How to swim in the sea.

This is a question I see popping up on social media regularly, especially this year when we are all looking for … well what? Something different perhaps. Some relief. Some adventure. Some change. Some risk? 

It’s such a simple and straightforward question.  

‘I want to start open water swimming, but I don’t know how’. 

In my head I respond, ‘Ah for God’s sake, just get in!’ I haven’t typed that back, but it’s what my mind says until I think back to how I did it. So here goes: 

As an adult I swam mostly in indoor pools or a lido perhaps. I swam in the sea, but only on holidays abroad. When I was little, I would swim in lakes and rivers too, the cold didn’t matter, I loved water and I loved swimming. Always have. My birthday parties would mostly be at the local baths.  

As I got older, I would go into the sea, perhaps up to my knees, just to haul out wet kids. Mine were always the ones that fell in, fully dressed mostly, in the North Sea, in January, with no spare set of clothes. Taken home naked (dog blanket wrapped perhaps) in the back of the car, once with a soggy 3-year-old, requesting a trip to Mac Donald’s en-route, chuckling ‘We’ll have to go drive-through, nobody wants to see me naked!’

I moved to the South West with its warmer climate, here I often went to the beach with my kids. I took my swimming cossie but didn’t really go in – maybe a few times in the summer. One summer, I was sitting with my cossie still in the bag wondering if I should do it, when a family of 8 arrived. From baby to granny, they proceeded to immediately strip off and get in the sea. All of them. No qualms. No messing. I thought ‘that’s the way you do it’. Ta daaah! You just do it. 

I joined some wild swimming Facebook groups and watched for a while and became a brilliant, knowledgeable ‘virtual wild swimmer’. There are so many of these! I had all my questions answered which were, as I remember:  

• What do I do with my keys/phone/money?
• Will someone nick my clothes?
• What’s happening with the tide, will I get swept out to sea?
• How do I get dressed without everyone seeing my bottom?
• Will I get hurt, bitten or stung? 
• Is it too cold for me to be able to cope?

With the supporting thoughts – ever helpful in my mind – telling me: 

• Everyone will think I’m ridiculous.
• I’ll look stupid and what if I can’t do it?

Anyway, I did it. I found a small group and joined them. We swam in the sea every week. From summer to autumn and then autumn turned winter. We found ourselves swimming into December and January. Not just dunking, swimming!  We had on just swimming costumes and swim hats, cheap beach shoes for the pebbles and some wore gloves. I tried my husband’s long-sleeve compression top and a rash vest for a bit of warmth. Every week we got in and laughed about it, then turned up again the following week, and the next and the next. These are my swimmy friends, I’m delighted to have these folks in my life. 

You can paddle and stay in your depth. 

You can race out, heads-down crawl around the buoys. 

You can adventure out around the corner to the next bay.

You can heads-up breaststroke and watch the waves.

You can lie on your back and look at the sky.  

You can swim in the moonlight, at sunrise and at sunset. 

You can do it in silence or hoot with your friends. 

There are so many different types of swims. You can do it for fitness, for company, for your mental health, for the challenge, to be in nature, for pain relief or simply to relieve boredom or just because you can. 

Take it seriously and plan. Look after yourself and go with others. Cold water swimming at this time of year (December) is not something you should just throw yourself into (figuratively and literally!). I would recommend starting your swimmy adventures in the summer if you can. 

Check out the great advice at https://www.outdoorswimmingsociety.com

You can listen here if you prefer.