Dark, smelly and ‘completely bonkers’: Welcome to the world of bog snorkeling | CBC Radio

Once a year, Neil Rutter straps on a snorkel and submerges himself into the dark, muddy waters of a peat bog and swims as fast as his legs will carry him — all while trying to ignore the slippery unknown creatures that brush along his body.

Why, you may ask, would someone snorkel in a bog when there are perfectly good lakes and ocean coastlines available?

“Because it’s mad, and because there’s a long English and British and Welsh tradition of doing things that are completely bonkers on a bank holiday weekend,” Rutter, an art teacher from Bath, England, told As It Happens guest host Katie Simpson.

Rutter is the five-time champion of the World Bog Snorkelling Championships. The quirky competition in the Welsh town of Llanwrtyd Wells sees competitors race to complete two lengths of a 55-metre water-filled trench cut through the Waen Rhydd peat bog. 

He secured his fifth consecutive victory on Sunday, finishing in one minute and 12 seconds, beating the all-time record he set last year.

‘All about the legs’

Bog snorkeling, he says, can be a real trudge through the sludge. Especially since conventional swims, like the breaststroke or the butterfly, are not permitted. 

“You have to rely on the legs and the flippers that you’ve got, the fins, to propel you,” Rutter said. “A lot of people go for kind of a doggy-paddle type stroke. But I tend to find [it’s better to] just leave your hands out in front and make it all about the legs.” 

This year’s swim, he says, was a breeze. There’s been a ton of rain lately, which diluted the bog and made it almost feel like “a nice, fresh swim.”

“But still, you’re getting in and it’s pitch black. It’s very cold and kind of claustrophobic,” he said.

“And then you become a little bit aware of what’s around you, and as you’re swimming along and you brush past a thing, inevitably, your brain starts to think, ‘Well, what was that thing?’ And you try and sort of cast it to the back of your mind.”

‘Good for the skin’

Then there’s the stink factor.

“Yeah, it has its whiff,” Rutter said. “That sort of peaty smell, which I’m sure is very good for the skin.”

Sunday was the 35th edition of the competition. Llanwrtyd Wells mayor Sarah Jones told the Guardian it began as an effort to draw in vacationers who were eschewing the countryside for international travel.

The massive event, made possible through business sponsorship and more than 200 volunteers, coincides with other bog-related contests, like stone skipping and the “bogathlon” which includes a 55-metre bog snorkel followed by a 3.2-kilometre cross-country cycle and a 1.6-km run.

But the snorkeling event is the gem in the Llanwrtyd Well’s summer crown, with onlookers coming from far and wide, often showing up in full costumes. Some contestants will also adorn their snorkels, masks and flippers with more flamboyant touches. 

One competitor in this year’s event carried a massive plastic — and highly realistic — toad on their head. 

The event is even featured in an official Royal Mail stamp collection honouring “the U.K.’s weird and wonderful customs” — including the annual cheese-rolling race in Gloucester, in which participants launch themselves down a steep hill in pursuit of a rapidly rolling wheel of Double Gloucester cheese.

“There’s something wonderfully quirky and just a little bit eccentric about doing something a bit bonkers,” Rutter said. “No one quite knows why it’s so enjoyable. But it is.”

Rutter first became enamoured with the sport in 2017 when he and a group of friends joined the competition to celebrate a buddy’s birthday.

“End of the day, I fluked it. I won it, and obviously got the bug,” he said. 

He’s been back every year since, barring pandemic cancellations. There’s just one problem; he keeps winning.

“It is, as it’s intended, a completely mad, daft environment. It’s not meant for anyone like me to be taking it seriously. And the fact that I do it makes me the idiot in the situation,” he said. 

“Suddenly, I’ve got a record and the only thing you can do is potentially lose [it]. So suddenly there’s a bit of pressure, and you go in with more nerve.”

That’s why he’s thinking of hanging up his snorkel — at least for now.  

“I’m sure they haven’t seen the last of me,” he said. “But I’m taking a little bit of a hiatus.”