Outdoor Swimmer Magazine What are the effect of chlorine, sun and salt on your skin? And how can you take better care of your skin when swimming regularly in pools, lidos and open water? Gear Editor Jo Tinsley examines the reasons behind skin dryness and irritation and puts TRIHARD’s five-step skin care for swimmers to the test. Plus, readers share their top tips for keeping their skin protected and hydrated.  Get 23% OFF sitewide plus an extra 5% OFF during sales on top of the already discounted offer with code: SKINCARE  How does your skin feel after a swim? I have to a ..read more

Outdoor Swimmer Magazine Mountain hikes, lake swims and foot-stomping live music around every corner, Killarney’s Wander Wild Festival has something for every kind of adventurer, as Abigail Whyte discovered. As a child I was lucky enough to go on some pretty incredible family holidays around the world, but there’s a place that stand out above all others in my memory. Ireland. We’d stayed in a cottage in the middle of a peat bog in Donegal for the first week, then drove down the Atlantic coast to Killarney for the second part of the trip. I remember that second week being filled with waterfall ..read more

Outdoor Swimmer Magazine Brush up on your open water skills and plan ahead now to make the most of summer swimming season, says Simon Griffiths Despite recent growth in year-round activity, outdoor swimming will always be seasonal. As the weather and water warms up, the amount of kit we need decreases and the distances we can swim increase. Back when we started Outdoor Swimmer in 2011, winter dipping was very much a minority and eccentric pursuit. We looked forward to venues opening and lifeguards returning to beaches in April and May. Now so many people swim outside all year, this transition ..read more

Outdoor Swimmer Magazine Whether you’re looking for spaghetti strap training suits or more modest coverage, body positive styles or longer lengths, or perhaps bonded fabrics, Yulex or silver-lining for warmth, we have found your next swimsuit! Gear Editor Jo Tinsley reviews the best open water swimsuits for all bodies ZOGGS Sea Change Silver Lined Scoopback £65 They say: Our open water swimsuits have been tested for over 400 hours by members of the Her Spirit community. Research revealed our thermal silver lining helped retain body heat for 60% longer compared to normal swimwear. The Sea Cha ..read more

Outdoor Swimmer Magazine How not to be an “all the gear and no idea” swimmer. Simon Griffiths has your guide to maintaining your outdoor swimming kit In a race one time, after putting Vaseline on my neck to prevent chafing, I accidentally smeared some on my goggles. I didn’t realise until I was about to go into the water and my attempts to clear it only made it worse. I had to do the swim half blind, crashed into other swimmers and nearly missed the finish. It’s not enough to know what kit to buy, we need to make sure we use it optimally to avoid mistakes like these. We thought, therefore, we ..read more

Outdoor Swimmer Magazine Glowing blue along the entrance to Brixton Recreation Centre in London is a series of cyanotypes of swimmers by artist Rosalind Hobley. We spoke to Rosalind about how she created her work using this historic medium, and the joy she finds in the shared passion of the swimming community Glowing blue along the walkway and entrance to Brixton Recreation Centre in London is a series of cyanotypes of swimmers by artist Rosalind Hobley. Rosalind began this series during lockdown – to recreate that feeling of pleasure and freedom of being immersed in water, when access to swi ..read more

Outdoor Swimmer Magazine Focus on general fitness and health for long-term improvements in your swimming I know, you want to swim faster this year. By tomorrow, preferably. Unfortunately, overnight breakthroughs are rare. Even if you fixed a major technique flaw, it’s unlikely you would experience an immediate and sustained improvement. Before your new technique becomes effective, you need to consciously repeat the movement hundreds of times so that the action becomes automatic. In addition, you need to train your muscles to apply force in a new way. Change does happen. You can get faster. Bu ..read more

Outdoor Swimmer Magazine The Marathon River Swim Series has been established by three of the most famous open water marathons in Europe – the Flow des Gabarriers (France), the UltraEbre (Spain) and the Thames Marathon (UK) The Thames Marathon has announced that it has joined up with two river swims – Le Flow des Gabarriers in the Charente river in the Cognac region of France and the UltraEbre along the Ebro river through Catalonia in Spain to create the new Marathon River Swim Series. Swimmers are invited to participate in each of the events, to be crowned Marathon River Man or Woman. In orde ..read more

Outdoor Swimmer Magazine To mark Earth Day (22 April), the Marine Conservation Society has unveiled a vibrant display of photographs that graphically highlights the UK’s rich variety of marine life  The ocean charity Marine Conservation Society (MSC) has created a roundup of incredible ocean photography from the charity’s supporting photographers to mark Earth Day on 22nd April.  The focus of this year’s Earth Day is Planet vs Plastics, with calls for a 60% reduction in all plastics production by 2040. Plastics currently make up at least 80% of marine litter, and pose a significant ..read more

Outdoor Swimmer Magazine Wild Swimming Walks Exmoor and North Devon is a new book by Matt Newbury and Sophie Pierce. Here are some of their favourite swims to inspire a swim-walking weekend North Devon is known for its ‘hogsback’ cliffs – great shoulders of rock that drop dramatically to the sea. It has the highest coastline on the British mainland, reaching 314m at Culbone Hill. The Exmoor shoreline is also the most remote in England; there is no access by land to large stretches of it, and even with a boat there are many places that are completely inaccessible. Many of the walks in this boo ..read more