Hundreds take icy dip New Year's Day in the Solent for Gosport charity

The Gosport and Fareham Inshore Rescue Service (GAFIRS) New Year’s Day Swim returned to the seafront after a two year hiatus with over 400 brave bathers seen taking a dip in the sea to raise money for the charity.

The event, which has been cancelled in its two previous years due to weather and Covid-19, has been running for more than 40 years as a way to raise funds for the independent lifeboat charity service.

Thousands of supporters swarmed the seafront to watch friends and family take the plunge and make donations to the charity on the slipway outside GAFIRS life boat station in Lifeboat Lane at Stokes Bay, Gosport.

A 15-strong running and swimming group known as the Sandy Beards were among the dippers raising money for the charity, having raised hundreds of pounds in previous years, with a cow, a nun and a cavewoman among their outfits.

Sarah Porter, from Gosport, said: ‘It was lovely – we use the sea all the time, it’s important to support these guys, when they didn’t do it we did a collection for them. We’ll always be back, why wouldn’t you want to?’

For Becky Pownall and Carl Pinnock, from Fareham, the occasion was particularly poignant, acting as a memorial event for Becky’s father who passed away unexpectedly in November due to heart failure.

Becky said: ‘It was freezing, but I feel amazingly good. It’s our first time doing it, we’ve never been so stupid before.

‘After losing my dad we decided we needed to start the new year a different way. It’s been a hard year, but we wanted to start the year as we mean to go on. We’re getting married in October 2024 so we’ve got lots to look forward to.’

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After losing her mum at age 21, Becky who struggles with her mental health, had a nervous breakdown but is now thankful to have an ‘amazing’ support network, including friends who joined in on the dip.

‘It’s been a weird year, dad wasn’t well, anything that could go wrong did, these lot got us through it,’ added Becky.

Tom Clark, community director of GAFIRS, was there on the first day of the year and was ‘amazed’ at the community support. ‘It was brilliant. It’s nice to see so many people come out and so keen to get back in,’ he said.

‘It takes a lot to get you out of bed on new year's day morning. It’s a tradition in Gosport, there’s a real roar on the way down here. We’ve had a lot of costs this year, we’ve done 135 rescues, 171 people assisted and eight lives saved, that’s eight people that wouldn’t be here if we hadn’t been there, but we just can’t do it without the support. It’s incredible, it means we can carry on saving lives.

‘It’s been a very busy year, everyone’s feeling the pinch, our costs are going up, anything people can give is amazing.’