The Outdoor Swimmers' Handbook: Collected Wisdom on the Art, Sport and Science of Outdoor Swimming

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We are a society of people who don’t follow, a tribe of non-joiners, but one thing many of us share alongside a love of water is the desire to share our finds, questions and experiences. Kate Rew started The Outdoor Swimming Society in 2006, long before the wild swimming craze had taken hold. It goes to show that even where we have the right to roam through walking, that access stops at water. If you’re swimming out to sea, or down a river with lots of other watercraft, one of the most useful pieces of kit would be a brightly coloured swimming hat, in a colour not seen in nature, like red or yellow or pink, not blue or black or green or silver - any of those colours could look like water,” Kate explains.

The Outdoor Swimmers’ Handbook Book Club: Kate Rew - The Outdoor Swimmers’ Handbook

In winter, when wearing a wetsuit, I will notice that my pinkie goes wandering and won’t connect up with the rest of my hand. We are part of the planet and all the elements again, in a place where moons wane, storms swell and life ebbs and flows throughout the seasons. With huge thanks to everyone who’s been a part of the journey so far, and the best of luck to you on the next stage of yours. Deep water fear is really interesting because, having talked to a lot of swimmers, I don’t think it really goes away. But at this point in history people needed to hear that it was ‘allowed’, so we went around ‘sanctioning’ swimming.

Not having a tow float can be helpful in these situations, or being able to get rid of it quickly, because if you’re going downstream you have this leash that can get caught on rocks or branches. We were, apparently, beside ourselves: that this swim had happened, and that the man who had accomplished it was in our water. The United Kingdom is not renowned for its sunny weather, which means that outdoor swimmers are going to be immersing themselves in cold water for most of the year.

The Outdoor Swimmers’ Book Bundle - Outdoor Swimming Society

Today, there are open-water lake and wild swim groups offering warm welcomes across the country, and swimmers across the world are looking to the UK to work out how to create a similar culture of free, nomadic swimming where they live. You can also learn a lot from the people you encounter on the water, from fellow swimmers to beach lifeguards and locals who know their environment well. The good thing about swimming in reservoirs is that when there’s been a drought, you can walk around and see where there are hazards. In the fresh grip of a love for adventurous swimming and eager (messianic in fact) to get more people out of pools and into British rivers and lakes with me, I set up ‘Breastrokes’, a one-mile charity swim, and I chose the two best-known lakes I could think of (perhaps the only two lakes I could think of) in which to host it: the Serpentine in the middle of London, and Windermere in the Lake District. Choose somewhere easy to get in and then back out is important, especially in the winter when getting in might be ok but getting out onto a stony surface can be horrible.There are plenty of ways to learn more about swimming safely outdoors, from taking an introductory course to reading up on the subject ( The Outdoor Swimmers’ Handbook includes a lot of information about risk assessments, understanding tides and much more).

The Outdoor Swimmers’ Handbook - Guernsey Literary Festival The Outdoor Swimmers’ Handbook - Guernsey Literary Festival

She also provides a comprehensive description of different tides and currents, alongside how one can navigate them to swim as safely as possible.If your focus is that you want to swim up and down a river, and enjoy nature and relax, then having a wetsuit might be a really important part of your journey - you won’t need to worry if it’s too far for you anymore. The OSS ‘Regional Rep’ programme, whereby a few swimmers across the UK started social swim communities in their areas via Facebook, mushroomed into the hundreds of independent social wild swim groups that exist today. There, three figures dive off the sandstone and are buoyed by what appears to be the sluice and joy of a downstream Neolithic drift.