NEWS

Swim wild and free at Kendal Mountain Festival

Join Jonathan Cowie and Ella Foote of Outdoor Swimmer magazine bright and early on Sunday 17 November for swimming tales from inspiring characters and incredible adventures from the world of open water swimming.

We have a pair of tickets to give away to the Dryrobe Outdoor Swimming Session – to enter simply follow us on Instagram @outdoorswimmer and comment on our Kendal Mountain Festival post. We want to know why you want to win the tickets. Simple!

The morning promises to be a wonderfully varied session with something for everyone.

We’ll be joined by the following fantastic speakers…

Lindsey Cole takes us from Shetland to the Scilly Isles on her ‘Dipping Britain’ adventure. At the beginning of this year Lindsey cycled from Plymouth to the Scottish Cold Water Swimming Champs meeting swimming groups en route. High on adrenaline she decided to carry on, all over Britain – wherever she received a swim invite, she went!

Inspired by Dan Duxbury’s Frog Graham Round film at the 2018 Outdoor Swimming Session, Kendal cyclist and swimmer Ben Dowman created the Frog Whitton Round – a 96-mile bike ride with four lake swims totalling 6 miles.

In September, open water swimming coach and adventure swimmer Fenwick Ridley completed an upstream (yes, upstream!) 60-mile swim of the North Tyne, from Newcastle to Kielder. Fenwick spent up to 12 hours a day in the water, while also pulling a raft stocked with essential kit behind him on the 60-mile swim. Find out how he got on on this upstream assault course.

Plus films from the world of outdoor swimming, the riotous Outdoor Swimmer Quiz of the Year and prize giveaways.

Kendal Mountain Festival brings thousands of outdoor enthusiasts from across the globe together to share and celebrate the best stories from the world of adventure. It runs from 14 to 17 November.

The Dryrobe Outdoor Swimming Session is on Sunday 17 November 2019 at 09:30 – 11:30 at Kendal Town Hall.

Lindsey

ABOUT LINDSEY COLE

In 2018 Lindsey swam the length of the Thames dressed as a mermaid! Not only did she find tons of manmade polymers, but she also discovered the wonderful community of outdoor swimming. She was so moved that she decided to meet more wild swimming communities across the country by cycling to the Scottish Cold Water Swimming Champs meeting swimming groups en route. High on adrenaline she decided to carry on, all over Britain – from Shetland to the Isles of Scilly. Wherever she received a swim invite, she went!

Ben Dowman

ABOUT BEN DOWMAN

Ben Dowman is a cyclist and swimmer and who lives in the Lake District. In 2019 he created the UKs ultimate swim-cycle challenge, the Frog Whitton (a cousin to the Frog Graham swim-run challenge). Inspired by the Fred Whitton cycle route the Frog Whitton is a journey of 102 miles involving 96 miles of cycling over Lakeland passes with 6 miles of swimming in four different lakes. Having created the challenge he completed it this summer in a time of 10 hours 48 minutes.

Kendal

ABOUT FENWICK RIDLEY

Fenwick has been coaching swimming for 20 years and runs his own open water swimming business H2oTrails. He introduces people to the water and coaches long distance swimming. He used to marathon swim a lot but is now more of an adventure swimmer and addicted to being in ice.

He says: “One of the top things in my coaching is bringing in kids and our national and regional top swimmers under 16 squad. We have a very special venue called Sweethope Lough which is the hub of H2oTrails.”

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Jonathan is a year-round skins swimmer with a particular love of very cold water. He has competed in ice swimming competitions around the world. He is a qualified open water coach with a particular love of introducing new swimmers to the open water.