Open Water Swimming

Floating on my back in the middle of the river, looking up at the sky felt absolutely amazing.

 If you’d asked me the question before ‘Would you go and swim in a river?’  The answer would DEFINITELY have been NO!

 1.    I don’t like deep water.

2.    I’m not a confident swimmer (I managed to get my 25 meter certificate at school, about 2 weeks before the end of 4th year junior).

3.    I hate extreme temperature changes and I’m pretty sure rivers are cold. 

4.    Water pollution is a pretty hot topic at the moment whether it be the sea or rivers due to the current situation with sewage.

However, I got the chance to try it out as part of a group and the next thing I knew I was at Preston Park, first thing on a Sunday morning wriggling into a wetsuit. 

The organisation that hosted the session was TriOpenWater and their founder and instructor, Matt and his team Graeme and Angela soon put us all at ease. We headed off to the jetty to don our swimming caps plus a safety briefing and quick chat about what to expect.

The best way to get into the water, for a beginner is to ease yourself in gently so we took our time walking through the water, down the jetty and onto our knees and finally sitting on the edge.  Matt talked to us about our breathing as it is important that you are able to control it once in the water.  In our own time we moved into the water and I can honestly say the initial shock I was expecting was nothing like my mind had conjured up beforehand.  Within seconds I was comfortable and after a couple of minutes we headed out into the river with the support of the team around us. 

I was surprised at how relaxed I felt chatting away in the middle of the water.  Floating on my back, gazing up at the sky with just the sound of the river and ducks swimming past felt quite surreal.

One of my main preconceptions was how unsafe I would feel in the water and how I would be constantly checking how far I was from the edge and where the instructors were.  I can honestly say that after the first few minutes it didn’t enter my mind and I think this was mainly due to the way Matt and his team work whether that be to engage you in conversations (eg the one about having a wee in your wetsuit - you need to hear this from Matt’s mouth) or knowing when to keep a watchful eye out as you completely switch off and float with your eyes closed.

 I thought that once I’d experienced open water swimming it would be a tick on my list of things that I’d tried and that would be the end of it.  How wrong could I be!  Two weeks later I was back again wading down the same jetty and back into the River Tees.  This time, it was a couple of degrees cooler and I could definitely feel it as soon as I stepped into the water but again the initial pushing out into the water wasn’t as cold as I expected.  We had some light rain whilst we were swimming this time and it was lovely to just float and listen to the rain on the water and feel it landing on my face.  It’s true that each journey into the water can be such a different experience.

When we got out this time there was slight concern from the others that my lips were blue but I reassured everyone that this was normal for me.  I don’t need to be too cold for this to happen as I take after my Dad for circulation and once I get cold I find it difficult to get warm again. I was confident that once back at the car, sipping a warm drink (warm not hot) I would soon start to warm up.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and I maybe should have got into the back seat of the car a bit quicker to get changed. Once I tried it was like a scene out of a comedy sketch. If you’ve tried to get dressed with damp skin you will understand that every item of clothing turns into string.  I ditched the idea of trying to put on underwear and battled to reach my arm up my back to pull down my top which was stuck around my neck. This was the exact moment my car alarm started going off and my fingers felt like putty as I desperately tried to turn it off.  Half naked I turned to see a concerned, fellow bather peering in the window checking to see if I was ok.  It could only happen to me.

Considering that open water swimming was something I was so nervous about, the feeling afterwards is difficult to describe.  I felt elated whilst driving home singing along to Harry Styles - Golden.

The dictionary says - Golden

adjective

1.    1.
coloured or shining like gold.

That’s how I felt…for the rest of the day and that song will forever remind me of open water swimming.

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