Readers' Swims

Immerse yourself in fellow swimmers' personal narratives, sharing their swimming stories and memorable experiences.

Turning novices into open water swimmers

Earlier this year a small group of people got together with a common interest in open water swimming with a…
Adam Walker tackles Japan’s Tsugaru Strait

Adam Walker has now completed five of the Oceans Seven swims. His fifth, Japan’s Tsugaru Strait, was his toughest yet.…
Double Forth: is Sheila first?

The swim across the Forth River from Hawes Pier at South Queensferry to the pier at North Queensferry, and the…
END-WET 27km down river swimming race

I did a great event this summer in Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA of all places. It is a down-river…
David Coleman’s Jersey to France swim

Swimming from Jersey to France has long been an ambition of mine as it is recognised as a tough and…
Insight into a world-beating two-way English Channel relay

On 14 July 2013 a team of women calling themselves Andy’s Channel Ladies two-way World Record Breakers did exactly what…
Ellery McGowan tackles the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim (MIMS)

I had been training hard for the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim (MIMS) since completing the 17.5-mile NYC Swim “Ederle Swim”…
Never mind the rain: Simon John Parkin’s Marlow experience

Eight o’clock on Sunday morning, 25 August 13, doing star jumps in the pouring rain, squeezed into a wetsuit and…
Glyn Bevans’s Grenada Cross Harbour Swim

My first open water swim completed in March 2012 – no wetsuit!!! However, not in the freezing waters of the…
Jim Boucher’s second English Channel crossing

Never say never again! I first swam the English Channel in 2007, aged 46 years. A time of 15 hours…
Henley-on-Thames to Marlow – 14km of river beautiful river swimming

Adam Acland recounts his swim with the organisers of the Henley Swim Classic from Marlow to Henley along the famous…
The Thailand island challenge

Have you even been somewhere on holiday, spotted an island a short distance from the coast and asked yourself, “I…