Who we are and why we're doing this!
Swimadelica was set up by Clare Ruby and Sophie Morgan. Clare & Sophie are lifelong lovers of all things swimming related. Getting tired of searching multiple websites for gifts for their swimmer friends, they decided to do it themselves and set up one where you can find all sorts of swimming and water related gifts. They aim to collaborate with small independent makers with beautiful gifts and a story to share with you.
Our mission
We'd like to be the best online shop for all swimming related gifts, but Swimadelica really aims to fund other things. We want more people to be able to take part in any kind of swimming activity, to decrease the number of children who leave school unable to swim and to increase diversity in swimming. To this end we will be donating to two organisations in our first year. The more gifts you buy, the more we will donate to them. Firstly, The Black Swimming Association a non-profit organisation aiming to support people of Colour in Aquatics through education, advocacy and research and secondly Level Water who provide bespoke, one-to-one swimming lessons for children with disabilities.
Clare is a Londoner born and bred and learnt to swim when a baby at the Olympic Crystal Palace pool. She's temporarily living in St Leonards-on-Sea where she can get in the sea whenever she wants! She is a qualified open water swim coach and swimming teacher. She LOVES swimming, and was one of the pioneer swimmers of the 10km Hurly Burly, organised by the fabulous Outdoor Swimming Society (OSS). She swam (or escaped!) from Alcatraz to San Francisco to raise money to eradicate measles, organised the last December Dip for the OSS and back in 2007 was a volunteer organiser of the World Cold Water Swimming Championships at Tooting Bec lido.
Sophie, a Cornish girl now lives in Cardiff with her husband and two lovely girls. She swims whenever she can and comes from grand swimming heritage. Her grandfather was a swimming and diving coach in the Olympics and coached Betty Slade in the women's 3 metre springboard event at the 1936 Summer Olympics, Berlin (clip in training). Sophie’s family (Cyril Laxton and his brother Reg) invented the swimming noseclip ‘Laxto’ in 1952. It was first used in the 1952 Summer Olympics, Helsinki. It is still crafted and manufactured by the family and shipped all around the world (and you can buy it from us). She also LOVES swimming and can be spotted in anything deep enough to swim in (recently joining the Taffy Dippers in Cardiff)!