thecaptain
Free Member
I’d qualify the above comments with wild swimming *in winter* not usually being about swimming. Summer open water swimming can be an athletic thing, but the winter is more about having a quick dip and trying to balance the claimed benefits of cold water immersion with the risks of hypothermia.
That's probably the heart of it there for the OP: are you (OP) thinking more of the *swimming* part or the wild part - the cardio exercise or the cold water benefit?
If it's the former, you might want to start later in the spring. But cold water dunking is great year round - I was in the sea yesterday actually. Bit painful initially, but felt quite invigorated and awake after 5-10 minutes!
There's a big sea swimming culture in and around Dublin, and a mix of the swimmers (swimming the length of the beach, swimming round buoys etc) and dunkers (get in, splash for a while, get out). I'm more a dunker, but love it
I always loved club training lanes swims. Swimming a set together - good stuff. But public lane swimming is just a ball ache. The breaststroker in the fast last, the slower person that pushes off just as you get to the wall, the arm swinger, the thrasher doing intervals and constantly changing pace. It sucks.
thecaptain is right though - my words previously are mostly about winter dooks/plunges but actually open water swimming is great too. I've got a couple of spots in the river that make for perfect endless pools, swimming upstream on the spot against the current. Or cruising on a millpond flat loch where the only ripples are from your own efforts. Lovely.
Is it a case of just go, walk in slowly, stay in for a bit, come out and warm up?
Basically, yes it is just that.
But loads of good advice above eg ideally go with someone else etc. Summer would be the best time to start but if you are really keen just give it a try now. You don't even need to swim. Just wade in and let the water come up to where it covers certain "bits". Maybe go in a bit further. Maybe just stand for a minute or two and come back out. See how you feel. Next time go a bit further etc.
Personally it's one of the best things I've ever done. Started a few years ago (during lockdown, same as so many people) and now swim all year round. Trunks in summer, half wetsuit spring and autumn, full wetsuit in winter. Decent gloves and boots (Lomo ones are superb) essential for me though when it's colder.
I find it's as much, if not more, benefit to my mental health than physical. MrsKenny reckons I expend more calories getting in and out a wetsuit than I do swimming!! But the buzz is fantastic, both in the water and afterwards. Not sure why it is, but I get more of an "exercise high" from open water swimming than any other activity. Someone mentioned above about it not just being about swimming and I totally agree. I think it's the fact you are (quite literally) immersed in your surroundings. Pool swimming is great exercise, but open water is a totally different thing.
Oh and is it "wild swimming" or "open water swimming"? I tend to use the latter, but sometimes refer to wild swimming just because it's fun waiting for the inevitable "in my day it was just called swimming" remarks.
The cold water bit is what I'm interested in - cold showers are a lot different lol
Weird thing to call it then..... said DaveyBoyWonder
If you want open water *swimming* then probably you want a (swimming-specific) wetsuit (hat, gloves etc) and/or a generous layer of body fat and you might also want to start in the summer and see how long you can keep going when it gets chillier rather than trying now.
Or just move a long way south!
Our river is about 7 degrees at the moment which is decent for a good 20 minute proper swim. Bloody hard work against the flow currently but it keeps you warm.
If you want longer settings then spring through to autumn is great, most weeks i do at least a 2k swim
The bobble hat floaters tend to walk upstream and get in and float back, they seem to be in 10 minutes
Weird thing to call it then.
Well, lots of folk go "mountain biking" without being anywhere near a mountain.
Not my thing, but from my experience of dating apps it should be an excellent way to meet middle aged women in bobble hats.
I'd have too much anxiety about microturd concentrations to swim in most of the rivers or lakes in the UK these days. They all look quite dead compared to when I was a kid going fishing most weekends.
Right, quite fancy it due to stress/anxiety issues but shit at swimming!
What are you looking to get out of it?
If you are crap at swimming then going in the water is unlikely to help the stress levels (I might be biased since like jam-bo I have on occasion wild swam in rather interesting water when I have run out of paddling talent).
Instead going for a woodland walk might work better.
I would definitely wait for warmer water temperatures before trying to get into it as well.
If you are crap at swimming then going in the water is unlikely to help the stress levels (I might be biased since like jam-bo I have on occasion wild swam in rather interesting water when I have run out of paddling talent).<br />Instead going for a woodland walk might work better.
Jeesus man! It's not a woodland walk, it's forest bathing! Do try to keep up.
Quite a different therapeutic response, though it undoubtedly works for many.
Woodland walk doesn't cut the mustard!! Looking at drops in cortisol as a main one
Wild swimming isn’t about swimming
Weird thing to call it then.
It is swimming insofar as people are moving around in the water without touching the bottom or drowning. It is not swimming as in 1500m of freestyle with a wetsuit and a stroke rate.
I’d have too much anxiety about microturd concentrations to swim in most of the rivers or lakes in the UK these days. They all look quite dead compared to when I was a kid going fishing most weekends.
I don't know how old you are but rivers have improved a lot over the last 50 years or so. You can watch salmon jumping in the Taff, that's saying something.
Jeesus man! It’s not a woodland walk, it’s forest bathing! Do try to keep up.
What bobble-hat for Forest Bathing!? 🤔 🤣
If you don’t want to brave the rivers/lakes, there are a couple of unheated outdoor pools round here that do winter sessions with a lifeguard etc. Maybe just a Devon thing.
They are popping up everywhere now, several round Bedfordshire and cambs now
I was riding round the loch side path at Loch Lomond last winter. It was pitch black, I could barely feel my feet or hands - it was seriously cold. Some dude frightened me half to death as he emerged from the undergrowth in the middle of nowhere, wearing a pair of trunks and proceeded to get in the Loch. Insanity
As a whole, I'd put it somewhere on the list of things I'd rather do less than go road riding, or running
Ah, but when it's very, very cold the water is warmer than the air 😀
Start with the pool at hathersage in the winter. That was cold enough for me!
Well, Race Hub in Leicestershire have cancelled tomorrow's swim sessions as most of the access roads are flooded....
Listening to this:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2blzUjIYyAWPujEeM0EXyK?si=7vgaZbCOQjCuMD08tWTTcA
I don’t know how old you are but rivers have improved a lot over the last 50 years or so. You can watch salmon jumping in the Taff, that’s saying something.
It's probably my memory of more insects and wildlife generally then and maybe not accurate, and yes the Test was always full of Trout when I rode that way in recent years, rivers where folk pay a lot to fish. Smaller rural streams don't look too healthy in general though.
Been doing it for two years now since moving to the coast.
Last winter in wetsuit,this year in skins. Went last Thursday in pitch black!
Ah, but when it’s very, very cold the water is warmer than the air
I like that - fog and mist effects and no need to worry about tempering your raft.
https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/7655935
fog and mist effects and no need to worry about tempering your raft.
Last winter mrs_oab and I were cycling around Loch Voil. We were cruising along the loch shore in heavy fog.
And so surprised the skinny dipping wild swimming couple as they emerged....
She brazened it out to the dryrobe, he dipped back in. I assume to temper his raft some more....
If you are crap at swimming then going in the water is unlikely to help the stress levels
mmm... nah. As long as you're comfortable in the water (that you're not going to drown), the immersion is fabulous for stress, apparently immune response, etc. Plus if you get a sunny day it's just good for the soul floating about like an otter with the sun on your face.
Top tip though: take a hot water bottle along to help warm up afterwards!
Dr Rangan Chattergee, purvevor of dodgy vitamin suplements, managed to bore and piss me off before I got to the interview. I persisted and it started to get like an iDave fad diet thread. I then decided that going for a walk would be better for me than listening to another two hours of rambling multiply repeated bollocks or dunking myself in the nearby 5°C river. 🙂
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10066131/
I don’t know how old you are but rivers have improved a lot over the last 50 years or so. You can watch salmon jumping in the Taff, that’s saying something.
This is interesting. I grew up near the Tawe, which was a filthy, polluted river for most of my childhood, just like the Taff. Then it cleaned up - happens when the industry disappears - and I'd see mullet, salmon, sewin and even the odd seal in it. And then, sometime in the last 10-15 years it became one of the most polluted rivers in the UK again, just like the Taff which is ranked 20th worst. I can't remember that last time I saw a fish in the Tawe's lower section.
Used to do it in 90's but it was just called "swimming".
Not sure what's wild about it. Seems to be heavy set folks doing the breast stroke for 2 (max) taking lots of photos then banging on about mental health.
Used to do it in 90’s but it was just called “swimming”.
Nowt changed in my parlance over this.
But then I don't post on Instagram.
The water was cleaned up due to the EU clean water directives.
The water was filled with shit again due to the tories jumping at the chance to lower environmental standards.
(it started to get worse before brexit though, it wasn't just a sudden switch when we left.)
Saw this film about wild "ducking" at Kendal which was inspiring, but hasn't actually got me into the water -
Used to do it in 90’s but it was just called “swimming”.
Yeah, "Bingo"! Guess you didn't read the thread and find this comment pretty much redundant.
Used to do it in 90’s but it was just called “swimming”.
Not sure what’s wild about it.
It means not in the pool - you are in 'the wild' meaning not an environment managed for swimming. And probably surrounded by wildlife, at least the small kind.
As another who used to open water swim before I could afford a good swimming wet suit I had a totally unbiased and uninfluenced view of whether it was good for either my physical or mental well being. I can remember stopping in November 1989 in the Med because it had become a misserable experience that left me feeling wiped out rather than invigorated as I had when the water had been warmer. So at some temperature below 14°C (I didn't have a thermometer that's just typical for the time I stopped) the enthusiasm was replaced with dread, and the invigorating start to the day turned to feeling crap for a few hours. I was and still am around 65kg for 1m74 and lean, it ain't for everybody.
OP, just have a go. There are as many opinions about everything as there are in cycling. Wait till the weather and water warms up a bit, find some people to go with. I don't think you need any special kit, I swim all year round in just a bikini, no neoprene. No bobble hats. No instagram. Just get some swim shoes to protect your feet. More layers than you think you might need for after. There are so many hundreds and hundreds of beautiful places to swim in the UK, I've swum as far south as the Scillies and as far north as Achmelvich in the far North of scotland and many places in between, lakes, rivers, waterfalls. No need to be able to *swim* swim, just not drown. It's a whole, other, lovely world. This is somewhere in Pembrokeshire.
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Oh and is it “wild swimming” or “open water swimming”? I tend to use the latter, but sometimes refer to wild swimming just because it’s fun waiting for the inevitable “in my day it was just called swimming” remarks.
And right on cue a day later......
Used to do it in 90’s but it was just called “swimming”.
