8 minute read
WILD SWIMMING
INTO THE WILD
by SOPHIE CLOWES
It is a rainy lunchtime on a school day. It is also May 2020, and the country is in tight lockdown. Our children are trying their best with school at home, as are we. We are all tired and fractious and it’s difficult to know quite how to arrange our thoughts, how to focus, how to be. So, we say to hell with it and go for a family swim in a downpour. In the Thames. We laugh and splash and shiver with unalloyed delight, retuning our senses and resetting our focus so we are ready for another afternoon of lonely grind.
A year later, no more than a week has gone by without one or more of us easing ourselves into the swirling water of a high tide and being taken downstream by the swooshing current, braving the cold in just our swimmers. A punctuation mark in the sentence of lockdown, we’ve swum against the flow, we’ve squealed at the cold, had a quick dip, gone miles, swum at dawn and dusk and all the daylight hours between, double dipped, made friends both human and feathered, watched the seasons change and felt the water temperature dip to 2.2°C from the 20+°C of the hot summer months. We have delighted in this pulsing watery artery that helps keep the heart of our wondrous capital beating fast.
LONDON SWIM SPOTS
Please respect and protect your swim environment and know that you enter at your own risk.
THE THAMES
We have never swum further east than Dove Pier or further west than Strand-on-the-Green. In normal times there are arranged swims from the Black Lion steps W6 (nowca.org). Please be aware that there are sewage dumps in the Thames. Information is available online and rivers users are advised to wait at least three tides for the pollution to clear.
THE SERPENTINE
royalparks.org.uk
HAMPSTEAD PONDS
cityoflondon.gov.uk
DOCKLANDS
loveopenwater.co.uk
HILLINGDON LIDO
better.org.co.uk
BROCKWELL LIDO
brockwelllido.com
PARK ROAD LIDO Crouch End
fusion-lifestyle.com
SHEPPERTON
sheppertonopenwaterswim.co.uk
HAMPTON
hamptonpool.co.uk
Photos:
p19 HAMPSTEAD PONDS Wikimedia Commons p20 BROCKWELL LIDO by Steve Cadman Swimming is many things to many people but of water should be shared, leaving people to draw more than anything else it is redemptive. There their own conclusions. is a time and a place for every type of swim, from Who owns the Thames? The Crown Estate a squad session in a chlorinated indoor pool owns the riverbed and leases most of it to to a floaty holiday dip in a warm, salty ocean. I the Port of London Authority (PLA) which is have tried them all, indeed searched for responsible for the foreshore right up to the swims wherever I have been in the high-water mark. And yes, just as rowing world. And yet, all this time one of boats, kayaks and SUPs can use it, the best pools has been right on so can swimmers, provided you do my doorstep and I didn’t know I ‘It is a physical and so at your own risk, taking every could go in, outside an official meditative practice precaution to keep safe. swim. Getting in the river is a simple with therapeutic Of course, swimming in the river is dangerous but, with a pleasure that is different every qualities.’ bit of knowledge, many of those single time. The tide and current dangers can be mitigated. We have generously swoosh us along, faster come up with our own set of family than I could go at full-stroke crawl. It’s swim rules, alongside those of the RNLI… a clearing of the mind, it’s physiological We always walk into the water from a set of experimenting, it’s discovering my steps or slipway, and we never go in without a body can adapt to withstand an ice swim (any swimming hat on and wearing a tow float. These water below 5°C, apparently), it’s soul food, both have personal practical benefits but, above it’s literally immersing ourselves in nature. It’s all, they show you are in the water deliberately family time – we usually swim breaststroke and are visible to other river users. We have and have had wonderful chats and laughs as we discovered that the best time to swim is either float along. It’s the slow familiarity of the tide side of high tide, in the direction of the tide. You times and the lunar cycle. It’s the unexpected must know your exact exit point before you get and welcome increase in constant core warmth in, plus a second one in case you miss the first out of the water. It’s the temporary stinging (we haven’t yet). Keep close to the bank, never cold, the visceral feel of the after-drop when it attempt to swim across the river and remember is as if icy water is slipping down your body’s it is your responsibility to ensure other river core – a not unpleasant feeling and one that is users know you are there. You should also know as surprising as it is fascinating, in a geeky way. the significance of the red and green buoys, and, Swimming in the river is also contradictory: therefore, which side of the river boats will be cleansing yet dirty-ish, cold-making yet glow- on. Rowers go backwards and, however silly you giving, exhausting yet energising. It reflects all think you sound shouting, “Look ahead, eight, the whirling variants of life. It is joy. swimmer!”, it’s going to be less awkward than
Is it allowed? Isn’t it too dangerous? Isn’t it being hit by an oar. I do swim alone, but I always too dirty? I have thought long and hard about have someone on the bank for reassurance. all of this and tend to keep quiet about our Tide times shift by about an hour each day swimming unless specifically asked. However, in and I find elemental comfort in following the this wonky year, when our health, emotions and waxing and waning of the moon and a slow finances have been buffeted like never before, I accrual of tidal knowledge. Swimming in the have come to the conclusion that the wonders river is a choice and with it you must choose to and restorative powers of this beautiful stretch politely sidestep the naysayers and, in my
case, the mansplainers. For that’s another joy of river swimming – it is there for everyone and is wonderfully equalizing. Which fits very neatly with a quote I found about equality itself, most notably used by JFK, “Equality is a rising tide that lifts all boats.” Oh, how I like that. ‘Ugh, it’s filthy!’ This is the one element that I waver on. Only once have I got in and thought that it wasn’t as clean as it should be. In reality, the water mostly feels cold and velvety and there is very little rubbish - it is fallen leaves or fishy tickles that make me jump.
What’s the worst that has happened? Well, I got out one day and felt a wriggling in my cleavage. I pulled my cossie away from my chest and found that I had actually caught a teeny tiny fish! Did I squeal? Of course I did! Did my children exit the river faster than ever? Yup! I flipped it out and it swam away…
We try not to put our heads under but on a hot sunny day we do. At a time of fear and uncertainty the ebb and flow of the river is a comforting salve, for nature continues on her merry way, changing her clothing with the seasons and the certainty that the blossom and green shoots will come again and that the ducklings and goslings will hatch is of great comfort.
Every swim is a little adventure that is full of beauty. Some days it’s choppy and feels like a sea swim, other days it’s like glass and you swim into the reflection. Often it feels like we slough off the day’s woes and come out of the river reborn in some way. There is something spiritual about being held by the water and there is thinking time on a swim. It is a physical and meditative practice with therapeutic qualities; less so with our children, of course, with whom it is a noisier, funnier affair. No two swims are ever the same, which in times of drudgery and monotony is an opportunistic pleasure that turns the ordinary into the extraordinary. You never regret a swim, especially a lunchtime one in the pouring rain.
KIT
TOW FLOAT
Try a 20l one from Swim Secure, swimsecure.co.uk
PHONE COVER swimsecure.co.uk
SHOES
For river swimming try Hot Tuna from Sports Direct
SWIM HAT
Get a bright-coloured silicone one. Or, for retro flower power, try Fine Saratoga on Etsy.
HAMMAM TOWEL
dar-leone.com bohemiadesign.co.uk
WETSUIT
For a swimming wetsuit go to a specialist shop:
Try Sigma Sports in Hampton Wick or Ocean Leisure at the bottom of Northumberland Avenue.
Good brands are Zone 3, Huub or Orca.
For growing kids, ask friends for hand-me-downs. Otherwise, C-Skins is an excellent make and will keep little bodies warm and buoyant. You can spend anything from £20 to £220, neither guaranteeing a suit that will last more than a summer but here’s where to look… Louise Mischa on en.smallable.com batoko.com deakinandblue.com davyj.org speedo.com supermarkets sports Direct
BOOKS & FILMS
Leap in by Alexandra Heminsley Her description of learning to breathe correctly in the water by watching her young nephew blowing raspberries with his food is technically spot on!
I Am An Island by Tamsin Calidas This is extremely raw but beautiful writing.
My Octopus Teacher this Oscar-winning documentary touches yet again on the redemptive power of cold water. And has an underwater chase scene to rival Bond.
@theoutdoorswimmingsociety @caldamac @lewis.pugh @gillymcarthur @ellachloeswims @hemmograms @lorrainecandy @winniepoaty @vivgroskop @kate_rew
