Share the open water Swimming Love

Share your love for the open water with a splash. New to wild swimming or an old hand, there's joy in every stroke as you find bliss in nature's liquid embrace.

Al Humphreys, Kate Rew and Colin Hill joined us on 25 November to share their love of outdoor swimming at the very first Alpkit Night In Webinar. They talked about past adventures, future plans, book recommendations and tips. It was a joy to be joined by 700 customers who asked some brilliant questions at the end.

We asked everyone on the webinar, “what type of swimmer are you?”. We found that we’d been joined by swimmers of every type: newbies, wild dippers, winter stoics, self-mediators and endurance swimmers.

And what about our panelists?

Al Humphreys: Alpkiteer, Adventurer, Blogger, Podcaster

Al is certainly a wild dipper. He’s someone who finds sheer unadulterated joy in finding a body of water and jumping in. Wetsuit? Unlikely. Boxer shorts? Probably.

Kate Rew: Founder of the Outdoor Swimming Society and long-time friend of Alpkit

Al Humphreys describes Kate Rew as the Fairy Godmother of outdoor swimming. The work that Kate has done in setting up the Outdoor Swimming Society, growing it and continuing to welcome new swimmers in unprecedented numbers is simply incredible. It doesn’t matter what type of swimmer you are, if you’re an outdoor swimmer, Kate has done it. And helped a 1000 others do it too. Total hero.

Colin Hill: Alpkiteer and Director of Ullswater Swim Place

Colin is most certainly an endurance swimmer. He’s swum the channel. He’s swum the length of Windermere. And back again. He’s swum the ice mile. And despite all this, his main pleasure now is introducing people to the joys of getting into water outside. It might be swim across a lake or it might be to splash in the water for a minute. It doesn’t matter - it all counts as a swim.

Recommended books from our panel:

- Wild Swim by Kate Rew

- The Seaweed Collectors Handbook by Miek Zwamborn

- Pondlife by Al Alvarez

- Hell and High Water by Sean Conway

- Waterlog by Roger Deakin

- The Art of Resilience by Ross Edgley

Watch the Webinar!

Big thanks to Kate Rew, Al Humphreys and Colin Hill!