Summary
Being able to swim in a pool and being open water competent are two different and only loosely correlated skills. The best way to become more open water competent is to familiarise yourself with how to stay safe and then gain as much experience as possible. Learn how to enter the water safely, use sighting to help you navigate, and how to swim in difficult conditions. Also, be thoughtful about your acquisition of kit and make sure you know how to use what you’ve got.
Jump straight to section challenges
Swim outdoors with confidence
The lure of open water is strong. The delight of sliding into a cool stream on a hot sunny day, unparalleled. The buzz and endorphin rush after an icy winter dip, unbeatable. The satisfaction of swimming from one land mass to another, undeniable. Open water also gives swimmers with different skills a chance to display their strengths. You may not be fast over 50m in a heated, sheltered pool, but perhaps you can swim for hours in cool, rough water.
Swimming in natural water is a beautiful thing but to access its delights and stay safe, you need to be open water competent. This is much more than simply being able to swim.
Being open water competent allows you to swim in a wide range of water types and conditions, from fast-flowing rivers to rough seas and calm but icy-cold lakes. You know how to adjust your swimming for these different conditions, you know the limits to your abilities and you recognise when the conditions are too extreme. You do not put yourself or those you swim with in danger.
You will be a keen observer of water, with all your senses, and will know what to do with what you see, hear, smell and feel. You will, for example, delight in the sound of waves tumbling pebbles on a beach, but that will also alert you to undertow and the need to be careful with your feet. It won’t necessarily stop you from swimming but it will give you pause to think and plan. You will be aware of the phases of the moon and weather conditions and how they impact the water and your swimming.
Someone who is open water competent will make a plan for every swim. They will consider how to enter and exit the water safely and easily, they will have alternative exit points for emergencies, they will ensure they understand local conditions and won’t be swept away by currents. They will know how long they can safely stay in the water and have their clothes ready to change into when they finish the swim.
When you’re open water competent, you know what kit you need, both for your swim and for afterwards. You will also know what kit is nice to have but not necessary so you can decide what to leave behind if you travel light.
Being open water competent has little to do with how far or how fast you can swim or if you can do all four strokes. While the Renaissance Swimmer will want to achieve those things, if you could only work on one aspect of your swimming, building your open water competence would be a good one to start with. I know people who only ever swim breaststroke who I would rate as very competent in open water and this creates a world of swimming opportunities for them.
Conversely, I know talented pool swimmers who have little clue how to deal with swimming outdoors, and they miss out on a great deal. Worse, they may put themselves in danger if lured into an open water scenario that they are not equipped to handle in the false belief that they will be fine because they are a ‘good’ swimmer.
When considering an open water swim, the question should be: do I have the knowledge, skills and abilities for this? This does not correlate with how fast a swimmer you are in the warm and controlled environment of a pool.
How to become open water competent
You become more open water competent by:
- Swimming often in natural water
- Experiencing a wide range of swimming conditions in different water types and throughout the year
- Swimming with people who have more experience than you
- Paying attention and thinking about what you are doing, and
- Critically reading, watching and listening to content about swimming outdoors.
While I’d love to impart everything I know about outdoor swimming in this section, it’s not possible. Reading can help you prepare and point you in the right direction. It can inspire you and give you things to think about while swimming (or preparing to swim) but you need practical experience to truly learn and understand.
Take, for example, cold water shock. I could explain to that it’s your body’s natural reaction to sudden immersion in cold water, that it will cause a spike in your heart rate and a sharp intake of breath that might induce a sense of panic (or worse, if that breath happens when your face is in the water). I could also explain that you may feel intense physical pain and say the pain isn’t doing you any harm. I could tell you the worst symptoms of cold water shock will only last a minute or two and you’ll soon start to feel amazing. I would instruct you to stay calm, focus on breathing out and keep within your depth until your breathing is under control.
However, none of that knowledge will stop cold water shock from happening. At best, it will reduce the sense of panic and give you the confidence to stay in the water long enough for the shock to subside. But it might not.
On the other hand, if you swim in cold water a handful of times over the space of a couple of weeks, you will find that cold water shock symptoms reduce significantly and those that remain will be much easier to handle.
I wouldn’t suggest you start your open water swimming journey with cold water immersion (although some people do) but even in summer, open water may be cool enough to trigger a cold water shock response, although less severe than you would experience in the winter. Getting used to getting into open water should be your first mission, which will look at shortly.
First, please read our outdoor swimming safety advice. Open water is dangerous but swimming in open water can be done very safely. The key things are to think about what you are doing, identify the hazards and prepare accordingly.
Entering the water
It may seem odd to include a section on how to get the water but bear with me. Getting in should be as easy as falling off a log, right? However, the transition from land (or boat) to water may be the riskiest moment of your swim. Entering the water with grace and poise, and doing it safely, is an important part of open water competence.
Your first decision is where should you get in. You may have a beach where you can wade in, or you may have to slide in off a rock or down a muddy bank. The variations are endless. Consider if you need to protect your feet and hands while getting in. Be aware of sudden changes in depth, rocks you could stub your toes on, or waves that might knock you off your feet.
What happens next is partly dictated by the water temperature. If it’s above 25 degrees, which is similar to a swimming pool, and the water is clear and calm, you should be able to swim immediately. Nevertheless, I still recommend doing a few strokes head-up breaststroke to get your bearings and staying within your depth until you feel fully ready to swim.
In water of about 16 to 24 degrees (typical natural water temperatures in and around the UK in summer), you may experience mild symptoms of cold water shock, especially when starting out. The cooler it is, the more severe these will be. If you’re new to outdoor swimming or haven’t been in for a while, it will feel cold initially. If you’re wearing a wetsuit, brace yourself for the moment when cold water trickles through the zip onto your back.
The good news is most people can quickly and easily adapt to swimming in these temperatures. Ease yourself into the water gently but purposefully. Lower your body so the water covers your shoulders. Pause for a moment before you start swimming and, as above, stay within your depth until you’re comfortable. I find it helps to focus on my breathing, making sure I breathe out and relax while letting the water take my weight.
At 15 degrees and below, you’re entering cold water territory. We’ll have more on that in the cold water section.
As well as the temperature, you need to consider the conditions. Open water may be murky. This can hide obstacles or conceal the depth. Along with the risk of cold water shock, this is a good reason to avoid jumping or diving into open water. This is something you should only do when you are 100% confident of the depth and the water temperature.
Your entry point will often also be your exit point. It is essential you ensure you can leave the water easily. Sliding off a rock or a boat may be a viable way to enter the water, but you may find it a lot harder to get out. If you are going to leave the water at a different point, check it before you swim. If you’ve been in the water a while, or have got cold or knocked about by waves, you may be a little unsteady on your feet when you get to your feet. Stand up slowly and make sure you’re steady before walking.
Once you’re in the water, you need a few other skills for a comfortable and enjoyable swim. We’ll look more at coping with cold water in later chapters. In the rest of this chapter, we’ll look at navigation, coping with different conditions, and the importance of knowing how to use your kit.
Navigation and sighting
If you’re going to swim any distance, you want to get there via the most efficient route. The first step is swimming straight, which requires symmetry in your swimming stroke and the ability to look where you are going without slowing yourself down. Breaststroke swimmers have an easier time of this as vertical head movement is part of the stroke. On front crawl, you need to lift your head to look forward, ideally as a smoothly integrated movement within your stroke. This is often referred to as sighting.
Unfortunately, lifting your head has adverse consequences for your swimming technique. It upsets the balance of your body and may push your legs down, which harms your streamline. To facilitate lifting the head, you may subconsciously press down on the water with your leading hand. This will disrupt your catch (the first part of the stroke where you grab hold of the water) and make you less efficient.
If you want to maintain speed in open water, your sighting must cause as little disruption to your swimming as possible. The way that works best for me is to look forward just before I breathe.
When breathing to my right, the steps are as follows:
- Starting from the position with my right arm extended in front and my left arm recovering (i.e. above the water), I arch my back to lift my shoulders and head and look forward.
- Then, five things happen simultaneously: I initiate the catch with my right arm, my left hand enters the water, I kick hard with my right foot, I drop my head back into the neutral position and I start to rotate from my right to left side.
- I then take a normal breath to my right.
Note that I put my face back into the water regardless of if I’ve seen what I was looking for. If I haven’t, I will try again on the next stroke. If I have, I will swim head down for a few strokes before sighting again.
Sighting tips, tricks and refinements
- In calm water, you should be able to see enough just by lifting your eyes above the water. There is no need to lift your full face. In rough water, you may have to lift more.
- When swimming in waves, try to time your sighting to coincide with when you are on a crest. This isn’t easy and you may have to adjust your stroke timing to manage it.
- If you fail to see what you need to after three attempts, you may need to swim a few strokes of head-up or water polo style front crawl to reorientate yourself.
- Try to find fixed objects on land to sight off. Even if you’re following a course marked by buoys, it’s often easier to spot tall objects on land behind the buoys. Do your homework before your swim to identify useful landmarks.
- Wear suitable goggles. Tinted and polarised goggles will help if you find yourself swimming towards the sun. Choose clear goggles for gloomy conditions.
- Keep your breathing and sighting separate. Don’t breathe in while looking forward.
Practise mindfully
Sighting is such an important skill in open water it’s worth dedicating time to improving it. Watch elite swimmers and you will see that sighting doesn’t disrupt their stroke. Less-practised swimmers can almost come to a stop. Try to make the sighting movement feel like an integral part of your stroke. Keep your rhythm while sighting. Also focus on your catch while sighting and keep it strong.
Swimming straight
The more symmetrical your stroke, the straighter you will swim and less often you will need to check your direction to stay on course. Whatever stroke you swim, remember currents can sweep you off course and your quickest route to your destination might not be to aim straight at it. For example, imagine you want to swim across a river that has a current. If you head directly for the opposite bank, you will be pushed downstream by the flow. Instead, to swim straight across, you need to aim slightly upstream. The faster the current, the further upstream you will need to aim.
Navigating in the sea
The sea presents swimmers with several navigational challenges. In racing scenarios, you often need to swim around a course marked by buoys. Buoys are always easier to see when you’re standing on the land than when you’re swimming. In the sea (and sometimes elsewhere), waves and chop can make spotting them much harder. In a lake, you might look for an object on land behind the marker buoy and aim for that until you can see the buoy. This approach might not work in the sea.
Instead, before you swim, make a mental note of the position of the buoys relative to the shore. Also, look for objects on shore that might indicate you are close to the buoys. If you’re struggling to see the buoys, rather than keep straining to see them, look towards the shore and take your navigational clues from that. Eventually, as you get close enough, you will be able to see the buoy.
You also need to be aware of currents. These often run parallel to the coast and change direction with the tide (but not always). They can be difficult to spot. It’s best to find out before you swim and then adjust your swimming direction to compensate, as you would for crossing a river. If there is sea grass, you may get clues from the direction of the fronds. Also, look to see if other swimmers have been dragged off course.
For recreational swimming, you don’t have to worry about buoys (except maybe to stay inside a designated boat-free area) but you do want to stay safe. It’s usually best to swim parallel to the coast and make sure you keep an eye on landmarks. For a swim where you’re returning to your starting point, aim to swim against the current first and with it as you return – but be aware the current direction could change with the tide.
It would be unwise to swim so far out to sea that you can’t see the shore without the support of a suitable boat. In this case, follow the navigation instructions of the boat pilot.
Navigating in lakes
If you can swim safely in the sea, you shouldn’t have any difficulty in a lake. Still, be aware that the water surface in lakes can get choppy and wavey, which gives you the same issues as sea swimming. Also, because fresh water gives you less buoyancy than salt water, you will be a little lower in the water and have to work slightly harder to lift your head. On the other hand, except in the very biggest lakes, you can usually see landmarks to assist your sighting.
Navigating in rivers
Rivers are fun and interesting places in which to swim. But care is needed, especially if the current is strong. Mostly, you swim along rivers and you can navigate by watching the bank. Regular forward sighting is still needed to check for obstacles and changes of direction. Generally, the current is strongest in the middle of the river and around the outside of bends. You can use this to your advantage. When swimming upstream, stick to the edge and the inside of bends. Coming downstream, move towards the middle (as long as there is no river traffic or other hazards) and let the current sweep you around the outside of bends. Remember that rivers often have side channels, bifurcations and tributaries. Make sure you know where these are.
I swim year-round in the River Thames, just above the tidal limit. When the flow is high (usually in the winter), it’s faster than we can swim. As there is no way to swim against it, we walk upstream to a different entry point and let the current sweep us back. It’s fun but there are a few things we need to watch out for. The top priority is to ensure we’re fully committed to the swim. Once you’re in the water, there is no turning back. Next, we need to watch out for obstacles. When the current is strong, you could get pinned against a branch and dragged under the water. We stay clear of the bank. Finally, we have to time the swim to the exit point. If you are too far from the bank, you could get swept past, with no way back. You should start swimming towards the bank before you reach the exit. If you swim sideways as you are being pushed downstream, you will cross the river diagonally. It sounds like a complicated vector problem but it’s easier than it sounds. Also, we have a second emergency exit point if we miss the first.
Swimming in rough conditions
You are most likely to encounter rough water in the sea but you can get waves and chop in rivers and lakes too. We’ve already discussed the sighting and navigation challenge that rough conditions cause but it impacts your swimming in other ways too. Rough water messes with your stroke and your breathing. It’s hard for everyone but some people cope better than others. It helps if you can be versatile.
In some situations, the best approach is to speed up your arm turnover and power through with short, fast, light strokes. Other times, it feels better to slow down and try to match your stroke to the rhythm of the waves. You’ll need to experiment to see what works for you. You may have to change the side you breathe. Sometimes you miss a breath because there’s water where you expected air. Try not to let this disrupt your rhythm. Take your next stroke as normal, then try again.
Do your best to stay calm and enjoy the experience. Swimming in rough water can be fun. I enjoy it in non-competitive situations. I especially like swimming in waves at a sandy beach on a hot day and body-surfing the breakers back to shore. However, if you’re doing a race or a challenge and you’re committed to covering a distance, the funny side can wear off pretty quickly. I always remind myself that it’s my choice to be in the water and to be grateful that I can do it. The more often you swim in different conditions, the better you will cope.
Note that I find it easiest to swim front crawl in rough water. It’s the most stable stroke and the best for cutting through the waves. But if you can’t or don’t want to swim front crawl, the same considerations apply to breaststroke, or even backstroke or butterfly. As an open-minded and adventurous swimmer, you might want to experiment with all the strokes.
Kit for Outdoor Swimming
If you’re new to open water swimming, take a few minutes to check out some kit basics.
Open water events and challenges
Many people take up outdoor swimming to do an open water event. Other people are attracted to it because they want to immerse themselves in nature, are seeking the health and wellbeing benefits or because it looks fun. If you’re in on the latter groups, you might think open water events and challenges aren’t for you.
However, part of being a Renaissance Swimmer is being curious and brave. Events can be a lot of fun. They can also be nerve-wracking. They may take you to new places and push you physically more than you thought possible. I encourage you to summon up the courage and take part in an event. Many are set up as personal challenges rather than races. There are even some events billed as slow swims where you are encouraged to take your time and soak up the atmosphere. The majority of people come out of their first event grinning and feeling full of pride.
However, before you rush to sign up, make sure you get some practical open water experience. This may sound obvious but over the years I’ve seen hundreds of people show up at triathlons and open water swimming races who have not developed basic open water competence. Some of them, based on how they swim in a pool, would be described as good swimmers, but they are undone in open water. For example, they might:
- Be wearing an ill-fitting wetsuit or not have put on their wetsuit correctly.
- Be panicked by the difference in water temperature to their pool, even if wearing a wetsuit.
- Be freaked out when they discover they can’t see the bottom or they get smacked in the face by a wave.
- Come to a stop every time they try to look where they are going.
- Not be able to swim straight without a black line or lane ropes to follow.
Later sections will help you prepare more comprehensively for open water events and challenges but if you’re keen to get going now, what we’ve covered here, along with some open water practice, will be enough to ensure you have a positive experience.
Open water competence – Lessons for Life
Open water is a potentially lethal environment yet we can survive and thrive in it by improving our knowledge and competence. The more you know and experience, the better you can cope. It is intimidating yet it’s somewhere we can relax and be happy. There are parallels here to stepping into a new work environment or moving to a new town. At first you will be out of your depth. You won’t know how to navigate or how to move forward in a straight line. But you can and will learn it. You just need to learn the rules.
Open water competence – Challenges
Before swimming in open water familiarise yourself with the safety essentials. My biggest piece of safety advice is: think before you swim, and only swim if you are convinced it’s safe to do so.
Level 1
Go for a swim at an unheated outdoor pool.
For beginners, water temperature is often a big worry. An unheated lido allows you to experience natural water temperatures in a safe, lifeguarded environment. Feel free to wear a wetsuit if you prefer. Ideally make your first visit during the warmer months of the year. Keep a log of water temperature, how long you stay in for and how far you swim. Start with short swims and stop before you get cold.
Visit a supervised outdoor swimming venue or inland lifeguarded swimming spot
A supervised venue is a small step up from an unheated outdoor pool and a great place to start your outdoor swimming journey. With lifeguards and water quality that’s regularly checked, you can feel confident of a safe swim. In England, there are supervised swimming lakes around the country. Opening hours are often limited and there’s a fee to swim. You may need to book in advance via an app. Always check a venue’s website or social media channels before visiting to make sure you understand their rules. You may need to do an induction course.
You can find a list on https://outdoorswimmer.com/listings/group/venues/
You could also swim at a lifeguarded beach but be aware that sea swimming, especially in rough conditions, can be more challenging than in a sheltered inland lake. Choose a day or location with calm conditions for your first swim.
Level 2
Swim at a lifeguarded beach in wavey or choppy conditions.
While many lifeguarded beaches only designate a small area for swimming, they are good places to experience some of the challenges sea swimming can throw at you. Ensure you understand what the lifeguards’ flags mean. There will often be sections designated for surfers, which you should avoid. Spend some time watching the waves and other swimmers before you enter the water. Note if swimmers drift to one side or the other. If you want to properly swim (rather than play in the waves) you will have to go out past the breakers into deep water. Only do this when you are confident in your abilities.
Find and join a wild swimming group
Once you move your swimming beyond lifeguarded areas, you need to pay more attention to your safety. Swimming with other people is much safer than swimming alone, and you will also pick up tips and local knowledge. If you’re not confident about swimming on your first visit, ask if you can watch. Most groups warmly welcome new swimmers, will look after you and help you find a swim at your level. Social media and word of mouth are usually the best ways to find swimming groups.
Level 3
Gather a friend or two, grab a wild swimming guidebook or app, and go for an adventure.
Exploring and finding new swim spots is a lot of fun. However, without the security and guidance of a group, you will need to take full responsibility for your safety and that of your friends. Go with sensible people, preferably ones who have some open water experience. Think before you swim and take care to check your entry and exit points, and look for underwater obstacles or anything that might be a hazard. Things may have changed at the swim spot since the guide was written.
Take part in an open water event
While events are lifeguarded and very safe, swimming with a lot of strangers, some of which may be fiercely competitive, can be stressful, which is why this is a level 3 challenge. Look for an event that excites you. There’s a wide range of distances to choose from, and the full range of water types from inland lakes and rivers, to estuaries and the open sea. Lake swims are usually the easiest, so maybe start there. Also, check if the swim is a point-to-point (say a lake crossing) or around a buoyed course.
You can find events here: https://outdoorswimmer.com/events/
Go on a swimming holiday
Swimming holidays are big budget item but if you can afford it, they are a fantastic opportunity to gain a lot of outdoor swimming experience in a short space of time. You will also learn a lot from the guides and the other swimmers, and simply from swimming every day. I’ve heard people say their swimming was transformed after dedicating a week to it. Always check what you’re getting into as not all swimming holidays are alike. Look for the daily swim distances, the expected water temperature, if there is a minimum speed requirement, if it’s aimed at beginners and has dedicated coaching, or if it’s a long-distance boot camp for trainee Channel swimmers.