Switch off swimming

This month’s invitation isn’t to stop sharing altogether – many of us do it for good reasons – but to notice the difference between a swim you truly experienced and one you mostly photographed or documented

I’ll admit it, I’m as guilty as anyone when it comes to taking a device to the water. Not for tracking distance, splits or timings, but for photographing and documenting everything. Swim spots, sunrise or sunset, details of nature and all before my feet have even found the bottom of a waterbed. Sometimes it’s for good reason, it’s part of the job after all, and a photo is often the reason I am swimming at a location, event or with other swimmers. But if I’m honest, I know there are swims where I’ve spent more time trying to capture the feeling than actually feeling it. GoPro out, angle checked, swimmer considered, while the moment itself slips past unwatched.

There’s a particular kind of quiet that only outdoor swimming gives you, no signal, often no service at all. It’s one of the last unmonitored spaces most of us regularly step into. Water and electronics don’t work well, that’s the whole point. There’s a strange trade-off in documenting a swim, the photo promises to hold onto something – the light, the colour of the water, the look on a friend’s face – but the taking of it pulls you half out of the very thing you’re trying to keep. You end up with proof you were there, rather than the memory of just being.

This month’s invitation isn’t to stop sharing altogether, plenty of us do it for good reasons, but to notice the difference between a swim you experienced and a swim you mostly photographed or documented.

Could your swim involve:

• Leaving the phone or camera in the bag for just one swim and seeing what you remember afterwards without a photo to prompt you?
• Taking one photo at the start, then putting the phone away for the rest?
• Choosing a spot you won’t tell anyone about, let alone post?
• Writing three words about the swim afterwards instead of a photo?

Top tips:

• If you do need to document for work or tracking, decide that in advance, so it doesn’t creep into every swim by default.
• Notice the urge to photograph as it happens. You don’t have to act on it every time.
• Try one swim a month with no photos at all, then see what you remember. Often it’s more than you’d think.