A Convert To Wild Swimming

I was the person who went through entire family holidays staying pinned to my sun lounger and never once dipping my toe in the water of the swimming pool, so open water swimming was not the obvious choice for me!

When my close friend (who was fresh from a swim where they’d had to break the ice on entry!) suggested it might be something I’d like to try, I politely told her I’d join them in the New Year…adding the caveat that the water had to be into double figures.

I had a good run. It took until May before Caversham Lake hit the dizzy springtime heights of 11 degrees, and that was it. No more excuses. The next Sunday I was going in. Armed with the thickest Winter wetsuit eBay had to offer, my float and dry robe waiting for me, I took my first steps into the water on a countdown from 5 to 0. I’ve never experienced a fight or flight like it, but in I went. As the cold water filled the wetsuit I resisted the urge to panic and kept my breathing slow and steady. And within about 10 seconds I ceased to be cold and just felt really clam and empowered.

The first week I only swam to the first buoy and back (literally 40 meters), but surprising I couldn’t wait to get back in the water the next week and swim the full 400 meter course. By week 3 I was hooked and once the water was at around 16 degrees I ditched the wetsuit for a swimming costume and experienced the freedom of swimming in cold water in ‘skins’.

I find it hard to explain how the open water experience triggers the level of empowerment that it does. But it does. When you’ve walked into cold, dark water and swum, you go into your every life with a renewed sense of self belief. Couple that will a mixture of exhilaration, calm and a sense of achievement, and you’ve got the reason so many people are adding it into their lives.

This unlikely convert is utterly converted…

Fiona McLean