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

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Kate: “Reluctantly. Among OSS members, I’m known for not being very good at cold, but I just can’t miss my swimming. I’ve been trying to work on building up my internal fire before getting in and I have a new qigong routine to help with that. I like to get in, put my hands in, dab water on my cheeks, my chest, and all the places that might make me gasp, then one big exhale and the path is set: I’m getting in.” There is this statistic of only 3% of inland water being legally accessible, which is a bit questionable. A lot of those places, people have been swimming for years and if you were to swim there and bump into landowners or other swimmers, they wouldn’t even be aware that technically they’re not allowed to swim. That’s the case in Sheffield, we have three spots where we assumed we were allowed to swim – even the council thought so. Then I looked into it and you’re not. It goes to show that even where we have the right to roam through walking, that access stops at water. A lot of people don’t realise that – I didn’t realise it for a long time. There’s a big issue, but it doesn’t mean to say you’ll have finger wagging and tutting and shouting as that’s quite rare, but it’s still not good enough when we need equal access and people need to feel they have a right to be there. Is it safe to swim in reservoirs?

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The Outdoor Swimmers’ Handbook is, to use Kate’s own words, “both poetic and practical.” Chapters one to four are dedicated to understanding lakes, rivers, seas and estuaries respectively. They contain everything from musings on toponymy to species field guides for particular habitats.If you get the bug, there’s so many different avenues you can take. I would really encourage everyone to explore the one they like. There's no set way to do it. Give yourself permission to be whatever type of swimmer you would like to be.” For me, swimming's quite a quiet thing. It's a real red herring to think you have to go off with a huge group of wild swimmers If you’re ready to expand your horizons beyond your local beach or river, you’ll find the advise on planning a swim particularly useful. It covers how to conduct a DIY risk assessment, including restrictions on timing (due to tides), where you’ll enter and exit the water, and notes on ability levels within your group. How to find a place to swim is also covered, which is particularly useful in a climate of fraught access rights, where many swim spots feel like closely guarded secrets.

swimmers – Outdoor Swimming Society Expert tips for beginner swimmers – Outdoor Swimming Society

This is a wonderful – in the old sense of that term – and joyful romp of a book. Roger Deakin would have approved. Dive in.” News from the world of outdoor swimming. Stay updated with stories and events that matter to the swim community.Modern life has made many of us feel tamed and now we want to turn to swimming for rewilding. When swimming, we are not passively consuming the landscape, we are pulled into it, breeze flattening the water surface beneath our faces, warmth draining from our bare feet like colour leaches out of the landscape in the cold autumn light. We are there, damp from the clag by a tarn, underneath the belly of a swan as it takes off. 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. There are people that just dip; there are people who use it as a form of fitness and do lengths. There's adventure swims, where you might be planning A to B swims; there's people that just lie around meditating, or those who love to go night swimming,” Kate says. Kate: “Word of mouth is good, there’s a lot on the media now about swimming spots, guidebooks, lots of wild swim groups as well. So it’s really easy these days just using Google. I would add there is no such thing as a safe swim spot, only a safe swimmer. So it’s really important that you consider what your own swimming ability is. The guides you find online are guides, but you really have to think about it when you get there and assess if for yourself, and take responsibility for yourself. Think about cold – it’s much easier to start swimming in summer. We’ve got this situation that I don’t think anyone in the OSS would have predicted of people starting swimming in the midwinter. Normally people build up to it with a few years of summer swimming.” Calum Maclean is a broadcaster and Ambassador for The OSS. He is the author of 1001 Outdoor Swimming Tips (Vertebrae Publishing). On insta: @caldamac.

Outdoor Swimming 5 Tips for Getting Started with Outdoor Swimming

This is like an overheard catch up of everything that’s been learnt and experienced in the last 16 years of The OSS,’ says Kate, ‘everything that we, as a community, have learnt about understanding rivers, lakes, sea, about the physiology of cold, planning swims, night swims, and how to swim better.

"Swim like no one's watching" - and other wisdom for those starting outdoor swimming

A treasured guide for anyone who wants to venture into rivers, estuaries, lakes and seas for a dip, a moonlit swim or a great adventure. I loved this book! I am super excited to have been able to group it all together in what I hope is a really accessible, beautiful fun to read book. It’s a very poetic kind of handbook, with beautiful community photography (thanks to all the contributors!) and illustrated field guides. So many swimmers have helped create this movement and form and articulate this knowledge over the years – may it help make water accessible to millions more.’ The hat will keep you visible, which will help keep you safe. A tow float - basically a lightweight inflated bag - performs the same function, although Kate doesn’t believe they’re necessary if you plan on staying close to shore. Goggles are also important if you’d like to swim with your face in the water. Kate recommends tinted ones for sunny days and clear ones for overcast days. The Outdoor Swimmers’ Handbook ‘is like an overheard catch up of everything that’s been learnt and experienced in the last 16 years of The OSS,’ says Kate, ‘everything that we, as a community, have learnt about understanding rivers, lakes, sea, about the physiology of cold, planning swims, night swims, and how to swim better. Kate is keen to stress the fact that outdoor swimming isn’t a risk-free activity, and the risk is determined predominantly by the level of knowledge and ability of the swimmer.

The Outdoor Swimmers’ Handbook - Outdoor Swimming Society

Ready to try it out? Kate’s new book, The Outdoor Swimmers’ Handbook, contains decades of accumulated knowledge about planning a swim, understanding different water bodies, and acclimatising to the cold. She’s also given us her five top tips for getting started with outdoor swimming. 1. Coping with the cold Getting into the water slowly will help you acclimatise. Photo: Finisterre Microadventure.There are no hard and fast rules on how long to stay in the water for - some people have far higher tolerance for cold than others do. Even experienced swimmers like Kate still feel the cold! Photo: The Outdoor Swimming Society. Just as there was a time before triathlons, skateboarding, surfing, mountaineering or mountain biking, there was a time when mass-participation open-water swims were not commonplace. That time was 2006. 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. One of the most lyrically written chapters is ‘Understanding Cold’, which we anticipate will be of particular interest to readers in this era of Wim Hof mania. If you’re unwilling to drop a lot of money on a wetsuit, there’s always the option of using a wetsuit rental company to try out more expensive models, or to buy second-hand. 3. Be the type of swimmer you would like to be 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. As Kate explains in The Outdoor Swimmers’ Handbook, “British outdoor swimmers have to embrace 12 to 16°C as their home territory - from May to October, this is the river temperature in the UK.”