Wild swimming…anyone?

anyone do wild swimming.
in the early 90’s i did a fair few triathlons, and the open water swims were my fave.
i would love to do some open water swims again.

I swim in a lake three times a week at the moment… the early morning sessions are the best. Love it.

Need to rope some people in to start river swimming at some point…

I want to do it in the sea. But I’ve been told you need a wetsuit. I haven’t got one 🙁

Used to, a lot.. Really shoud do more.. There’s some lovely spots around here for it..

Hatchmere, Petty Pool etc 8)

On a nice hot day I enjoy going a way upriver, then swimming back to my start point. Not exactly hard swimming, but a great way to see the river. Where i used to live I had a great running route with a 500m loch swim half way.

yeti, do you wear a wet suit?
i still have my old shortie, and i might squeeze into it soon.

I have a proper triathlon wetsuit, and sometimes go open water swimming. Most interesting thing I can think of that I’ve done is swimming around St Catherine’s Island off Tenby (and with the tide through the arch in the middle).

Not really trendy enough to do wild swimming though.

Yeah I do… the lakes are warm enough to get away without one at the moment but I’m a bit of shit swimmer and the extra buoyancy in my legs helps. Especially when I’m cranking up the distance.

Not really trendy enough to do wild swimming though

Is there a difference between “Wild swimming” and “open water swimming”?
(Not that I care what it’s called!)

No..but always fancied it. I’m going to dig out my wetsuit and give it a go..

No there’s not DeBz… TBH I do open water swimming if asked, wild swimming seems a bit more vegan.

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I’ve only ever done it involuntary at work when i’ve fell in 🙂

No there’s not DeBz… TBH I do open water swimming if asked, wild swimming seems a bit more vegan.

IIRC it was just ‘swimming’ till that book came out. I always associate open water with competition of some sort, part of a tri or just the swimming bit.

Sea was 14C last week in Devon, but I still would have rather had a wetsuit to enjoy it properly.

‘wild swimming’ sounds like something you should do naked!

I jump in the Forth in my wetsuit now and again.

Great for clearing hangovers, and I keep thinking about triathlons.

I keep thinking about triathlons

Thinking is the key component to good training. Apparently.

Wild Swimming… Marketing cobblers.

I’ve been swimming in lakes, rivers and the sea for years, mostly just in my skids. Never bothered with a wetsuit, never had to give it a silly “lifestyle” brand-activity-name, never had to buy the gear, drink the kool-aid and say to a neighbour over the fence “oh yes, i’m a wild swimmer” while munching on my lifestyle-brand granola with lifestyle-brand skimmed milk. FFS…

Once upon a time it was just “swimming”, try getting back to it being that way.

</rant>

1st open water triathlon i did was the weardale one.
waskerley reservoir high up on the moors in co durham, i thought i was a big rufty tufty rugby player, ans that i would not need a wet suit.
how wrong was i.
i rubbed myself down with firey jack and off i went. everyone else was wearing a wetsuit.
the water temp and my body temp were so far apart, that every time i put my head in the water to swim i got a ice cream headache.
on leaving the water, i was in a right state…dizzy, shivering, throwing up.
i soon bought a wet suit…….. 😆

‘wild swimming’ sounds like something you should do naked!

Me, personally? 😉

Swim in the Thames on a hot day. Does that count? I also swim in the sea whenever possible. I save the wetsuit for surfing.

You just need fire in your belly like Pyro has Ton. 😆

Oh and Payne is about to compete in the 10k if anyone’s interested.

The Dr Alice Roberts documentary was on BBC4 the other night (this week) so should be available on iPlayer if you fancy having a gander.

I use my righteous indignation to good effect, Yeti 😉

I’ve been swimming in lakes, rivers and the sea for years, mostly just in my skids.

Well I do sometimes go in just my speedos, and prefer that given the choice, but a wetsuit does give more options in terms of where, when and how long (OK so I’ve been swimming in the nude on NYD, but didn’t stay in for long). The lake I used to train in regularly is actually a bit warm for a wetsuit at this time of year, though when I went there I was tri-training, so wore one until I took it off at the end to cool down.

With you on the rest though.

I’m with you though Pyro… when I was a kid we went swimming in the river, it was just that… swimming in a river.

I grew up on the coast, so most of my swimming as a youth was in the sea.

Still love it.

Never bothered with a wetsuit though (although I am tempted, I sometimes wear one for surfing and I tend to be more comfortable in the water for longer periods of time).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00t9r28/Wild_Swimming/

Speakertoanimals beat me to it….

We’re pampered. I grew up swimming in rivers and lakes in the Lake District. Only used a wettie when canoeing, never swimming. And then as an adult and after a few years of triathlon, its wetsuit only!!!

Cue a monty python sketch….

Skinny dipping in a mountain pool seems much closer to wild swimming, except it you are caught out and the water is cold!!!

Only used a wettie when canoeing, never swimming. And then as an adult and after a few years of triathlon, its wetsuit only!!!

You were lucky, when I was a lad we didn’t even have a canoe. We had to put our wetsuit on and drag ourselves through the water with the paddle.

Bah, a paddle? Luxury lad. We only had second canoe (£4 from my pocket money) with a hole in it and hands as paddles 😉

Wild Swimming? Hell yeah – I used to dog off school and cycle up to the Reservoir on my Singlespeed all the time (that term hadn’t been invented then either)

You got a paddle? You had it easy, we had to swim along naked, propelled only by flailing a slightly ripped and dubiously stained previously neon 5mm wetsuit… 😉

I’m crap at kayaking so spend more time wild / open water swimming than paddling…

Hands? HANDS? You lucky bastard! We didn’t have hands. We had to use a jet of spit to propel ourselves through the water, and we considered ourselves lucky.

At a certain OB establishment, the morning routine was a naked run down the jetty and dive in the Lake. Imagine that now!!

You’d probably be alright in the sea without a wetsuit if you’re doing short distances, particularly if you already have some natural insulation 😉 Would recommend just swimming along a beach rather than swimming out to sea to start with, means you can get out of trouble more easily. Swimming in a clean lake or river is hard to beat though.

We had to put our wetsuit on and drag ourselves through the water with the paddle.

A paddle? Luxury! When we were kids wetsuits weren’t invented and we used to have to walk to the bottom of the river, 10 feet under, find a rock for a paddle, walk back with the rock drown before hypothermia killed us…

Actually laughed out loud there. Cheers dj 🙂

Ton,

there are a few people who wild swim in the Wharfe just as you go over Harewood bridge towards Harrogate

I’ve swum in lots of places that are outside and are not pools since I could swim as a kid. Never though of it as wild swimming though.

However I have now learnt to swim properly and bought a tri wetsit so that rather than splashing about I can swim proper distances. Got a 1500m lake swim next week. Doubt it’ll be very wild apart from at the front of the pack with the keen racers when they start punching and pulling each other.