OUTDOOR SWIMMER MAGAZINE MAGAZINE OUTDOOR SWIMMER THE MAGAZINE FOR ADVENTUROUS SWIMMERS! ○ ISSUE 32 ○ NOVEMBER 2019 NOVEMBER Issue 32 • November 2019 WIND & WAVES DARK SKIES HOW TO READ EXPLORING NOCTURNAL THE SEA LANDSCAPES Winter swimming competitions Unsung Worldmags.netheroes Mind, body and soul: celebrating the wild swimming community outdoorswimmer.com 11> TRIED & TESTED: NEOPRENE ACCESSORIES + £5.75 9 772399 755014 WELCOME Editor’s letter Founder & Publisher Simon Griiths [email protected] +44 (0)7958 312607 ello November – Editor Sales Managers log ires, bobble Jonathan Cowie Sharon Tice H hats and serene [email protected] [email protected] +44 (0) 7947 148 422 autumn swimming. Crisp Contributing Editor water, falling leaves and Ella Foote Joanne Jones a sense of calm before [email protected] [email protected] the icy thrill of winter, +44 (0) 7545 387 979 autumn is one of my Design favourite times of the Juliet Boucher Production Support Stuart Churchill year to swim. If you Marketing Manager want to try extending Lorna Manley your swimming season [email protected] this year, a little bit of neoprene can go a long way – read our reviews Cover image: Anna Deacon of hats, gloves, socks and Contributors accessories on page 80. Cassie Paten, Elaine K Howley, Susanne Masters, Pete Kelly, Alice World Mental Health Day was on October 10 Goodridge, Simon Murie, Helen Davis, Kathy Findlay, Keri-anne Payne, last month. In this issue we explore the beneits William Thomson, Emma Pusill, Jay Azran of cold water swimming on mental health. In 'Unsung Heroes' (page 30) we celebrate wild Subscriptions swimmers, many of whom use their daily dip to Outdoor Swimmer Subscriptions, Warners Subscriptions help combat depression, grief and pain. And on West Street, Bourne, Lincs, PE10 9PH page 80 swim guide Pete Kelly takes a group of +44 (0) 1778 392467 swimmers from mental health charity Growing [email protected] Well for a cold water dip in Windermere. mymagazinesub.co.uk/outdoor-swimmer As always, this issue brings you training advice, destination and event reports, stunning Outdoor Swimmer Magazine is published by swim photography and the most comprehensive ZG Publishing Ltd 6 Maida Vale Business Centre, Mead Road UK and international event listings to help you Cheltenham, GL53 7ER plan your aquatic adventures. Swim wild and free, Printed in the UK by Pensord Press Ltd on behalf of ZG Publishing Ltd. All paper used in this publication is sourced from well-managed, sustainable forests and is fully recyclable. Please consider the environment and recycle this magazine once you have inished with it. Jonathan Cowie Editor CBP000891 Get in touch… Distributed by Warners Group Publications plc, The Maltings, West Street, Bourne, Lincolnshire, PE10 9PH. 01778 395043 Email me at editor@ outdoorswimmer.com or connect ©ZG Publishing Ltd 2019. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced without the writen permission of the publisher. ZG Publishing on social media. It’s good to talk! Worldmags.netLtd (Company registration no. 3799982) is registered in England and Wales. Registered oice: 6 Maida Vale Business Centre, Mead Road, Cheltenham, GL53 7ER. All content is provided for information only and, while we take reasonable outdoorswimmermagazine eforts to ensure its accuracy, we cannot guarantee it. Views expressed are not necessarily those of the publisher. ZG Publishing is not an expert provider of medical advice. You are advised to seek professional medical advice before @outdoorswimmer swimming if you have any injuries or medical conditions. Open water swimming does involve a level of risk and you are advised to take appropriate precautions. @outdoor_swimmer For more tips on open water safety, please see: outdoorswimmer.com/ open-water-safety outdoorswimmer.com Outdoor Swimmer | NOVEMBER 2019 3 IN THIS ISSUE CONTENTS Regulars 6 TEAM TALK 8 PHOTO CONTEST 14 OPEN WATER NEWS 18 YOUR LETTERS 20 #SWIMWILDANDFREE 22 VIEW FROM THE WATER 23 COMPETITION Win a Huub wetsuit 24 SIMON MURIE 26 WILDLIFE AND SWIMMING Lobsters 28 THIS MONTH WE SWAM WITH... Looe Sea Swimmers 46 ECO HERO Ellie Jackson 88 TALES FROM UP NORTH Mental health swim 90 MY SWIM STORY Andrea Hall Features 30 UNSUNG HEROES Anna Deacon celebrates wild swimmers who have inspired new book 36 DARK SKIES Afraid of the dark? Tiffany Francis-Baker shares her tales of the night 40 MEN IN BETWEEN Unknown Channel swimmers who helped advance marathon swims 30 4 NOVEMBER 2019 | Outdoor Swimmer outdoorswimmer.com DIVE IN November 2019 46 88 Excel Explore 50 COACH CASSIE 63 TRAVEL NEWS Our resident Olympian 64 MALAWI LAKES Cassie Paten answers 66 WINTER SWIMMING your swimming queries 52 BEGINNER TRAINING Keri-anne Payne explains how to plan training Events 36 54 UNDERSTANDING WINDS What makes wind and how 70 VIDÖSTERNSIMMET it afects our swimming 72 BRECA SWIMRUN 56 SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY 74 LIDO CONFERENCE How to tackle nerves 76 EVENT LISTINGS when swimming in the sea 58 GOOD MOOD FOOD Recipes to help keep you Gear smiling this winter Worldmags.net 80 NEOPRENE ACCESSORIES 72 outdoorswimmer.com Outdoor Swimmer | NOVEMBER 2019 5 WHAT THE TEAM ARE UP TO… TEAM TALK Jonathan All the latest news from Outdoor Swimmer Towers! Cowie, editor I have been SWIM WILD AND FREE! enjoying magical evening Last month I experienced my irst proper triathlon – Ironman swims at the Cascais 70.3 in Portugal (the 70.3 is code for half Ironman). London Royal Docks OWS. And what an experience it was. he 1.9km swim was at dawn in Later this month I will be The start of a sheltered bay. Conditions were perfect. 3,000 athletes lined up in the Lakes for Kendal to enter the water. And when they did... pandemonium! Mountain Festival which will the swim! As I ran into the water and started swimming I was deinitely involve swimming! immediately kicked in the head. All around me people were I have also been planning my lailing wildly. Evidently only around 15 per cent of triathletes winter swimming challenges. have a swimming background – a statistic that was conirmed Watch this space! from what I saw in the water. hat statistic means a lot of people in triathlon are inexperienced swimmers and are therefore not Ella Foote, comfortable in water. Training for three sports means triathletes contributing are nearly always under time pressure –and swimming is not editor where you win a triathlon, so comes bottom of their training sechedule. I am puting he day before the race I spent most together the of the aternoon jumping of a jetty and inal plans swimming in the bay where the race for Dip a Day was to take place. Like you, I just love December 2019. Going to be being in the water – especially if there a big challenge this year. is something to jump of. hat sense of freedom, adventure and joy of being Simon Griffiths, outdoors is why I love swimming. I am publisher feel so lucky that I have always been I’ll be racing conident in the water. It is my happy in the pool place, my irst refuge when I am feeling at National low. But it seems that triathlon does a great job of introducing people to open Masters in water only to give them a pretty stressful Sheield (50m experience. It was a lovely swim and to 800m FC) and a great race for me, but if you are not training for Ötillö Swimrun conident in the water, a triathlon swim must be horrible. It is a Malta (8.6km swim, 30km shame that for many people that will be their only open water run) at the end of November. experience. So how do we remedy this? I am sure that many of you have Joanne Jones, sales done triathlons and train with triathletes. So when you next executive ind yourself going for a swim with a triathlete, I urge you to Every season is pop a copy of Outdoor Swimmer in their bag, hide their GPS special to swim watch and encourage them to swim wild and free! in, but autumn Jonathan Cowie brings gorgeous Editor colours, a slight bite to the water and some strong lows to swim against. I have been enjoying swooshing in the Thames, open water buterly and am now looking forward to some proper cold water swimming later in the season. Worldmags.net READER PHOTO CONTEST 8 NOVEMBER 2019 | Outdoor Swimmer outdoorswimmer.com DIVE IN EDITOR’S READER PHOTO CHOICE CONTEST Whether wild swimming in Scotland, dipping in an urban lido, or exploring warm foreign seas… if you’ve captured a great swimming image enter it in our monthly reader photo contest. We’ll publish the best in Outdoor Swimmer magazine, and the winning image will receive a goody bag from swim travel company SwimQuest. swimquest.uk.com The winner will be entered for the overall annual prize, a swimming holiday with SwimQuest! The December theme is Friendship. Please submit entries by 11 November. Send photos to [email protected] PHOTOGRAPHER Adrienne Peart Swimmer Christine MacDougall in Crummock Water About the photo “We had our first overnight van camp and rose early to catch the first of the mornings sun. It was stunning.” Worldmags.net outdoorswimmer.com Outdoor Swimmer | NOVEMBER 2019 9 READER PHOTO CONTEST 10 NOVEMBER 2019 | Outdoor Swimmer outdoorswimmer.com DIVE IN SECOND READER PHOTO PLACE CONTEST Whether wild swimming in Scotland, dipping in an urban lido, or exploring warm foreign seas… if you’ve captured a great swimming image enter it in our monthly reader photo contest. We’ll publish the best in Outdoor Swimmer magazine, and the winning image will receive a goody bag from swim travel company SwimQuest.