The Seal Dip

Over 18 months ago the idea of a big dip, known as The Seal Dip, was beginning to form and several meetings with the RNLI ensued. But nothing moved forward at any pace and the idea dwindled, but never completely died out.

That was until Dickie moved into a new voluntary role as fundraiser for the charity. And so the conversations picked up with the Selsey RNLI once again, but this time meetings were productive and outcomes achieved. Dickie continued to move the agenda forward, a date was selected, and the work began through mounds of health and safety paperwork to get this project off the ground.

Today, despite only 6 weeks notice, 60 people turned up at East Beach Green for our inaugural RNLI charity fundraising dip, from as far as Torquay, as well as Gosport, Southampton and Bracklesham, along with many of our core SSBS members. The wind was northerly and chilly, but the sun showed up (of course), along with our lovely Chichester MP Jess Brown-Fuller who promised she would come to brave the cold sea for her first dip of the year, and she did! Megaphones were in force, Star Wars costumes were worn, flags were flown, Shantymen and Molls sang, Ninjas appeared to clear the beach, spectators watched, volunteer marshalls marshalled and dogs barked! It was a truly wonderful and uplifting morning and I'm truly grateful to you all for showing your support and helping to raise not only £300 for the RNLI shop on the day, but also a further approx £450 donations from the swim for the RNLI.

This first event has been a huge success! Thank you SO much to Dickie for all the work he put in to make this happen with, and for, the RNLI and we're proud to have initiated this event which we all no doubt hope will now continue for years to come. With a bit of downtime in-between, we'll begin looking at the next (winter) date.

There's lots more photos, but for now, here's a short selection.