My Wild Swimming Journey: Discovering Joy in the Open Water

Everyone’s path to the water is unique.

How we ultimately chose to stand at the edge, looking out into the great deep blue of the ocean with its waves enticing us to plunge forwards. Or the gentle meandering river tinged emerald green by the depth of trees clustering its banks. We all have our individual tales.

You may not have started your swimbling life yet, but the thoughts may have drifted through your conscience more than a few times, as I imagine this is why you’ve ended up here?

My wild swimming journey is convoluted. Rather like so many adults, we’ve returned from dipping and swimming as children, some with relish, others more conservatively.

As a child I would fly into the baltic sea at Llandanwg in North Wales, snorkelling to see the sandy bottom, and performing hand stands holds until my lips went blue. Every Easter was the same, my swimming costume was the first thing to be packed.

I fell out of love with conventional sport swimming as a teenager. From failing to attain a place at my local swimming club, my confidence was knocked because I couldn’t front crawl well enough to join, even though breaststroke was my favourite by far.

This, along with the sadly typical teenage lack of confidence in my own skin (I felt incredibly uncomfortable in a swimming costume, and thought that because I didn’t look like the other girls who did swimming, I simply wasn’t good enough) then time in the water fell by the wayside.

So when I joined my university triathlon club, I had had quite a hiatus from swimming in general. My ability to swim any distances was non-existent, and I was back to being a full time beginner crawling up the edge of the slow lane.

Gradually my ability and confidence began to improve, and I started to spend time in open water for races and training. It was fun, neoprene-clad along with my friends as we attempted to trudge our way through the murky reservoirs outside Edinburgh.

But I think the moment that I came to realise that I preferred the joy of just being in the water, just for the sake of it, was on a girls trip to Northumberland - a close school friend had moved there, and we were exploring her local dip spots.

I had never really considered that I could just dip for the sake of dipping. In my head, there had always been a “fitness” purpose, racing or cool down, or practising skills. But now, it was different. We were exploring to find new places to go for a quick dip, or a gentle swim in a river.

And my mindset completely shifted.

I was finally accessing wild swimming for my mental wellbeing. I think I had been doing this to a smaller extent already, but by removing the fitness element in my mind, the goal simply became about the feel of the water on my body. The rush of the cold as I moved into its depths, and pure joy of the experience, however long or short it may be.

It takes me back to those heady childhood moments of running towards the sea. It wasn’t about improving or goal-chasing on those long Welsh beaches, it was about the pure joy of play in the water.

That’s what we can achieve as adults if we choose to try it - mental and physical release from this glorious cold rush.

It’s not necessarily for everyone. But it’s worth at least a try, right?