Watching a child being carried effortlessly by the tide, high-fiving a paddleboarder on the way past, beaming and completely at home in the water is the best possible reminder of why any of this exists. Every stroke swum by every adult on that estuary buys another child a moment exactly like theirs.
It is, quite simply, a privilege to watch.
Hauled Out onto Golden Sand
Both swims finish on Bantham Beach, where swimmers were greeted by our very own Ben and his team of finish volunteers, helping, encouraging, and occasionally just pulling people out of the sea and back onto dry land.
From there, it was up to the headland to collect that iconic Bantham hammam towel, a gift that went down a storm. "Love the towel, much better and more useful than a medal," one swimmer noted.
Then it was down into the event village for a well-earned hot chocolate. It's the traditional, non-negotiable reward for anyone who's just swum an estuary.
Every Stroke Counts
Bantham Swoosh & Boomerang 2026 has raised nearly £350,000 so far, almost £100,000 up on 2025. That will fund around 23,000 swimming lessons for disabled children who deserve to feel exactly what our guests of honour felt on that beach: capable, free, and completely at home in the water.
Thank You
Our water safety team and beach lifeguards. You kept everyone safe, on course, and smiling from start to finish.
The Bantham Estate for welcoming us onto their stunning stretch of coastline.
Our volunteers. Directing, checking, hauling swimmers onto the sand, and pouring the hot chocolate. You are the lifeblood of this event.
Our brand partners and sponsors: Vivobarefoot, Red, Catch, SwimTrek, River Dart Hideaway and Zone3. Thank you for the tents, the support, and everything in between.
But the biggest thank you goes where it always goes: to the swimmers, and to every single person who sponsored them. You raised a life-changing amount of money and, by the looks of it, had the time of your lives doing it.
