Different strokes: open-water swimming takes the UK by storm

As amateur swimmers prepare for the trailblazing open-water mass marathon that is the 10km swim down the river Dart, pioneers of outdoor swimming are reflecting on how far they have come.

With more than 170 events each year, open-water swimming has become a pursuit enjoyed by tens of thousands in the UK. This September, 1,600 men and women will take part in the river Dart swim in Devon – double the number of participants in the Outdoor Swimming Society’s 2014 event. Across the UK, record numbers of swimmers have joined every event in the 2015 season.

“The first mass open-water swim we organised was in 2006 – a mile swim round Windermere,” said Kate Rew, founder of the Outdoor Swimming Society, which celebrates its 10th anniversary next year. “We went round an island and stopped there for hot chocolate. Today, with people swimming much greater distances, one mile doesn’t seem very much, but, at the time, these people felt like brave pioneers. Now the numbers of people taking part are in the tens of thousands.”

Every summer brings warnings of the dangers of taking to the open seas or lakes, and cases of people drowning, but more and more people – most from their late 30s and into their 80s – across the UK are safely moving from swimming pools into open water, be it lakes, rivers or oceans.

Two years after Rew and her colleagues came up with what seemed a madcap swim around a chilly lake, British swimmers Keri-Anne Payne and Cassie Patten took silver and bronze medals in the Beijing Olympics outdoor swimming marathon, the first time the sport had been included in the Games.

“That was a turning point, I think,” said Philippa Morrow, of the Great Swim series, which runs five open-water events throughout the year. “Keri-Anne and Cassie were very media friendly, and everyone who watched saw what a gruelling swim it was in China. It was the concept that people are in the water for that length of time – it struck people.”

In the same year that Payne and Patten stood on the Olympic medal podium, Great Swim ran its first event, taking over where the Outdoor Swimming Society left off, with a mass swim in Windermere; 3,000 people took part. This year, more than 20,000 people registered for its five events: Loch Lomond in Scotland, Windermere, Manchester, Suffolk and the Royal Docks in London. Next year the series will include, for the first time, a 10km marathon in Windermere, with places all but selling out within a few days of being advertised. Figures from Great Swim series reflect the growing popularity of open-water swimming among all ages, with women making up 52% of participants in the 2014 series.

“This kind of swimming seems to attract a lot of women, and an older demographic, from those in their late 30s to people in their 50s, 60s and 70s,” said Morrow. “We have women in their 60s breaststroking round the course, it’s a very varied audience and we have been amazed and really heartened that people want to take on longer and longer distances.”

Susan Gardner, a mother of three, has recently taken up outdoor swimming, after not dipping her foot into the water for nearly 30 years. She will take part in the river Dart swim in September for the second year, spending about three hours in the brackish water.

“I absolutely love it,” she said. “I am 45, I am carrying a few extra pounds, and I love the fact I can turn up and take part with a whole lot of people who are having fun. There is a great vibe, it’s like a festival in the water.

“I started swimming outdoors about a year ago, and now I swim throughout the winter with a wetsuit, gloves and boots. There is nothing like it.”

Another newcomer, Dave Batchelor, a printer, could not swim properly until last year. After taking lessons in a pool, he took to the sea off his home city of Brighton on Boxing Day, and has taken part in 3km and 5km events this summer, as well as the 14km Henley bridge to bridge on 9 August.

“I’m a nearly 52-year-old bloke who likes a beer and the odd fag and am by no definition an athlete, but when I started swimming outdoors I felt like a real adventurer,” he said. “What I like about it is the way you step off the shore and leave all the everyday rubbish of your life behind and totally immerse yourself. And I swim with friends, so it’s a shared experience.”

As the sport has grown, so has the organisation around it, and the commercial opportunities, with lakes across the country opening up and charging for lifeguarded courses to train in; for some, the antithesis of what wild swimming should be about.

“My concern is that, with all these organised swims that are taking place, the whole thing has just got a bit too organised, and it takes away from the spontaneity of stepping into the wild,” said 65-year-old Barry Hall, who swims near his home in Southend-on-Sea with the Chalkwell Redcaps, one of the biggest outdoor swimming clubs in the country.

Rew agrees. “It’s already happening to a degree, people are opening up lakes and charging £7 to go round a course with big inflatable buoys marking the way which is all so far away from the kind of swimming I like,” she said.

“But I remain optimistic that the increase in popularity will lead to more free wild swimming and greater access to waterways in the same way walkers and climbers have increased access to a lot of the land, so you will still be able to find places to go and swim across the country, but you shouldn’t expect to face someone who charges you entry.”

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