Get Wetsuit-Ready for Spring
The water is cold and clear. The season starts when you decide it does. Before your first outdoor swim of the year, it pays to get the kit sorted and the plan made. These guides cover everything from where to find open water to how to get in on that first cold morning. Read them. Then go.
Wild Swimming Guide: everything you need to know
Wild swimming is one of our favourite ways to be brave, get in touch with nature and reset. If you...
10 Tips for Outdoor Swimming Safety
Outdoor swimming is more popular than ever these days! More and more of us are re-discovering the child-like joy of...
In Pursuit of a Perfect Outdoor Swim
Alpkiteer Kate Rew is the Founder of The Outdoor Swimming Society and author of a new handbook that will help...
Outdoor Swimming Guide Book edited by Kathy Rogers
What you are about to read is an exclusive article from 'The Outdoor Swimming Guide Book' edited by Kathy Rogers...
Where Can I Go Wild Swimming?: Essential Guide for Swim
Where can you go wild swimming near you? How far will you have to travel to find water you are...
How To Get Into Cold Water: Complete Step-by-Step Guide
Cold water - how do you get in? Why do you do it? Is there any way to make it...
Choose the Right Wetsuit
A wetsuit designed for swimming makes a real difference. More flexibility through the shoulders, better buoyancy, a cut that works in the water rather than against you. These guides cover what to look for when choosing a wetsuit, how to get the fit right and how to keep it in good shape for seasons to come.
Why You Need a Wetsuit Designed for Swimming
We’ve two new outdoor swimming wetsuits on the way to compliment the existing Loticwetsuit. First up is the Terrapin which...
Outdoor Swimming Wetsuits That Perform
We've been swimming in the outdoors since before we can remember. We delight in a dip when hiking in the...
How to Put On a Wetsuit for Outdoor Swimming
Swim longer. Swim in colder waters. Swim faster. What do you need? The right wetsuit. Our wetsuit range is designed...
Care Guide: How To Look After Your Swimming Wetsuit
The better you look after your wetsuit, the longer and happier a life it will lead. Here’s how to keep...
What you should wear when open water swimming
As wild swimmers, we know that feeling of diving into refreshingly cool waters on a warm summer day. As the...
The Story Behind Yulex, Tarka and Straven Swimsuits
There’s a moment, standing at the edge of a cold-water tarn or winding river, when everything else fades away. No...
The Swimmer's Kit Bag
The wetsuit gets you in the water. Everything else makes it better. Swimwear, nutrition, accessories that earn their place on every swim. This section covers the kit that rounds out a proper open water setup: from what to eat before a cold water swim to the swimwear designed to carry you from spring through to summer.
Outdoor Swimming Gifts: Expert Picks with Kate Rew
When it comes to understanding the essentials of wild swimming, few voices carry more weight than Kate Rew. As founder...
Alpkit Healthy Cold Breakfast Recipe
Tune out by dropping in. Instant rewilding available at a mountain lake near you. woman swimming in mountain lake From...
Cold Rush: Your Guide to Winter Wild Swimming
A massive surge of adrenaline. An instant feeling of being completely and utterly alive. And the most amazing buzz that...
Why we use Econyl ® in our swimwear
We swim to reconnect. With the cold clarity of open water, with the rhythm of our breath, and with something...
Simon Griffiths on the Joy of Open Water Swimming
Simon Griffiths is the founder of Outdoor Swimmer magazine. He lives and breathes swimming. In the pool, training for triathlons...
A Treasured Outdoor Moment - The joy of swimming together
A Treasured Outdoor Moment - Rachel Knight Myself and two friends have been completing a "Dip a Day in December"...
Where to Swim This Spring
Finding good water is its own skill. This section is about access: where to go, how to find spots that feel like your own discovery, and the bigger question of who has the right to swim in UK open water. From Highland lochs to the tarns of the Lake District, the right spot is out there. Start here.
Go Wild Swimming and the Kinder Trespass
Alpkiteer and founder of The Outdoor Swimming Society, Kate Rew, tells us about the recent trespass swim in Kinder Reservoir....
Wild Waters by Susanne Masters
You're reading an extract from Wild Waters by Susanne Masters. "Life isn’t spread homogenously across our planet. Even within the...
Iconic wild swims
Author of Swimming Wild in the Lake District Suzanna Cruickshank shares her favourite iconic swimming locations. The mere use of...
Harris light and wild swimming
Many thanks to Andrew who sent Hathersage Ben a virtual postcard from Scotland.. Hi Ben We met at Shaff, you...
The Highlands
'So what is it we’re actually doing?’ I asked. Our week to the Highlands was getting close and thoughts were...
Wild swimming in mountain lakes and tarns
Are you ready to add a splash of adventure to your outdoor activities? If you’re captivated by the charm of...
Big Swims and Swimrun
Some swimmers go further. A lot further. Project Big Swim. The Dart 10k. The Moskstraumen, the world's biggest whirlpool. And then there's swimrun: run out of the water, over the hills and back in again. This section is for the athletes and the dreamers. Read it for inspiration. Then plan something.
Project Big Swim
There's no point in hiding what #ProjectBigSwim is, so I'll tell you the tale of how the idea came about....
The Wild Swimming Brothers plan to swim the biggest whirlpool in the world
Calum Hudson of the Wild Swimming Brothers takes up the story. "Fear has a way of sharpening the senses and...
Lindsey Cole's 2019 Dart 10k outdoor swim
There wasn’t a soul in the high street as I strolled through Totnes under the soft pink hues of the...
Lampay Island Circumnavigation
25 swimmers of mixed abilty, but of equal adventureousness, made a journey to the Isle of Skye for one of...
35 minutes swimming in the Irish Sea
35 minutes in the Irish Sea, water 8°C, air the same. Nice and cosy in my new Silvertip, astonished at...
Swimming the worlds two largest whirlpools
The Moskstraumen Maelstrom, steeped in folklore and mentioned by Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville and Jules Verne. is it really...
Stories from the Community
These are the swimmers who kept going when it got cold. Who found their way to the water by accident and couldn't imagine life without it. Odes, confessions, accounts of swims that changed something. Whatever your entry point to open water, there's a story here that will resonate.
An ode to Outdoor Swimming
Wild swimming is a release, a distraction, an addiction, a cure. I started swimming regularly once I began working for...
From Summer Dips to Winter Plunges: Steph's Journey into Wild Swimming
I’ve been outdoor swimming for around a decade – when I lived in Canada for a few years, it was...
Hydrotherapy! Escape and Inspiration in cold water
Laura Owen Sanderson has overcome a life changing illness through wild swimming and found a greater connection to the natural...
Outdoor Swimming for Two
I’ve always had a strong affinity with water. As a youngster I was a keen club swimmer and spent many...
Sink or swim
Swimming is something I have always thought of as a necessity should I ever have to survive falling overboard. As...
With new eyes
The idea of conquering fear suggests that a fear that was once felt, irrational or not, is somehow destroyed or...