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

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It’s important to be aware of the fact that you are going to be much colder ten minutes after you get out of the water than you are in it, so err on the side of caution. If you don’t feel cold at all when you get out, that simply means you can stay in for longer next time.

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Dani is Much Better Adventures' Deputy Editor and the author of a novel, the Arctic Curry Club. She's interested in helping everyone find their inner adventurer, despite obstacles they encounter.

OUTDOOR SWIMMER

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.” 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. 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.

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

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. 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.Fear of the deep is very widespread,” Kate explains. “There are so many stories about water. Like Jenny Green Teeth, a witch who would come out of the depths and drag you to your death if you went swimming - that was a way of keeping kids out of water in the past." Between now and then our community has shared adventure and misadventure, philosophy and practical tips, as we have discovered and articulated what we need to know to swim in lakes, rivers and seas, from how to read weather to how to survive cold. Now Kate has wrapped this collective knowledge on the art, sport and science of swimming in a new book, The Outdoor Swimmers’ Handbook (Rider, also available signed in The OSS Shop). 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. Calum Maclean is a broadcaster and Ambassador for The OSS. He is the author of 1001 Outdoor Swimming Tips (Vertebrae Publishing). On insta: @caldamac.