A ‘superb festive family atmosphere’ greeted over a thousand dippers in Tenby on Boxing Day for a record-breaking turnout for the annual charity event.

Christmas in Tenby wouldn’t be complete without the Boxing Day Swim, and with 2023 marking the 100th anniversary of the Walt Disney Company, the hardy souls braving the briny this year were invited to don costumes inspired by their favourite classic animated and cartoon characters.

Swimmers and splashers assembled on the sands for the fancy dress parade with local DJ Steve Briers cranking up the atmosphere with some festive tunes, before the 11.30 am dash into the icy plunge.

Sponsored this year by Harbour Wealth, Outer Reef and the Port of Milford Haven Community Fund, it’s an event that always draws a crowd of spectators and well wishers, with hundreds arriving at the seaside town to cheer on those taking part to raise funds for worthy causes at the 51st Boxing Day Swim in Tenby.

The event is made possible through the collaboration of the Tenby Harbourmaster and many of the seaside town’s organisations, including Tenby Sea Swimming Association (TSSA), Tenby Surflink, Tenby RNLI and St John's Ambulance.

After the event, TSSA announced that the swim had been a record-breaker with 1,050 swimmers taking part - “Our event just seems to get better and better!”

DJ Steve Briers also shared a lovely story of a youngster taking part who nearly left disappointed, but ended up ‘overjoyed’.

“We had more swimmers today than medals as the turnout was so huge. Consequently a few swimmers regretfully missed out on being presented with a medal by fellow participant the Mayor of Tenby, Councillor Dai Morgan.

“A lady from Suffolk came up to me at the end saying how upset her four-year-old son was as he had unfortunately not been awarded a medal as they had run out. I saw Dai and his Mayoral party walking off the beach in front of me, told him the story, and he graciously gave his swim medal to the absolutely overjoyed lad to make his day. A lovely gesture that this lad will remember,” added Steve who went onto praise the ‘amazing and colourful fancy dressed swimmers’ adding that it was was a ‘superb festive family atmosphere’.