Outdoor swimming has never been so popular, and in this Olympic year it’s sure to get yet another boost as more of us get inspired by the open water events at London 2012. It’s probably too late to secure entry to Team GB for this year’s Serpentine races, but there’s lots more going on. Here’s our guide to the best events of 2012 …The Big SwimSunday 29 January 2012Get in quick for this Aussie swim – Palm Beach to Whale Beach in Sydney – as it takes place in just over a week (online entries close...

Angela Alexander loves Iceland. She loves it so much that she has been going every year for the past 15 years. Here she tells us why …There are two things I love about Iceland: the swimming and the bookshops. People think this strange, but Iceland has some great places to swim, and fantastic bookshops.Swimming is perhaps not the first thing that springs to mind when you think of Iceland, but I can assure you that it is a wonderful place to take the plunge. Everyone in Iceland swims, it seems to ...

Strictly speaking the pool at the Liquidrom isn’t for swimming in, but since I was lucky enough to visit it last week I thought you might like to know about this unique facility.Located in central Berlin, a short walk from Potsdamer Platz, the Liquidrom is an upmarket spa offering several saunas, an outdoor hot tub, and a most intriguing thermal pool. I visited with my bemused boyfriend, who had never set foot in a spa before. In the event his presence proved to be a good thing because one of th...

I took up open water swimming only last year as a way to get fit and do something cheap yet beneficial, writes Maureen Londra. Little did I know what I was letting myself in for.The challenges, both physical and psychological, have been enormous, but have not turned me off the idea of getting in the cold, dark waters of the Firth of Forth in Fife, Scotland.Whether my mood is low or I am elated, I love to swim at Pettycur beach near Kinghorn in Fife. There is often not a soul around, but sometime...

Open water swimming could not be more different from pool swimming, writes Pauline Squire. The pool: solid, straight sided, lined, bottomed, laned, and always filled with chlorine. Lakes, rivers and oceans: no lanes, colours ranging from yellow through to black, weed, fish, differing temperatures. Often you cannot even see your hand in the water let alone the bottom or sides, couple this with wind, rain and sunshine and its easy to see why so many are drawn to its attractions. However, all of th...

Shaw Method teacher Sally Smith took up outdoor swimming in the UK last summer, but on holiday to France found lake swimming a much warmer experience …I was camping on the shores of Lac de Chalain in the Jura region last summer, and I so was able to take a daily swim in this stunningly beautiful glacial lake surrounded by wooded cliffs and pine forest. The temperature of the water was such that I was able to swim without a wetsuit, which was a much nicer and freer experience.The lake was shimmer...

I live in Bondi now, writes Murray Cox. But even as a kid from the harbour side, Bondi was always my beach. I can’t ever remember my dad Stan in trunks. He was an older man, dapper in his blazer and addicted to golf, but my mum Beryl would take me and my friends to the harbour pools, or Coogee Beach. A real outing was a ferry ride to Manly, but Bondi was our favourite.Bed to beach is a 10 minute walk so I swim across Bondi from north to south most mornings: it’s a lazy k. The rocky sides to the ...

On the morning of 22 January there will be pretend icebergs floating in Tooting Bec Lido, as the 100-yard pool plays host to the UK’s Cold Water Swimming Championships, writes Andrew Ingamells. But the recent snap of cold weather has raised the possibility that any ice in the pool on the day of the championships might be the real thing, not just polystyrene blocks.That could be a headache for the championship organisers from the South London Swimming Club (SLSC), as the Lido tends to freeze over...

As very keen and experienced swimmers, my best buddy Phil Tibenham (Shaw Method teacher) and I (Hertford Masters Swimming Club member for 18 years) had talked for some time about escaping the confines of chlorinated pools and venturing off on a short three-day wild swim trek of our own, writes Phil Heath.This summer we finally got around to it. We didn’t want to travel a long distance from our homes in North London and Hertfordshire and after some deliberation opted for Dorset’s south coast.  Al...

Swimming is a quite unique pleasure: it takes you out of your everyday element and into another world. At Drumsheugh you enter another world as soon as you step through the door.This unique pool has stood behind and below its rather unassuming frontage in a west Edinburgh cul-de-sac since Victorian times. It was built in the Moorish style by Scottish architect Sir John James Burnet in 1882. Although destroyed by fire in 1892, it was lovingly restored by Burnet’s company and has been preserved by...

I first remember swimming in the Thames as a child with my parents about 30 years ago, writes Michael Worthington. Today there are definitely more people enjoying being in the river which is why I decided to write I love the Thames. It is a series of preparatory notes for 75 swims covering the entire non-tidal stretch of the river.I think the old attitudes about swimming in the Thames are really starting to disappear. The river is actually much cleaner now, and events like the Great River Swim a...

I’m a keen wild swimmer and always on the look out for new places to swim, writes Louise Cardwell. So I was delighted when a Google search earlier this year revealed a loch that I never knew existed.Loch Chon is an little known wild swimming paradise located in The Trossachs (Stirlingshire), just northwest of Loch Ard. When I first discovered it, I was looking for somewhere that I could swim myself with just land support, somewhere that was not a haven for kayakers, and somewhere that did not al...

I was born on the Gower in South Wales and my mother says that I was in the sea before I could walk, writes Oonagh O'Brien. Since then I have always looked to swim outdoors whenever possible.I moved to Portobello eight years ago and although I have always gone in for a dip when it felt warm enough I only took up open water swimming properly a couple of years ago. The triathlon branch of the Edinburgh Road Club runs Friday night sessions and I first got into regular sea swims through them. It’s v...

I travel a lot for work, writes Carolyn Johnson. Being a keen Shaw Method swimmer I always check out the local pools and try to get beyond the hotel pool whenever possible.In the summer of 2007 I had a week to spare in New York City. When I googled “swimming pools in New York” I came across one facility I just had to visit. The Floating Pool is a seven- lane 25m pool on a barge. When I visited, the pool was moored on the East River next to Brooklyn Bridge Park – check out the picture (above) for...