Bog snorkelling is a sporting event that consists of competitors completing two consecutive lengths of a 60-yard (55 m) water filled trench cut through a peat bog, in the shortest time possible. Competitors must wear snorkels and flippers, and complete the course without using conventional swimming strokes, relying on flipper power alone. Wet suits are not compulsory, but are usually worn.
World Bog Snorkelling Championship
The World Bog Snorkelling Championship, first held in 1985, takes place annually every August Bank Holiday at the dense Waen Rhydd peat bog, near Llanwrtyd Wells in mid Wales. The 2007 event was not sponsored; the last sponsor was London-based IT consultancy company SPMK in 2006.
Joanne Pitchforth of Heckmondwike is the current world record holder with the time 1m35s, having shaved fractions of a second off the previous record set in 2003. Rob Liscoe is the current men’s champion winning on 27 August 2007. Joanne Pitchforth is the current women’s bog snorkelling champion, and George Murphy the champion junior bog snorkeller. Interestingly, all three champions this year regularly play Underwater Hockey.
Other bog snorkelling events take place, particularly in Wales, including the associated mountain bike bog snorkelling (where competitors must ride through the bog on specially prepared mountain bikes), and the Bog Snorkelling Triathlon.
Proceeds from the championship go to a local charity each year. Charities include the Cystic Fibrosis Trust (2005), Motor Neurone Association (2006)
Craig Hill Media and Consulting 
Amazing! As someone becoming familiar with diving and snorkeling — but on the Great Barrier Reef where visibility is often 25 meters, I can’t even ‘fathom’ what it would be like to have visibility in the range of a couple centimeters. Do they have sharks in bogs? If not, I’ll be there are many other slithery creepy crawlieys lurking in the bogs that would be best not to see up close. Flippers off to Welsh adventurer snorkelers!
Posted by jackandmarilynerickson | March 11, 2012, 22:16This must be a MAN thing ???!!! Are we so short of ideas to what we should make champion ships out off *smile
Posted by viveka | March 12, 2012, 03:08I think women participate too 🙂
Posted by Craig Hill | March 12, 2012, 08:05You know how it’s … what men does, we have to do better *smile
Posted by viveka | March 12, 2012, 08:10Ha ha! I am not getting drawn into that:-)
Posted by Craig Hill | March 12, 2012, 08:19And I thought we were a little short in the grey matter here in the USA when we raced trucks pulling campers behind them. At least we did not have to use CRUEX or GOLD BOND poweder for the next three weeks like these bog hounds did. EEEeeeechhhh. I got the scratchys! Thanks for another great post. See you tomorrow.
Posted by Waldo "Wally" Tomosky | March 12, 2012, 09:09