September 2026 ‘Pool Passion’

Outdoor Swimmer Extra: Get the best of Outdoor Swimmer magazine online

Sign up or log in to read Outdoor Swimmer Extra.

Read the September 2026 issue in full in flipbook format

Existing print subscribers have free access to the digital edition of Outdoor Swimmer on PocketMags. This includes all the content from Outdoor Swimmer Extra. See here for access instructions.

• 
  Round the river bend at Vansbrosimningen
  Rowan Clarke battles wardrobe malfunctions and upriver swimming at Sweden’s oldest swimming festival Sweden is an outdoor swimmer’s dream. Water everywhere, and Allemansrätten, the right of public access to nature, is sewn into its constitution, granting everyone the freedom to swim, ski, hike and camp in both private and public land. This outdoorsy culture gives way to excellent open water events, too, including Vansbrosimningen, one of Sweden’s and the world’s oldest and largest swimming festivals. First held in 1950 with ten swimmers, it now brings almost 13,000 swimmers, young and old, to Vansbro each July to take part in events across a week. I went there to take part in the festival’s flagship three kilometre river swim. “Vansbrosimningen? That’s really famous,” said my Swedish friend Elin when I asked her for travel tips. The immigration officer at Stockholm Arlanda airport reacted in a similar way, his eyes wide. “It’s a tough swim,” he said as he stamped my passport. When you’re immersed in the outdoor swimming world, you can lose perspective and forget that three kilometres in open water is tough – I was swimming twice that distance a week training for the Bantham Boomerang. But, I was about to be reminded. A historic swim Vansbrosimningen is unique because you swim in two rivers. Starting in the Vanån, you swim two kilometres downriver, before turning into the notoriously chilly Västerdalälven to swim the final kilometre against the flow. That final push can be brutal. The course used to be a key timber-floating route. Until around 1970, organisers and log drivers had to clear floating logs out of the swimmers’ way so they could pass. These days, Tomas Viker, Secretary General of Vansbrosimningen told me that they put wood into the river, laying 2km of boardwalk for the event safety crew to patrol. In 1971, creators of a new Swedish endurance circuit chose Vansbrosimningen as the swimming component along with a 30km cross-country run, 90km cross-country skiing, and a 315km cycle.“We’re doing it as part of the Swedish Classic,” two men told me as we watched the start line. They explain how, for them, this is Classic’s most nerve-wracking component – a reminder that my perception of challenging swims isn’t normal. A scenic swim And yet, sitting on the riverbank in glorious sunshine with Oli Lacigova from Open Swim, watching swimmers gliding by with the river’s flow, I felt very relaxed. “I’m so excited,” said Oli. “It’s so beautiful here, and everyone is in such a good mood – nobody’s stressing, people breaststroking –whatever you feel like, you just go down the river and enjoy it. I can’t wait!” I felt the same. The swimmers all looked so happy as they passed us, many swimming breaststroke, some not even wearing goggles. Most wore wetsuits (recommended but not mandatory) and took their time, enjoying the view and live band that floats up and down the river. While elite swimmers complete the course in 30-45 minutes, the average time is 90+ minutes. I joined my wave for the best pre-race warm up: dancing to catchy europop. I felt confident and happy, ignoring the sensation that reminded me why I no longer wore this blue swimsuit. Then, as I tucked my earplug strings under my swim cap, it split from nape of neck to crown. But what could I do? I followed my wave into the water hoping my goggles would hold it, and my wedgie wouldn’t be too uncomfortable. I swam out to the middle of the river where the flow was fastest, cruising under the bridges, slowing my stroke rate and gliding to conserve energy for that upstream finale. The water was beautifully clear and fresh at just under 19°C, mineral-rich, and tinted orangey-brown by the natural iron oxides and peaty riverbed. As I swam, I felt my wedgie deepen and my hat creep off my head until every time I sighted, my hair covered my eyes. Practically blind, I moved over to the righthand edge so not to miss the turning into the Västerdalälven. But I was too early. Nearly swimming over some breaststrokers, I apologised and tried not to think about the view they must be getting as I passed them. Now swimming upstream, my stroke had become scrappy, and I was wasting energy. I had to stop. Handing over the scraps of my hat to a lovely safety support person, I tied up my fringe like Pebbles from The Flintstones. Only then, I could race unencumbered to the finish line. Until next time My wardrobe malfunctions reminded me how open water swimming is always challenging, but also how there’s nothing more gratifying than overcoming them. On a mega post-swim high, wearing my beautiful finishers’ medal depicting the rivers’ timber-floating history, I promised myself that I’d be back to do this beautiful swim again – only with a different swimsuit and a spare hat.From the natural beauty of Sweden to the festival atmosphere, impeccable organisation and friendliness of this event, Vansbrosimningen goes down as one of my favourite swims ever. Vansbrosimningen 2027 takes place from July 2 to July 10, 2027; vansbrosimningen.se
• 
  Back to Bantham: rediscovering the joy of event swimming
  After spending years volunteering for the Outdoor Swimming Society’s Bantham Swoosh, Ella Foote returned to Bantham to take part in Level Water’s Batham Boomerang and was reminded of the joy that comes from event swimming
• 
  Trans swimmer Lev Goldberg conquers second North America’s give Great Lakes in historic quest
  The five North American Great Lakes – Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie and Ontario – comprise the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth and Lev Goldberg is determined to swim each one, Margaret Hetherman reports One year after becoming the first openly transgender person to swim across Lake Ontario, Lev Goldberg stepped off the coast of Port Sanilac, Michigan on Wednesday, 5 Aug to take on the currents of Lake Huron for an anticipated 30-hour crossing that would land him at Lambton County, Ontario. It was the second leg of his quest swim all five Great Lakes – and to become the first trans person and only the fourth person ever to pull off the feat. Despite an unexpected storm with distant lightning that had crew gathering his bags with intent to haul him out, Goldberg pushed on as the worst weather broke, making it to Ipperwash Beach at 12.13pm on Thursday in 29 hours, 43 minutes and 5 seconds. The trek was 55km (about 34 miles). “The conditions were really serious,” he said. “I knew Lake Huron had more variable and intense conditions typically than Lake Ontario, and that’s why I picked it.” Goldberg was up for the challenge and got it – minus the cold water he favors, given Lake Huron’s offering of a mere 22°C (71.6°F) water temp. “I never swam in so much wind, so much wave, and so much current.” But white caps were just an opportunity for fun. The swimmer exuded the same ebullience over Huron’s conditions as he didafter completing Lake Ontario: “I really enjoyed myself. I came out afterwards, and said, ‘I feel amazing.’ It was the best day of my life.” He is also using the challenge to raise money for LGBT Youth Line, a peer support organisation for queer and trans youth in Ontario. Remarkably, Goldberg, 30, has been swimming open water for only three years. The Philadelphia native and therapist who lives in Toronto self-describes as “a late-onset athlete.” As a child, he swam on a team for several years, but struggled with feeling uncomfortable in his body. He stopped swimming at age 10, and was rarely in the water until taking up long-distance running at age 22. “I did that for a few years before I got more serious about it. Then by the time I started training for running in an organised way, working towards a marathon, I was back in the pool cross-training for running.” Goldberg has also publicly shared that it was gender-affirming care, in the form of top surgery and hormone replacement therapy, that gave him “the confidence to navigate the changing room and get myself back into the pool.” “As a kid, I was never an athlete,” he said. “I didn’t really feel very comfortable in my body.” Goldberg said he had a lot of gender dysphoria that manifested in different ways – sometimes ways that he doesn’t hear people talk about. “I just felt I had to have a lot of control over what I looked like. So doing exercise and becoming sweaty, or not being able to wear my comfort clothes… I just couldn’t handle that. So I really didn’t do any exercise until after I had transitioned and I started running. I was a lot more comfortable in my body after that point.” “It’s really huge to be that representation [now], because I looked for it and I couldn’t find it. I think my story is not that unique among trans people – not feeling comfortable to be in sports for most of your life, or coming to it later in life. To be an example of coming to sports later in life and still achieving something great, I think that is very important.” With newfound confidence, he returned to the pool in 2023, but had to relearn the basics of each stroke. “I just kind of remembered how to swim, and what I didn’t remember. I taught myself out of the book, Total Immersion, which teaches freestyle techniques.” No sooner had he started swimming than he took to the open water. Living in Toronto, Lake Ontario was “pretty swimmable and accessible” and it happened to be winter. The late-bloomer’s preference for long, slow-distance running seeped into his swims, and he soon found an OWS community with others who shared a love of the long haul. “I’m non-exceptional over short distances, and might not make the cut-off time for some 10K races,” he said. “I have other strengths that really lend themselves to marathon and ultramarathon swimming. I’m really good in the cold water. I lock into, like, a forever pace, and I just am completely consistent.” Lake Ontario Goldberg’s swim was ratified by Solo Swims of Ontario (SSO), which sanctions swims across Lake Ontario, as well as across all the Great Lakes – ensuring that swims are conducted safely. It formed in 1975 inresponse to the death of an unprepared teenager attempting to swim across Lake Ontario. To qualify for his first Great Lake attempt, Goldberg had to complete a 16km-swim within six hours, which he passed in July 2025. “I was really chasing the cutoff on that,” he said. Then on 2 Sep 2025, at 2am, with one lead boat, two Zodiac inflatables and a crew of 10 that included a swim master, coach, RN and three pacers, Goldberg departed Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario for Marilyn Bell Park in Toronto. He completed the 51km (31.7 mile) crossing in 24 hours, 25 minutes and 25 seconds. The biggest surprise was how good he felt in his body. “I did two different 10-hour swims in training, and in both of them, I hurt so bad after… I was really worried that when I passed the 10-hour mark, that I was going to be hurting for more than half the swim… But the biggest surprise was I didn’t have any pain.” He credits strength training. He was aware of Lake Ontario’s swim challenges in advance. With the Niagara River pushing, the first bit was very fast. But 20 hours into the swim, he encountered a “bad current” through the Humber River. “They told me, ‘You’re not moving, so now you have to start to push’… I pushed really hard for the last four hours. I liked that. That was what I was looking forward to, and that’s what I trained for.” While he didn’t have hallucinations in Lake Ontario (he was aware that other marathon swimmers have reported such occurrences), when he was finally on dry land, he happened to notice a few geometric patterns in the night sky that were non-existent. Later, at home, he thought he saw his glasses and reached for them, only to find that they weren’t actually there. Lake Huron As for that storm on Lake Huron, the lightning luckily stayed on shore. “But I learned afterwards they were almost going to pull me at hour 19 because of risk from lightning. It was a close call, but they made the call not to do that. But we had huge amounts of wind, just a torrential downpour on my crew for hours and hours. I barely noticed the rain.” Like Ontario, there were waves, but this time, four-footers, and there was a lot of current – particularly strong at the end. “I moved at a very steady sort of effort, but the pace was not always steady because the conditions were really variable,” he said. “At some points, I had such intense waves that my support boats had to stay a bit back from me because they would have knocked into me. It was chaotic.” As for hallucinations, yeah, this time around he thought he saw a ferry boat on the lake at night. There was no ferry boat. He saw a Toronto skyline. There was no city. He also had the sensation of sleeping a little, describing movement and a pace that didn’t change, but a brain that seemed to be going into something like REM sleep, as if he were having thoughts that were vivid like dreams. “The night was like kind of psychedelic and strange because I’ve never been through a whole night before.” The finish was also challenging because he saw land for four hours, which played with his perception. “It just felt like it wasn’t getting closer, and it felt like I wasn’t really moving because I was moving through a lot of current just at the end to break through onto the shore. So my perception of time was pretty weird,” he said. “Like when I finished the swim, I thought it must be 5pm. but it was actually noon. I thought I had been out there for 35 hours. I was totally wrong.” Goldberg was accompanied on the Huron adventure by a crew of nine, plus boat captains and his dad crewed on land – “the most wonderful, supportive, and helpful people.” It’s the crews that make swims like this happen, he says. “I really am so grateful. It’s not a solo endeavor at all.” He also thought of Marilyn Bell, the first person to swim across Lake Ontario on 9 Sep, 1954.“People literally thought it was impossible,” he said, “and she’s just a national treasure.” Bell, now 88, has been cheering him on, and he took inspiration from her historic swim while tackling Huron. “I imagined being a 16-year-old girl in the middle of the night, in the middle of Lake Ontario, doing something that no one’s ever done before: if she can do that, I can do it.” He also held close the words of Vicki Keith-Munro, one of only three people, along with Paula Stephanson and Elizabeth Fry, to have tackled all five Great Lakes: “Persistence truly is the key of all achievements. Don’t think of people as more talented or luckier or better suited than you. Put your head down and push through. Persistence is more valuable than all of these.”
• 
  Brightlingsea: my local lido
  Jharna Kumawat didn’t realise how valued a local lido could be until she discovered the community behind it
• 
  One man and his tow float
  Dr Mark Christie is a Senior Lecturer of Sport and Physical Activity Development at University of Cumbria; his professional career is vast. This summer he published his new book, One Man and His Tow Float: Stories, Science and the Joy of Open Water Swimming, which pulls together his work and experiences from the swimming community.
• 
  My summer of lidos
  A regular at Parliament Hill Lido, Sally Goble loves a pool. This summer, she embarked on a personal challenge – to swim in every single publicly accessible lido in the UK – with some sea pools thrown in for good measure.
• 
  King of the Thames: a classic river swim gets a fresh twist
  Simon Griffiths takes to the Thames to experience SwimQuest’s new 3km swim from Hampton Court to Kingston
• 
  Beyond the pool: why strength training matters for swimmers
  Why the swimming pool is the ultimate training environment – and why the gym should be part of every swimmer’s journey
• 
  How pool swimming can make you a better open water swimmer
  Olympic swimmer Alice Dearing shares what can be gained in open water from work in the pool
• 
  How to choose a shoulder season suit
  Core warmth, swim-specific design and flexibility for a natural, unrestricted stroke: Olivier Wallien, from Dutch water ware brand WALLIEN, explains what to look for in a shoulder season suit
• 
  It’s Swimple: opening up private water to everyone
  Wouldn’t it be great to be able to rent a private pool like you rent private accommodation through Airbnb? Ella Foote chats to the founders of Swimple, the Airbnb for swimming pools, and discovers a stunning pool with Victorian greenhouse in an ancient woodland
• 
  Fastest man in the pool
  He’s one of Britain’s greatest sprinters but put him in open water and Mark Foster admits that without a pool tank or lane ropes his mind immediately thinks about Jaws. Ella Foote talks to him about luck, humility, and finally telling his whole story
• 
  London’s cool new pool
  Earlier this summer, before the heatwaves and hosepipe bans, Sea Lanes opened a cool new pool tucked into Canary Wharf, fed by underground springs. Ella Foote chats to Operations Director Helen Bull and Marketing Director Harry Smith to find out how London’s newest swimming offer is taking off.
• 
  Why swimming pools matter to outdoor swimming
  As public swimming pools face rising costs, closures and dwindling investment, communities are fighting to save them. Rowan Clarke explores why pools are so important to outdoor swimming – from teaching water safety and building confidence to creating accessible routes into open water and bringing communities together.
• 
  Learning to love the pool
  There are plenty of benefits to pool swimming, but learning to love it can be a challenge, says Simon Griffiths
• 
  Lidos: where outdoor swimming meets accessibility
  Two historic lidos in Derbyshire offer the perfect compromise between pool training and open-water swimming – and provide some valuable lessons in accessibility along the way