What is wild swimming?
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It appears to be what we used to just call "swimming".
@grainweevil That’s what I thought.
Recent posts suggested that you wouldn’t want to be seen and I wondered if it was the same as skinny-dipping (chunky-dunking).
Recent posts suggested that you wouldn’t want to be seen and I wondered if it was the same as skinny-dipping (chunky-dunking).
Commonly called "swimming" the wild bit has been added by a generation who seem to have grown up completely unaware there is anything at all to do outside of a city.
reminds me of the Billy Connoly (vinyl record for anyone who remembers them) where he talks about swimming as a child in Scotland.In this country, it's swimming where you freeze the whatnots off
"They call it the North Sea but it is really just the Arctic Ocean".
Well, I definitely wouldn't want to be seen doing it. But that's because I fear being harpooned.
I can only speak about my own experience of what Wild Swimming is to me and my journey with it.
It seems from reading through some comments that there is some resistance ( not sure why ? maybe one for some internal rhetoric and reflection?? ) to the term ' Wild ' with a fair few older'n'bolder folks seemingly stating they swam without the requirement for semantical differences when they were younger - If so I applaud you - as long as its not just some nostalgic 'we had it hard in my day' type imagined version of past living.
If the issue is the term - 'wild' just think of it different as the normal lane swimming in purpose built swimming pools - lets call that 'Urban' Swimming and just decide they are different flavours of the same thing.
To ME urban swimming ( Indoor pool , beach holiday , waterpark ect ) IS different to what Wild swimming is - there is no spiritual ( stick with me people - I'm not a hippy ) connection to nature .
Evening dipping into a river or pool on a warm summers day I would say is more akin to urban swimming than what most people will regard as Wild Swimming. Swimming in that situation is more fun and a social past time.
Wild swimming I think is in some ways more a cathartic reconnection to nature and oneself. Its a challenge and it tends to be more a discipline than an activity of enjoyment.
In my journey with - I'll call it swimming outside so people don't get triggered - I've swam in a massive variety of places and visited a huge range of places I would not have visited or swam in without trying to expressively experience it.
Swimming alone - reconnecting with nature .
So yes - I do think there is a difference. IMO.
Arctic Circle
It seems from reading through some comments that there is some resistance ( not sure why ? maybe one for some internal rhetoric and reflection?? ) to the term ' Wild ' with a fair few older'n'bolder folks seemingly stating they swam without the requirement for semantical differences when they were younger - If so I applaud you - as long as its not just some nostalgic 'we had it hard in my day' type imagined version of past living.
If the issue is the term - 'wild' just think of it different as the normal lane swimming in purpose built swimming pools - lets call that 'Urban' Swimming and just decide they are different flavours of the same thing.
To ME urban swimming ( Indoor pool , beach holiday , waterpark ect ) IS different to what Wild swimming is - there is no spiritual ( stick with me people - I'm not a hippy ) connection to nature .
Evening dipping into a river or pool on a warm summers day I would say is more akin to urban swimming than what most people will regard as Wild Swimming. Swimming in that situation is more fun and a social past time.
Wild swimming I think is in some ways more a cathartic reconnection to nature and oneself. Its a challenge and it tends to be more a discipline than an activity of enjoyment.
In my journey with - I'll call it swimming outside so people don't get triggered - I've swam in a massive variety of places and visited a huge range of places I would not have visited or swam in without trying to expressively experience it.
Swimming alone - reconnecting with nature .
So yes - I do think there is a difference. IMO.
Arctic Circle
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Harder to do now that the rivers are all full of turds, and it doesn’t strike me as the fault of the later generations that they weren’t bought up with it.
To me it’s just a distinction between a purpose-built swimming pool and outdoors in a natural body of water.
When I was a kid we all couldn't afford the baths so the river it was .
Skinny dipping
Skinny dipping
I go wild paddling, as I can't swim properly!
Nowadays it's a bit dodgy with all the sewerage spills, even in the sea. We don't seem to have blue flag beaches anymore.. shame.
During the pandemic, they were finding floo outbreaks by monitoring sewerage stations for the "germs" makes you think twice about river swimming, unless you are very close to the source, with no habitation between that and your chosen spot.
We seem to be going backwards when it comes to clean water.
Dare I mention privatisation and monetary greed?
They are finding even drinking water can have a lot of nasties in. I filter my drinking water, if I don't my cup of tea often seems to have a scum on top.
Saving for some better water filters for the house than a simple britta jug.
Nowadays it's a bit dodgy with all the sewerage spills, even in the sea. We don't seem to have blue flag beaches anymore.. shame.
During the pandemic, they were finding floo outbreaks by monitoring sewerage stations for the "germs" makes you think twice about river swimming, unless you are very close to the source, with no habitation between that and your chosen spot.
We seem to be going backwards when it comes to clean water.
Dare I mention privatisation and monetary greed?
They are finding even drinking water can have a lot of nasties in. I filter my drinking water, if I don't my cup of tea often seems to have a scum on top.
Saving for some better water filters for the house than a simple britta jug.
Round my way it is when you dare to swim in the sea and end up unwell due to a sewage outfall doing overtime.
" Have you heard this new thing called ' Bushcraft '? "
In my day if you went to the woods with camping chairs , beer and some shop bought foods to be cooked it was just called ' Camping '
In my day if you went to the woods with camping chairs , beer and some shop bought foods to be cooked it was just called ' Camping '
If you carve a point on a stick then it’s legit bushcraft. Burning through the stick and losing your sausage reverts it to camping." Have you heard this new thing called ' Bushcraft '? "
In my day if you went to the woods with camping chairs , beer and some shop bought foods to be cooked it was just called ' Camping '
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