Portobello can be described in many ways – from Edinburgh’s seaside to the sea swimming capital of Scotland – and on any given day you’ll see little heads bobbing around in the water. I should know, as I spent a summer flat-sitting and watching the world go by as I worked from an envy-inducing bay […]
Frequently asked swimming questions
The swimming community is awesome and is not backward in coming forward. I get asked lots of questions both on Instagram and Twitter, and in real life. So, I thought it might be fun to publish the most frequently asked here and some of the answers I give. If you have a burning swimming question […]
Return to the sea: Post-lockdown sea swimming on Lindisfarne
While the UK was gripped by the most stringent lockdown rules I refrained from dipping in the sea for one specific reason and that was the request from the RNLI that people stay out of the sea. Coastguards up and down the country did not want to risk the health of their crews should a […]
Book review: Swimming Wild in the Lake District
Suzanna’s book starts on a personal note, recounting an experience that most wild swimmers can identify with. We’ve all had the inevitable conversation with a loved one who worries about the safety of our hobby, which quite often leads on to the debate about why anyone would want to plunge themselves into cold water in […]
Helsinki’s famed Allas Sea Pool
While the focus of my trip to Finland was on wild swimming, there was no way I was going to pass up the opportunity to swim at the world-famous Allas Sea Pool. The complex can be found down in the harbour and consists of three pools and a number of saunas. It is run entirely […]
Ice swimming in Lake Kuusijärvi, Finland
It’s been a long held ambition of mine to take a dip in an ice hole in Finland. This February I travelled to Helsinki with this express purpose in mind. Despite being late on in the winter, the sea had not yet frozen and we had to head out of the city centre to find […]