The Outdoor Swimmers' Handbook: Collected Wisdom on the Art, Sport and Science of Outdoor Swimming

Product Information

Watch the premiere of Under the Surface, a documentary that follows swimmer Jim Read exploring acceptance after injury, men’s mental health, and what it means to be vulnerable as a man in the endurance swimming world People have always swum outdoors. In fact, the indoor pool is a modern invention - but in recent years, wild swimming has had a renaissance. Kate Rew is one of the people spearheading the revolution. In 2006, she set up The Outdoor Swimming Society (OSS), which has since expanded from 300 to over 100,000 members. It’s arguably the thought of that cold water that prevents people taking the plunge, especially on a cloudy day. But Kate has plenty of strategies for coping with the cold. Kate has several strategies for dealing with it. One of them is making sure you have someone swimming with you. Another is counting strokes, and focussing on the feeling of the water against her hands. I'm absolutely crap at cold. People expect, because I run the Outdoor Swimming Society, that I'm going to be tough as nails, so I find it really difficult to admit I need to get out when other people can stay in.” 2. You don't need lots of expensive kit For some dips, all you really need is a swimming costume! Photo: Liz Seabrook

The Outdoor Swimmers’ Book Bundle - Outdoor Swimming Society

Ready to try it out? Kate’s new book, The Outdoor Swimmers’ Handbook, contains decades of accumulated knowledge about planning a swim, understanding different water bodies, and acclimatising to the cold. She’s also given us her five top tips for getting started with outdoor swimming. 1. Coping with the cold Getting into the water slowly will help you acclimatise. Photo: Finisterre Microadventure. 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. It’s a very poetic kind of handbook, with beautiful community photography (thanks to all the contributors!) and illustrated field guides. 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.’ If you see crashing waves or unhealthy looking foam on top of a river, or currents swirling, then these are danger signals. Don’t make any assumptions that because it was okay the day before it's ok now,” she says.If you’re unwilling to drop a lot of money on a wetsuit, there’s always the option of using a wetsuit rental company to try out more expensive models, or to buy second-hand. 3. Be the type of swimmer you would like to be Kate: There are many varieties of swimming out there, from pottering about to long distance to adventure. The media narrative is that lots of people are swimming because of mental health, anxiety and depression, but a lot of swimmers do it just because they love it. If it’s good for you, I suspect it’s because you’re intrinsically drawn to doing it in the first place. If we do it just because it’s good for us I’m worried it’s giving it a utility or turning it into something for our material benefit. If we do that we’re missing the whole magic of it, which is to sink down into the planet, feel part of nature, completely connected and out of our normal mindsets. That’s not the story I’m hearing, but I’m so glad so many people have joined us, whatever the reason.” Do you have any advice for swimming alone, especially in the sea? I have been doing what writers do: playing secretary to the world, listening in, listening out and writing it all down,” she explains.

Outdoor Swimming 5 Tips for Getting Started with Outdoor Swimming

One of the best-kept secrets in Greece is its brown bear population! We speak to Callisto, a conservation NGO working in the Pindos Mountains, about the fascinating brown bears in Greece The Outdoor Swimmers Handbook is a really important, inspiring book, written by someone at the heart of the outdoor swimming movement that –– over the last fifteen years –– has encouraged millions of people to experience the wonders and friendships of Britain’s rivers, lakes and seas. Rew’s book combines hard-won, deeply researched information on how to swim safely and joyfully out-of-doors, with vivid first-hand accounts of swims in astonishing places and with remarkable people. The Handbook has a democratic purpose; to give anyone the confidence and the inspiration to begin to swim. This is a wonderful – in the old sense of that term – and joyful romp of a book. Roger Deakin would have approved. Dive in.”Owen Hayman is a horticulturist, member of the OSS Inland Access Group and founder of SOuP (Sheffield Outdoor Plungers). On insta: @owainhaeman. Learn how to handle the fear of deep water Many swimmers have a "fear of the deep", especially on dull days. Photo: Getty. There is a perception that you need lots of kit when getting started with wild swimming - in particular, the much maligned Dryrobe. This is not necessarily true.

The Outdoor Swimmers’ Handbook - Outdoor Swimming Society

Modern life has made many of us feel tamed and now we want to turn to swimming for rewilding. When swimming, we are not passively consuming the landscape, we are pulled into it, breeze flattening the water surface beneath our faces, warmth draining from our bare feet like colour leaches out of the landscape in the cold autumn light. We are there, damp from the clag by a tarn, underneath the belly of a swan as it takes off. We are part of the planet and all the elements again, in a place where moons wane, storms swell and life ebbs and flows throughout the seasons. If it's your first plunge, do what you feel comfortable with. It really does depend on your biology, the exact temperature of the water, the air temperature,” Kate says. Night Swimming’ is a love letter to “the hour of the day when colours fall out of the world, day slips into the water, and a rich inky-blue night slides in, bringing with it a stillness, a quietness.” From practical pointers - such as how to be more visible in the water to poetic descriptions of moon bathing and bioluminescence, it’s pretty much guaranteed to inspire you to hit the water after dark. Kate Rew started The Outdoor Swimming Society in 2006 at a time entering open water for fun was considered dangerously left-field: dirty, dangerous, and possibly illegal. Freshly passionate about swimming, she started taking other people swimming, who in turn took other people swimming.. and along the way learnt a lot about water, and set up some of the most iconic swim events in the country (the Dart10k, the Bantham Swoosh and the Hurly Burly). 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. Dive into the wonders of the popular nature-meets-wellbeing sport with Kate as she brings together the art, sport and science of being an outdoor swimmer and shares everything you need to know to enjoy swims in the wild.Kate is keen to stress the fact that outdoor swimming isn’t a risk-free activity, and the risk is determined predominantly by the level of knowledge and ability of the swimmer. The United Kingdom is not renowned for its sunny weather, which means that outdoor swimmers are going to be immersing themselves in cold water for most of the year. 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 Outdoor Swimmers’ Handbook - Guernsey Literary Festival The Outdoor Swimmers’ Handbook - Guernsey Literary Festival

This includes making the choice of how many people you would like to swim with. Although much of the media coverage of wild swimming shows large groups of people, it’s perfectly okay if you prefer going out alone, or with one other person. Safety is a relative term. If you can’t swim, everywhere that’s out of your depth is unsafe,” she says.

COMMUNITY

The Outdoor Swimmers’ Handbook Hot tubs, shared joy and gritty executions: this extract charts 16 years of OSS history and knowledge Through her profound creativity and enthusiasm, Rew’s efforts and publications have literally encouraged, guided, and inspired millions of people – first starting in the UK and then expanding globally – to take to the open water. Finding 300 people with the same desire to swim In. A. Lake. drew gasps of surprise and column inches from everywhere in Britain,” she writes in her new book The Outdoor Swimmers’ Handbook, describing one of the society's first events at Windermere. What drives all this? Passion. Almost by definition outdoor swimmers are both fiercely independent and free-spirited, so making a community out of ourselves is somewhat of a challenge. We are a society of people who don’t follow, a tribe of non-joiners, but one thing many of us share alongside a love of water is the desire to share our finds, questions and experiences. 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.