Look out next week (w/c 11 July 11) for our Wild Swim summer special issue of H2Open Magazine. Normally we’re bi-monthly, but to celebrate the peak of northern hemisphere open water swimming (and with apologies to southern hemisphere readers) we’ve produced an extra issue.

We’ve focused especially on the joys of swimming outside and asked Kate Rew of the Outdoor Swimming Society to suggest 20 great places to swim, both in the UK and around the world.

For those of you more keen on racing than leisurely swimming we have a great piece from Paul Newsome at Swim Smooth on how to become a top age-group performer, whatever your swimming background. We also asked three top triathletes to share their open water racing tips.

Meanwhile, distance swimmers will hopefully be inspired by Swim Trek’s Simon Murie’s regular classic swims piece on escaping Robben Island in South Africa and by Nicola Joyce’s assessment of Richard Branson and co’s chances of completing The Swim – their attempt to cross 56 miles of Irish Sea.

It’s been a battle to produce the issue on a much tighter timetable than usual but the team worked really hard to make it happen, so many thanks to everyone involved.