Why call it this? Why not just call it what it is, i.e…. swimming? Are self-professed "wild swimmers" a bit like water-based fakengers? 😕

(*dinnae get me wrong… much like cycling, I'm all for anything that gets people jumping into lakes/rivers…).

Because it differ's majorly from most ppl's experience of swimming, which is normally a nice warm swimming pool.
Wild swimming by implication involves risk and is normally bloody cold (going by reports I've heard on the radio lately & experiences of quarry swimming)

When you talk about mtb-ing do you say you go 'cycling' and leave it at that?

It's becase in the world of swimming generally, people swim in pools.

The same as if you ride an exercise bike, you say that you rode an exercise bike, not that you went on a bike ride, because the default there is to do it outside.

Joe

Wild swimming by implication involves risk and is normally bloody cold

But, even as kid, this is what swimming meant to me….

But, even as kid, this is what swimming meant to me..

What, so if someone says to you

"I'm a member of a swimming club"
or
"I go swimming every day before work"

you'd assume they were doing it in a river?

Personally, I agree that it shouldn't be the case, it should be that if you say you're going for a swim, people assume you mean outdoors, but given most people seem to do only 'turbo trainer' type indoor swimming, the different phrase is used for the one which is odd.

Joe

p.s. It isn't usually that cold in summer. Pools are too hot though – you get sweaty swimming hard in them, which just isn't right.

If as a kid someone said "are you coming swimming" I would have assumed the river

I agree the default is a swimming pool. "Wild" is rather over-hyped though if all you're doing is swimming in a lake or the sea (or even down a non-whitewater river). I do plenty of "wild" swimming by their definition, but would be embarrassed to call it that.

I guess the term just annoys me… it's an unnecessary label for a simple peasure. I recently heard some trendy type harp on about spending a week "wild swimming" in Wales, and it made me want to push him into the nearest body of water.

I can understand how the label can annoy you. But it does appear to be quite good fun. I picked up a book called 'Wild Swimming' which has some stunning places to go for a swim listed in it.

I am quite addicted…

I agree the default is a swimming pool. "Wild" is rather over-hyped though if all you're doing is swimming in a lake or the sea (or even down a non-whitewater river). I do plenty of "wild" swimming by their definition, but would be embarrassed to call it that.

Yeah true. White-water swimming is awesome though, you should try it (I'd only swim a grade 2 or 3 canoeing river though). When we had all the rains, I swum a section of our local river that is usually too shallow – it was a foot up from normal, and you could just get through without too many scrapes on the rocks. The feeling of no return as you swim into the main channel, commit yourself to it and the river catches you is awesome.

I also swum in some rivers in the Dolomites too – that was cool, very strong currents, but wide and shallow, so it was easy to break out of the current when you wanted to go back up.

Oh and I've swum in bits of the Spey too, although that is a Grade 1 or easy grade 2 at most.

Swimming in the sea can be pretty extreme too, when you've got anything over about 4 foot of swell it always seems like a good laugh.

I think though that the phrase 'wild swimming' is meant to be more about wild in the scenery sense of things, as in getting close to nature and seeing it / being a part of it, rather that wild in the crazy / extreme sense. At least that's the idea I get from the Daniel Start & Roger Deakin books. Which makes sense.

Joe

I picked up a book called 'Wild Swimming' which has some stunning places to go for a swim listed in it.

I don't have a problem with the book, as such. And there have been some nice articles, along the same lines… I just can't stand the packaged language.

But maybe I should just get a life. 😀

edited to add: Roger Deakin, much missed.

White-water swimming is awesome though, you should try it

I have – mostly unintentionally 😉

isn't it normaly called open water swimming?

Gravel pits are suprisingly warm in summer, went to one in germany and it was the perfect temperture for a fast swim, felt more bouyant too, although that could just be because you dont feel the need to swim down to the bottom (becasue it's a lot further away) like you do in a pool.

What about freeswimming? You could probably sell all sorts of special goggles and reinforced trunks for it.

And yes, Roger Deakin is fantastic. Robert Macfarlane's The Wild Places is also good.

I have – mostly unintentionally

You know, paddling is how I got into river swimming. Doing white-water rescue training, I discovered how much fun it is to be the rescuee, and thought that it might be nice to do that on purpose sometimes!

Joe

"Wild swimming" is what I grew up calling swimming too, I don't know where all these self proclaimed wild swimmers are though, Swamp girl and I are pretty enthusiastic and its extremely rare to meet anyone else doing it.

I also get irritated by the people who feel the need to use the term because its fashionable. Having to go to Wales to do it is a laugh too, nice scenery, but there are plenty of nice gravel pits etc. round here in the Home Counties. Not to miss out the Thames, lowest point swum in so far is Hampton Court. [If you live on Thames Ditton Island and pulled back the curtains in the morning to find a bum print on the picture window, it wasn't me, honest]

Its nearly as bad as using "extreme" for anything vaguely beyond main stream sport just because it gives a [usually] safe buzz to people who have no real excitement in their over regulated lives. Some of it does seem to be about marketing, how long will it be before Berghaus, Karrimor et al start marketing a range of lifestyle products for wild swimmers? [Corroded – beat me to it]

Why "Mountain" Biking when most on here ride around home counties country parks on bicycles.

😉

It's not a term that particularly bothers me, but there's plenty of similar ones that make me incandescent with rage, so I wholehartedly support your stance 🙂

I also get irritated by the people who feel the need to use the term because its fashionable. Having to go to Wales to do it is a laugh too, nice scenery, but there are plenty of nice gravel pits etc. round here in the Home Counties. Not to miss out the Thames, lowest point swum in so far is Hampton Court. [If you live on Thames Ditton Island and pulled back the curtains in the morning to find a bum print on the picture window, it wasn't me, honest]

Hah, I've swum at Eel Pie Island in Twickenham – that's lower down*. A nice little swim, although watch the tide, it can be a right hassle if it is going the wrong way. I've also swum at Chertsey (nice enough beach, although it is a bit busy with boats sometimes), and Penton Hook Island (you can swim in the weir outflow – not too close to it obviously, but 50 metres down from it, you get a great current pulling you round past the marina, and then you can get out and wander across the island back again, or battle back against the current if you want the exercise). Oh and a few points higher than that (up Maidenhead way) as a kid.

Having done some swimming in Wales, they do have some lovely little fast flowing rivers and waterfall pools to swim in, and some very very beautiful lakes, it's is a very different thing to going swimming in Heron Lake down by the M25. Same goes for Alpine lakes and things. The water may be the same, but the scenery does make it a bit different.

Joe

*and also probably illegal – I think the Port of London authority ban swimming in the tidal Thames.

"Wild swimming" is what I grew up calling swimming too, I don't know where all these self proclaimed wild swimmers are though, Swamp girl and I are pretty enthusiastic and its extremely rare to meet anyone else doing it.

I can safely say that they aren't in the Peak District (at least never are when I'm swimming).

I got cornered by a hippy at a camping site recently who tried to tell me all about how they really wanted to try "this wild swimming, man" and how it was " really unconventional because it's like in rivers and stuff"

I’m still struggling to separate and establish whether my rage came from their attitude, the fact they were an unwashed sponger who turned up at the camp and then went from tent to tent asking for “a bit of food” or just the bizarre sheep like buying into a repackaging of swimming.

I might try wild walking next week, it’s like walking but you do it through puddles and sometimes it rains…..

FFS!

I’m still struggling to separate and establish whether my rage came from …….

Yeah, I struggling to establish where your "rage" came from too.

It'll be the hippies Ernie, I would imagine.

Also, this might not be obvious, but "wild swimming" as a term is also used to differentiate it from "open water swimming", which (within competitive swimming circles) usually refers to swimming races that are held outdoors. I guess wild swimming is meant to emphasise the going out and seeing nature part of it, rather than just seeing "open water" as a slightly bumpier pool where you don't have to turn round so often.

It is nice that it is getting fashionable, maybe there will be more adults swimming outdoors, and less places being shut off / less hassle from people who own / manage land about swimming.

Joe

Whilst reading this forum, I'm doing a bit of danger sitting, whilst thinking about a spot of extreme scratching.

I'm just taking a break from wild C++ coding (no safety net).

Its super gnarly sweetism at its best.

Of course the MTB (have you ridden on a proper mountain recently?)world is hardly free from such hyping-up.

It'll be the hippies Ernie

Wow……….. all they want to do is spread a little love, peace, and happiness in the world.
And yet, they instil an enormous feeling of rage in Practical Matt. That's very sad 🙁

I'd never heard this expression. To my ears it sounds like the equivalent of someone saying "I'm going extreme cycling this weekend". Ah well. 🙂

it sounds like the equivalent of someone saying "I'm going extreme cycling this weekend"

Or…….. "singletrack"

WTF is that about ?

………. you "get off your bike" if there's room for two bikes ? 😕

Re Hippy, sorry I should have said Dreadlocked Freeloader, I've no probelm with those who spread the love and try to live in an idealistic society of mutual respect, good luck to them.

This guy was just an idiot stoner who begged for food all evening and then tried to light a fire using fence posts and green wood before trying to get people to give him a lift home the next day as he hadn't realised that the busses might not run frequently in the country on a sunday… oh and he didn't actually have a tent either he expected strangers to share the love and let him sleep in theirs with them.

I think the wild swimming comments were the icing on the cake or the thin end of the wedge

Do any of you have a better phrase to describe swimming in rivers, lakes and the sea, that captures the idea of it being about the scenery rather than competition (ruling out "open water swimming", and makes it clear that it is outside (ruling out just "swimming")?

I like "proper swimming", but it can be a bit contentious!

Joe

free swimming?

organic free-range schwimming?

Proper sounds ok but perhaps the answer is stick with "swimming" and refer to swimming in pools etc. as "artificial swimming"

BTW there is a firm that will build you a natural swimming pool if you have enough space. Its basically a pond with a selection of vegetation that keeps it all clean. IIRC it doesn't even need a circulation pump.

Joe – I'll concede to you on downstream in the Thames but have swum way upstream at Lechlade, where its not much more than a big brook.

Why rule out 'swimming'? Does it need anything more than that, unless of course the extra bit is there so that people ask "whats that" and then a person can launch into some pre–prepared speech to show how at one with nature they really are and uber special?

I 'go out on my bike' rather than 'go mtbing' and when I was at boarding school we would go swimming, in the lakes or in the pool, all the same really.

refer to swimming in pools etc. as "artificial swimming"

In which case "real swimming" for not in pools!

Do any of you have a better phrase to describe swimming in rivers, lakes and the sea, that captures the idea of it

As they say in all the best gangster movies – Swimming with the fishes

To borrow from mountain biking, "All-Swimming".

Joe – I'll concede to you on downstream in the Thames but have swum way upstream at Lechlade, where its not much more than a big brook.

Ah, I have that end of the Thames in the list for next time I visit my friend in Swindon.

Why rule out 'swimming'? Does it need anything more than that

Because if you say "I'm going swimming", it means to someone that you are going to go and do some lengths in the pool. If you say, "would you like to go swimming?", they think you're asking them to come and do lengths in a pool. It is the same as why you don't say "would you like to come on a bike ride" and expect people to know whether to bring their mountain bike or their road bike.

"artificial swimming"

pisses people off too.

Joe