Open-Water Swimming: everything in one place

Open-water swimming takes swimming out of the pool and into lakes, rivers and the sea. Without walls to turn at or lane lines to follow, it adds the challenge of sighting your direction, coping with changing water and pacing yourself over longer, continuous distances, which makes it a natural endurance discipline.

Many people are drawn to it as much for the setting as the exercise — the calm and openness of swimming outdoors. Because conditions, temperature and currents vary, it is best approached gradually, with supervised venues, suitable acclimatisation and never swimming alone.