Take the plunge

Originally published in The Sunday Times Scotland, 24 September 2006

Outdoor swimming may be choppy, cold and sometimes scary, but once you get used to not being able to see the bottom it is intoxicating. And right now the sport is experiencing an unexpected surge of popularity

Brace yourself for a refreshing difference: open-water swimming may be chilly, but its far more rewarding than concrete and chlorine

David Walliams’s successful Channel crossing, Lewis Gordon Pugh’s record-breaking swim up the River Thames and the launch of the Outdoor Swimming Society have all contributed to a fresh enthusiasm for open-water swimming.

There is nothing new about the activity, of course. Oceans, rivers, pools and lochs have always been a source of recreation for Scots. But the number of hardy souls taking a chilly dip plummeted in the closing decades of the 20th century as people grew accustomed to heated swimming pools and warm-weather holidays.

Until recently the most famous open-water swimmers in Scotland were the daredevils who threw themselves into the Firth of Forth on New Year’s Day.

“In the late 1990s my river swimming club was thinking of giving up,” says Rob Fryer of the River and Lake Swimming Association, who has swum in most Scottish waters.

“The mood swing against swimming outdoors was so strong, we actually started to believe we were clinging to something that was just going to fade away. But in the past few years there has been a huge resurgence of interest.”

Fryer, who is currently compiling a guide to open-water swimming locations across Britain, says the explosion of interest is a reaction to the sterility of concrete and chlorine. “Taking a dip in open water is cheap, green and a lot more fun than a swimming pool,” he says.

Best of all, for anyone wishing they had tried it this summer, September is usually the warmest month in open water, particularly where it is relatively still and exposed to the sun.

The water in the margins of Perthshire’s big lochs is currently rising to about 20C, a temperature that even the most timid can plunge into without too much discomfort. You might even find small, hilltop pools where the water reaches 25C on sunny days. Coastal waters, however, are less like a tepid bath and more like a bracing plunge pool.

In Scotland the law looks kindly on those who seek recreation by full immersion. Scotland’s Land Reform Act of 2003, which grants the “right to roam”, also created significant rights of access to open water. You are free to swim in any of Scotland’s lochs and rivers except those used for the public water supply.

The 100 or so members of Ye Amphibious Ancients Bathing Association, based in Broughty Ferry, Dundee, use the wide expanse of the River Tay for their swimming practice. “Ever since the river has been cleaned up, more and more swimmers have felt confident about getting into the water,” says Joyce McIntosh, the association president.

The Phibbies, as they call themselves, are currently enjoying one of their best outdoor seasons. “It has been superb this year,” says McIntosh. “We’ve seen porpoises and dolphins. It is so much less boring than swimming in an indoor pool. And it’s easy. You can just go down to the water’s edge and wade in.”

Ease of access, however, does not minimise the potential dangers of open-water swimming. Like all outdoor adventure sports, it is unwise to throw yourself into it unless you know what you are doing.

Fry advises seeking out those with local knowledge before taking the plunge. “With experience you can learn to read the water, but until you can, finding those who have already swum somewhere is always the best idea. Glaswegians are tough and adventurous, I find, so whenever I can I always seek out the views of Glasgow residents to see where they go.”

Fry’s other safety tip is rather more down to earth. “I always carry a makeshift life buoy with me — 30ft of rope tied to a nearly empty plastic five-gallon petrol container makes a very handy life-saver and only costs a few quid.”

He suggests that swimming along the banks of rivers and lochs is safer than trying to swim across them. “The further you get into open water, the deeper it tends to be and the colder the water is. It is easy to go right to the middle of a loch and find that you are lot colder and more exhausted than you expected. That is when trouble starts.”

For some swimmers, variety and novelty are the spur.

I will trek high into the Cairngorm mountains in search of a river pool. I have swum across most of Britain’s main rivers and even splashed through the centre of one or two cities, such as Basel in Switzerland, where dozens of people take a daily dip in the Rhine, using its speeding current to venture through the centre and for several miles beyond.

For others, the appeal lies in travelling across the country in search of ever greater challenges. Last year, for example, the Dundonian Frank Chalmers joined the elite group of people who have successfully swum the English Channel.

“I was very lucky that when I was a boy one of my teachers was a member of Ye Amphibious Ancients Bathing Association,” he says. Chalmers completed all the club’s classic River Tay swims with the Phibbies, beginning in Monifieth, Balmerino or Woodhaven and returning to Broughty Ferry.

His interest was rekindled when, in his mid-forties, he discovered swimming holidays, organised by the travel company Swimtrek, which have taken him to the Inner Hebrides, the Greek islands, the Bosphorus in Turkey and the Scilly Isles.

Three years ago he decided to move up a gear and try a Channel swim. “Unlike a lot of physical challenges, such as climbing Everest, a Channel swim is as tough as it has ever been. It is a perfect leveller, in fact, because there is no equipment to make anything easier for you — just a cap, goggles and trunks.”

It took a year’s intensive training, ploughing up and down a 10-mile length of Lake Windermere in the Lake District, before Chalmers felt ready for the 21-mile crossing last August.

“In the event, it was the toughest thing I have ever done — 90% of the challenge is simply with your mind and the struggle to keep willing yourself on. By the time I climbed out of the water, I was sobbing with fatigue.”

Little wonder. The swim, which he started at 2am, took him 16 hours and 48 minutes, during which time he was not allowed to touch the side of the boat that accompanied him.

Although Chalmers has had little time for training since then, there is still a swimming challenge in his mind, but this time it is one that has been successfully completed by only nine people. “The North Channel is the swimming route between Scotland and Northern Ireland, but the difficulties with it make the English Channel look easy,” he says.

“You have to swim at night because of the number of jellyfish, and the tides are far more difficult.”

For those of a less athletic disposition, such a waterborne marathon seems hard to imagine. But for those who are happier swimming in marginal waters than feats of endurance, it is nice to know we are at least in the same water as those who are pushing the boundaries of physical achievement.

Get in the swim

Only strong swimmers should plunge into the water alone.

First timers are advised to swim as part of a group. Contact: www.river-swimming.co.uk or www.outdoorswimmingsociety.com. For Ye Amphibious Ancients Bathing Association, e-mail joyce.mcintosh@blueyonder.co.uk