Have you got what it takes to go ‘wild swimming’? No, not so much the hardiness or the love of sinking your feet into the boggy bottom of a lake or feeling something brush against your ankle that could be a fish, a plant or something more sinister. Have you got the right kit?
Outdoor swimming – or open-water swimming, wild swimming, ‘in-my-day-we-just-called-it-swimming’, whatever you want to call it – is enjoying a swell in popularity, and alongside what is supposed to be a simple pursuit is a growing obsession with having the latest equipment. It’s not just wetsuits – which a lot of purists eschew on the grounds that you don’t get the same sensation of being in the wild water when insulated by neoprene – the kit list goes far beyond that.
On the outdoor swimming groups that I’m a member of, I’ve spotted a number of people posting that they ‘want to go swimming, but I haven’t bought a DryRobe yet – is that ok?’ DryRobes, for the vanishingly small number of people who haven’t seen someone waddling along wearing one, looking like an enormous human Christmas tree, are enormous, thick, fleece-lined coats which allow you to change underneath them while drying off at the same time.
Most regular outdoor swimmers are relaxed folk who have a couple of (slightly dog-eared) things that make their hobby a little easier to do.
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