About Outdoor Swimmer

Outdoor Swimmer Magazine logo

Outdoor Swimmer is the magazine for outdoor swimmers by outdoor swimmers. Launched in 2011, our mission is to inspire you with amazing swimming stories and help you live a healthier and happier life through outdoor swimming.

Outdoor Swimmer showcases the best outdoor swimming has to offer, from fabulous swimming locations, amazing challenges and the best swim training advice. Whether you’re just getting started or an old hand after some training tips, you’ll find what you need between our pages.

Our readers come from all around the globe. They call themselves wild swimmers, sea swimmers, ice swimmers, outdoor swimmers, marathon swimmers or just plain swimmers. Some are young, others are young at heart, but they all love open water swimming.

Meet the team

Simon Griffiths, Founder & publisher

Back in 2011, there were magazines for just about any activity you could imagine – but none for outdoor swimming. So I made my own. I wanted something to help me swim further, faster and in colder water. I wanted something to show me the best places to swim and help me choose the best swimming challenges to take on. And I wanted something that shared the simple joy of swimming in nature and inspired me with the stories of other swimmers’ exploits.

I hoped a few other people would like something similar. Turns out they did.

I love helping other swimmers make the most of the water and seeing how outdoor swimming transforms lives. And I want to keep making Outdoor Swimmer even better, more helpful and more relevant. If you have any suggestions for how to do that – or if you want to share how outdoor swimming (or Outdoor Swimmer) has changed your life – please get in touch.

Contact Simon on simon@outdoorswimmer.com

Oh, I also wrote a book. Swim Wild and Free: A Practical Guide to Swimming Outdoors 365 Days a Year, I offer Swim Mentoring and in 2025 I created The Renaissance Swimmer Project.

A selfie of a Simon Griffiths underwater with goggles, no cap, looking towards the camera

Ella Foote, Editor

Ella is renowned outdoor swimmer and journalist; she has spent her entire life enjoying outdoor water. As well as leading the editorial, digital and experiential outputs for Outdoor Swimmer she is also Director of Dip Advisor, a swim guiding business helping people enjoy wild water. Ella also teaches swimming to children and adults, is an Open Water Coach and RLSS Open Water Lifeguard. An intrepid swim explorer, she is constantly seeking out new rivers, lakes, ponds, seas and pools to plunge into. She enjoys swimming in all seasons and has completed swims like an English Channel relay crossing, 24-hour swim challenge, the Thames Marathon 14k and the Dart 10k, as well as smaller more joyful dips and dunks across the country. You can follow her and her swimming on Instagram.

You can pre-order her book How to Wild Swim: What to Know Before Taking the Plunge

Contact Ella on ella@outdoorswimmer.com

Ella Foote in swimming costume and woolly hat, with a river in the background.

Yvonne Turner, Commercial Director

Yvonne comes to Outdoor Swimmer with a background in health, family and sports marketing and with a love of the live events and festivals that surround them. She has both competed in, and marketed endurance sports, most recently triathlon, and she now finds herself in the world of outdoor swimming. She says ‘practice what you preach’ and isn’t afraid to take on the same challenges that Outdoor Swimmer and its sponsors ask of its readers every month.

Yvonne works with brands to develop and implement creative marketing campaigns that deliver results: opt-in data, sales, traffic or market intelligence. She loves making a client happy by exceeding results and ROI expectations and has shown to do this effectively for some of the leading brands in the industry. 

Contact Yvonne at yvonne@outdoorswimmer.com

Yvonne Turner at a lido

Jo Tinsley, Gear Editor

Jo is the Gear Editor and a writer for Outdoor Swimmer. A keen open water swimmer and long-distance walker, she loves seeking out lakes and lidos close to her home in the Mendip Hills, Somerset. She is the author of The Slow Traveller; founder and editor of independent magazine, Ernest; former editor of Waterfront for the Canal & River Trust; co-author of Wild Guide Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire and Gloucester; co-host of the Small Ways to Live Well podcast from The Simple Things magazine; and recently contributed to The Joy of Wild Swimming (Lonely Planet). She has written about wild swimming and slow travel for Lonely Planet magazine, Countryfile, The Simple Things, Green Traveller, Sawday’s, The Guardian and The Independent.

Contact Jo at jo@outdoorswimmer.com

Abi Whyte, Digital Editor

Abi writes swimming news stories and features for the Outdoor Swimmer website and manages the social media channels. She loves to swim, run, hike and SUP close to her home in Herefordshire. While she’s a keen wild swimmer, Abi is new to the world of open water events and recently completed her first open water mile. She has previously written for BBC Countryfile Magazine, BBC History Magazine and Ernest Journal.

Contact Abi at abi@outdoorswimmer.com

Abi Whyte standing by a river

Our Contributors

We’re privileged at Outdoor Swimmer to draw on the expertise of our brilliant contributors. Meet some of them here.

Rowan Clarke, journalist and swimming coach

More at home in water than on land, Rowan Clarke is a freelance specialist writer and journalist, year-round swimmer and open water swimming coach. With a lifelong compulsion for flinging herself into any body of cold water, Rowan Clarke started swimming in open water events in 2015 and coaching in 2018. She’s a fan of the outdoor swimming classics like the Dart 10k and the Bantham Swoosh, but most enjoys the camaraderie – and fancy dress – of winter swimming. Rowan started freelance writing in 1999, and now specialises in writing about outdoor swimming, body image and inclusion.

Jonathan Cowie, Former Editor

Jonathan is a year-round skins swimmer with a particular love of very cold water. He has competed in ice swimming competitions around the world. He is a qualified open water coach with a particular love of introducing new swimmers to the open water. His next challenge is to complete some classic British long distance swims, such as Windermere. When not injured he loves swimrun and has taken competed in various Ötillö and Breca swimrun events. His Outdoor Swimmer motto: “Do as I say, not as I do.”

Jonathan was editor of H2Open and the Outdoor Swimmer before moving to a part-time contributing editor role. He is still an occasional contributor to the magazine.

Jonathan Cowie selfie standing in a river.

Susanne Masters, ethnobiologist

Susanne is an ethnobiologist who swims and writes. Her book Wild Waters is a guide to aquatic wildlife around Britain and Ireland, and she is an Expert for National Geographic Expeditions. She has written features for BBC publications, the New York Times, and the Guardian. Her academic research is on wildlife trade, and she is a member of IUCN Species Survival Commission specialist groups on Sustainable Uses and Livelihoods, and Orchids. A member of The Association of Foragers, Susanne swims for fun as well as foraging. Highlights include sparkle swims (with bioluminescence), ice cracking dips, and swimming from Asia to Europe across the Bosphorus. She posts swims and aquatic thoughts on Instagram.

Image: Susane with thongweed (photo by Myles Axton)