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New Swim Company Puffin Launch

Swim Company Launch with the UK’s First Eco-friendly Swim Tow Float.

The north’s leading open water swimming experts have launched a company which aims to combine swim safety and adventure with sustainability.

Based in the Lake District surrounded by water, Puffin Swim has grown out of a heritage developed by Pete and Andrea Kelly who run the adventure swimming company Swim the Lakes. They pioneered adventure swimming in the Lake District and are specialists in outdoor swimming wetsuits and equipment.

Now company Puffin Swim launched with the UK’s first Eco-friendly PVC free tow float. The Billy Eco15 Drybag float is a bright inflatable swim tow float designed to increase the visibility of the swimmer to other water users and increase safety.

Until now tow floats have been made from PVC or PVC coated nylon. The PVC free tow float from Puffin Swim gives swimmers a more environmentally-friendly choice.

The new project is driven by the team’s love of wild and beautiful places and an understanding that they must try to reduce their impact upon them and to help protect them. Puffin Swim promotes the RSBP’s Puffin Appeal, to adopt a puffin.

Said director Andrea Kelly: “Puffin Swim is passionate about swimming outdoors and the real adventure of using swimming as a means to explore the wild environment and travel through open water. For this we need reliable, good equipment that will empower our adventure, improve our experience and be functional.”

“But we also have a duty to protect the environment. We have tried and tested all of our products and will continue to source and design the best products for the greatest experiences. But wherever possible, these must be sustainable.”

Their first product, the eco-friendly tow float, is both tough and durable. Said Andrea: “it is made with biodegradable TPU. The TPU process is less toxic to the environment than PVC.

“Biodegradable TPU is very durable and resistant to abrasions. It is also very tear and puncture-resistant making it an ideal material for a swim float. It will last as long, if not longer than a PVC float; the big difference is in the way it is disposed of, it can be composted and recycled”. The Billy Eco15 swimming tow float made from bio-degradable TPU

Factfile:

  • The Billy Eco15 is made with biodegradable TPU (Thermoplastic Polyurethane) which when composted degrades over 3 – 5 years. This has a huge environmental advantage over PVC floats which can take hundreds and thousands of years to degrade.
  • Biodegradable TPU is low in toxicity and the manufacturing process is better for the natural environment.
  • The range of swim floats from Puffin are all designed with optimal streamlining which minimises drag whilst the swimmers tows the float behind them.
  • The Billy Eco15 float is simple to use and highly effective. As a 15 litre volume drybag float it also gives swimmers the option to take some small items with them during their swim.


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