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That’s not the story I’m hearing, but I’m so glad so many people have joined us, whatever the reason.
The Outdoor Swimmers’ Book Bundle - Outdoor Swimming Society
Outdoor swimming, she explains, is a largely oral tradition, with one person passing on their knowledge and expertise to another. Rew suggests several reasons why this might be - freedom from gravity, immersion in nature - but at the end of the day, she doesn’t want to over-analyse it. 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. 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.
In fact, the indoor pool is a modern invention - but in recent years, wild swimming has had a renaissance. We were, apparently, beside ourselves: that this swim had happened, and that the man who had accomplished it was in our water. When it’s colder, it’s more of a psychological battle to get in, then more of a mental lift once you’ve done it. I would never swim into the middle of it, but then you learn that it’s okay away from the infrastructure: the dam wall, the spillway, the tower, and any inlets and outlets. Most people get the fear when they’re doing front crawl - your head's down and you're looking directly into the blackness.
The Outdoor Swimmers’ Handbook - Guernsey Literary Festival The Outdoor Swimmers’ Handbook - Guernsey Literary Festival
Almost by definition outdoor swimmers are both fiercely independent and free-spirited, so making a community out of ourselves is somewhat of a challenge. 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.Hundreds of new outdoor swimmers grilled OSS Founder Kate Rew, Ambassador Calum Maclean and Inland Access Officer Owen Hayman on their well-earned wisdom during ‘It’s Beginners’ Night’, an OSS x alpkit webinar. The photographs in the book are particularly splendid: some have all the disarming beauty of great paintings…. 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.
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