Father, son find healthy habit in Atlantic
The temperature had climbed to 37 degrees under overcast skies that a short time earlier had dropped the season's first notable coating of snow along the Delaware seashore.
Perfect weather for a dip in the ocean for Tim McCoy and his son Lucas. Actually, virtually any weather is perfect weather for the pair to strip down to bathing suits and wade into the surf near Tim’s home.
Tim, 69, recently began a new string of daily plunges, and Dec. 5 marked 28 in a row, after his stretch of 368 consecutive daily swims was halted by a knee injury that kept him on shore for three days.
For the past year, Lucas, 33, who lives in Rehoboth Beach, has joined him for the walk to the shore at Dewey Beach, a few doors away from the family house on West Street.
During their swims, they get completely wet, usually diving through a wave, and in many cases taking at least 10 swim strokes, Tim said.
They have three rules: no wetsuits, no pranks and no splashing.
“We don’t want to start a prank war when it’s 30 degrees,” Tim said.
There are many benefits to the daily dip, the McCoys said.
“My body looks forward to it,” Tim said. “I haven’t been sick the whole time I’ve been doing it. It feels great. This time of year, it washes the winter off. It clears your head. It clears your sinuses.”
“It’s an addiction,” Lucas added. “It gets you going if you do it, really. It gives you a lot of energy.”
Tim said he also has a greater appreciation for nature, which comes with regular trips to the beach, where he and Lucas encounter snow geese and seals, among other wildlife.
“You never know what you’ll see,” Tim said.
The time for the dip varies, but in the winter it is usually at the warmest point of the day. But there are still some early and late-evening swims as well.
Lucas has missed a few days swimming with his father this year, with brief interruptions for weddings and other commitments out of town. But he goes with his father whenever he is home.
Some days are challenging.
“The winters are the worst,” said Lucas of the time of year when water temperatures can dip to about 38 degrees. The water temperature Dec. 5 was 48 degrees.
“Last January, when there was a foot of snow on the beach, we were doing it every day,” Lucas said.
“The wind days are the worst,” Tim said. “It’s so easy when you have a little audience. When you have two or three people walking by, it makes it so much easier. But when you go down by yourself, it’s kind of scary, and not very smart to do.”
Sunny days with no wind are best in winter, Lucas said.
Tim still dabbles in real estate sales, his longtime profession. Lucas works at Starboard Claw in Dewey Beach. He is also a skimboarding instructor at Alley Oop Skim Camp in the summer.
The McCoys have had a home in the area since 1993. They are from Ellicott City, Md., outside Baltimore. Tim and his wife, Sally, a nurse, realized their dream of moving to the Delaware beaches before they retired.
A handful of neighbors looked on Dec. 5, as the McCoys took to the water.
“We like to watch,” Barbara Megurschak said. “We come out and encourage them.”
“I’ve known these guys for years,” Jeff Grutkowski said. “Clearly, these guys are insane.”
Tim said he has no target or deadline when he expects to stop his daily swims.
“There’s no reason to stop,” he said.
He said he doesn’t recall why he began the daily swims.
“I really don’t know. I just started jumping in,” he said. “After a while, once you get up to 10, 12, 15, you think, ‘Why stop? It felt so good yesterday.’ It doesn’t feel so good walking down, or standing there taking your sweatshirt off, but coming out, it feels great.”
Tim had a streak of 368 days with an ocean swim, from Nov. 6, 2024, to Nov. 10, 2025. Then he missed three days with a knee injury.
Previous to that run, Tim had long streaks of daily swims in the ocean, each more than 200 days.
His first run from October 2018 to April 2019 ended when he cut his fingers with a saw. He resumed swimming daily about a year later, but he cut his fingers again, ending another streak.
Parts of earlier streaks included swims in Florida, but the latest two have all been in Dewey Beach, Tim said.
A daily swim has proven to be a cure – or prevention – for many ills, Tim said.
“Nature’s saline solution,” he said.
Kevin Conlon came to the Cape Gazette with nearly 40 years of newspaper experience since graduating from St. Bonaventure University in New York with a bachelor's degree in mass communication. He reports on Sussex County government and other assignments as needed.
His career spans working as a reporter and editor at daily newspapers in upstate New York, including The Daily Gazette in Schenectady. He comes to the Cape Gazette from the Cortland Standard, where he was an editor for more than 25 years, and in recent years also contributed as a columnist and opinion page writer. He and his staff won regional and state writing awards.
Conlon was relocating to Lewes when he came across an advertisement for a reporter job at the Cape Gazette, and the decision to pursue it paid off. His new position gives him an opportunity to stay in a career that he loves, covering local news for an independently owned newspaper.
Conlon is the father of seven children and grandfather to two young boys. In his spare time, he trains for and competes in triathlons and other races. Now settling into the Cape Region, he is searching out hilly trails and roads with wide shoulders. He is a fan of St. Bonaventure sports, especially rugby and basketball, as well as following the Mets, Steelers and Celtics.
