June 2026 ‘DIY Swimming’

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  Plunging into pura vida
  Swimming holidays are great fun for all, but planning your own is something else. Regular contributor Liz Lowe shares her recent trip to Costa Rica
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  Build your own adventure
  There’s enormous joy to be found in building your own adventure, not for performance but for play, says editor Ella Foote One of the most wonderful things about outdoor swimming is that any kind of swimmer can find purpose in the water. Whether you swim for the joy, general health and fitness or for the challenge all swimmers are welcome in the water. But the idea that every swim has to become a challenge, a crossing, a badge, a medal or a battle with a GPS trace is something that simply isn’t true. Many of the best swims begin in a much smaller way. Two swim pals staring at a map in a café. Someone pointing across a waterway and wondering if they could swim it or wandering up stream to simply float back. That’s how some legendary event routes were born, too. Not in boardrooms or race HQs, but through playful experiments. Curious swimmers trying an idea out for themselves. Following bends in rivers, linking coves together, swimming to the pub or out to islands. There’s enormous joy in building your own adventure, not for performance but for play. Start with a map, not a medal You don’t need to invent the next marathon swim. In fact, the smaller and sillier the idea, the better. Could your swim involve: A DIY swim has a different flavour from an organised event. It feels slightly secret and handmade. Because you designed it yourself, every detail suddenly matters in a lovely way. The weather, logistics, café opening hours and the friend who always forgets goggles. You become swimmer, navigator, ferryman and snack strategist all at once. Top tips:
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  Mediterranean Dreams
  Rowan Clarke tries ‘bookending’ the open water season with a dream swim in Antalya, Türkiye
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  Dryrobe® Pure: a new innovation in robe lining
  Dryrobe brings our new Dryrobe® Pure – the world’s first 100% industrially compostable inner pile fabric ever used in an outdoor application, which doesn’t shed microplastics
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  Plan your own event training
  The preparation needed for a 400m sprint in a pool would be very different from that required for a long-distance open-water sea swim. The more specific we can make our training, the better prepared we will be to succeed, says swim coach Vivienne Rickman
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  Active sunglasses
  Floating sunglasses, polarised lenses with crystal clear clarity or robust frames made from abandoned fishing gear: we test the best sunglasses for wild swimmers
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  Trail running kit
  Trail running provides a similar connection with nature and sense of flow to open water swimming. Here is some kit you might find handy…
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  How personal goals transform your time in the pool
  Training for your own challenge isn’t about racing the person in the next lane or hitting elite level times. It’s about designing a personal mission that excites you, stretches you and keeps you coming back for more, says swim coach Nicola Butler In a world obsessed with comparison, the swimming pool offers something refreshingly different… a lane that belongs entirely to you! No noise, no pressure, no judgement. Just water, breath, rhythm and the quiet thrill of chasing a challenge you’ve set for yourself. Swimming your own challenge isn’t about racing the person in the next lane or hitting elite level times. It’s about designing a personal mission that excites you, stretches you and keeps you coming back for more. Whether you’re a seasoned swimmer, or someone rediscovering the water, the pool is the perfect arena for self‑driven achievement within a DIY challenge. Choosing the challenge that fits you The beauty of swimming is that challenges can be as varied as the people who take them on. Choosing the type of challenge to conquer in the pool also opens a world of opportunities to try new skills, drills, equipment and meet new like-minded people. You also have the head start on making your sessions varied, avoiding any risk of just swimming monotonous blue line laps! Ultimately, the key is choosing something that feels exciting, not overwhelming. Here are some pool swimmers favourite challenge styles: How to structure your challenge for success A challenge only works if it’s clear, realistic and motivating. It really is like planning your own mini training plan! Make it measurable. For example, “Get better at swimming” is too vague but “Swim 40 lengths without stopping” is powerful. Break it into milestones – weekly targets keep you on track and give you reasons to celebrate along the way. Track your progress – use a notebook, a swim app, or even the notes on your phone. Seeing improvement fuels motivation. Build in flexibility and don’t beat yourself up about missing one session – life happens! A good challenge bends without breaking. Celebrate the wins – every milestone matters so reward yourself because you earned it. The mental side: Where the real challenge lives and why the pool is the perfect place for personal growth In the pool, you can learn how to stay calm when your breathing wobbles, how to keep going when your arms feel heavy, how to trust yourself when the goal feels far away. This is because the pool provides a controlled environment but the lessons you learn there spill into every part of life. Patience, resilience, discipline and progress. Swimming your own challenge teaches you to stay in your lane, literally and metaphorically. It reminds you that the only comparison that matters is who you were yesterday. Top tip: Improve your catch to improve your stroke through sculling Drill = People-Paddle Scull Sculling is a special type of drill in which you don’t perform a full stroke, rather, you keep your arms under water to focus your energies on a specific area of the stroke. The people-paddle scull helps you do this with an approach that’s like the doggy paddle. To perform this scull, execute a stroke with a typical catch underwater, but rather than recovering your arms over the water, drive your hand back in front of you through the water like you do with doggie paddle. You should keep your face mostly submerged, though, more like you would when swimming regular freestyle rather than using the head-up position that’s favoured when doggie-paddling. Kit corner: Dragsox A powerful kick is essential for speed. To be competitive in swimming you need to have a strong whitewater kick. Whether you’re aiming to swim a fast 50, 200 or the mile, your kick needs to be your driving force. Using DragSox can help you develop the strength, power and endurance to drive you through your race of choice. These provide a source of power training through resistance. There are other ways to accomplish this, however, they all have their drawbacks. What we like about using DragSox is that they deliver a great power workout without any of the usual inconveniences or compromises in body position. They are not the most flattering bits of kit and remind us of school swimming days with baggy pyjamas and deep-water brick pick-ups! Currently retailing at around £35 a pair.
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  Yokehill: establishing a new open water swimming venue
  Marathon swimmer and multi-ice miler, David Coleman discovers having a lake to swim in is just the beginning of a process to make it swimmable
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  Swim camping kit
  A swim camping trip requires balancing lightweight gear with quick-drying, water resistant accessories and clever packing solutions
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  Alice Dearing’s guide to DIY swim challenges
  Channel your innate sense of curiosity and exploration, says Alice Dearing
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  My Lake Annecy challenge
  Jharna Kumawat tells us about her swim project that is ambitious and yet simple
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  Hector Pardoe: This time it’s personal
  Alice Dearing sat down with the King of the Lakes and two times Olympian, Hector Pardoe, to ask how it felt to swim the three largest lakes in each of the UK’s home nations back-to-back in under 24 hours and to learn about his ambition to take on one iconic swim challenge per year
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  Unchartered waters
  Why design your own open water swimming adventures? Rowan Clarke finds out
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  How to plan your own swim adventure
  Embrace the adventure inherent in outdoor swimming says Simon Griffiths 
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  DIY challenges
  Challenges on a grand scale or a daily scale – they are all valid and important, says adaptive swimmer Sophie Etheridge
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  Review: THEMAGIC5 Vector, £75
  We tested the THEMAGIC5 Vector, the new generation custom-fit goggles by the world’s only custom swim goggle company. Here’s how we got on. 
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  Swimmer’s Ear: why it happens and what to do about it
  Dr Hussain Al-Zubaidi shares his expert guidance on Swimmer’s Ear, including why it happens and how to treat and prevent it