Or, the further you are from hypothermia you are when you get in, the further you are from hypothermia when you get out. Habituation to cold water is something that takes quite a long time, it can take a few swims or weeks and months. But if we narrow it down to a safety perspective, I think it’s a bit of a myth that you’re necessarily safer if you’re swimming with someone. Choose somewhere easy to get in and then back out is important, especially in the winter when getting in might be ok but getting out onto a stony surface can be horrible. It will stay with me, as will the finish party we organised for adventurer Ross Edgley after he swam around the coast of Britain in 2018.

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I try to keep my thoughts on the surface of the water, and tow floats can be quite useful as they’re so resolutely on the surface and that brings your imagination back up.Kate Rew is the founder of the Outdoor Swimming Society and has established three iconic open water events - Dart10K, Swoosh and Hurly Burly - and spearheaded an international resurgence in swimming outdoors.

The Outdoor Swimmers’ Handbook - Outdoor Swimming Society

At this point he had averaged over twelve hours of swimming a day for 157 days without, as far as we knew, grumbling once. Outdoor swimming, she explains, is a largely oral tradition, with one person passing on their knowledge and expertise to another. I’ve been trying to work on building up my internal fire before getting in and I have a new qigong routine to help with that.

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.

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Through the lenses of community, the environment and mental health, Toes in the Water is a collection of inspiring stories exploring why the underwater world can have such a profound impact on people.I look at the early days of the OSS and a lot of it was leading people to the riverbank who didn’t know they would be swimming that day and they went in semi-clothed. Understanding Seas’ is a particularly useful chapter - Kate breaks down different types of waves and explains why and how they form. If it’s somewhere that could handle a lot of footfall, great, tell people, but if not then consider maybe not telling as many people. There is this statistic of only 3% of inland water being legally accessible, which is a bit questionable. So many swimmers have helped create this movement and form and articulate this knowledge over the years – may it help make water accessible to millions more.

The Outdoor Swimmers’ Book Bundle - Outdoor Swimming Society

Our co-founder Guy Bowden rides the definitive self-supported bike race across Europe, from drizzly Belgium to fiery Greece. 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. 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. In 2006, she set up The Outdoor Swimming Society (OSS), which has since expanded from 300 to over 100,000 members. I am super excited to have been able to group it all together in what I hope is a really accessible, beautiful fun to read book.

Hafsa Mughal went from complete beginner to English Channel relay swimmer, all in the space of five months. Cold is an adverse condition for humans; it hurts, it’s the opposite of what we spend our modern lives doing (getting comfortable). As Kate explains in The Outdoor Swimmers’ Handbook, “British outdoor swimmers have to embrace 12 to 16°C as their home territory - from May to October, this is the river temperature in the UK. The Handbook has a democratic purpose; to give anyone the confidence and the inspiration to begin to swim.