Simon Griffiths heads to Kemer in Turkey for a 3-day swimming holiday exploring the Lycian coast

Floating in the warm waters off Kemer, with limestone cliffs towering over me and the Taurus Mountains in the distance, I realised this was no ordinary swimming holiday.

Turkey is a popular swimming holiday destination. It’s easy to see why. The water is clear and warm. Food and accommodation are cheaper than some other Mediterranean destinations. It’s relatively easy to reach from the UK with budget flights to regional airports close to the coast. And there’s plenty to see and do in addition to swimming.

Several of the international swimming holiday companies organise trips to the stretch of coastline referred to variously as the Turquoise Coast and the Turkish Riviera. But our trip was with AquaRally, a local swim trip organiser, which added a layer of adventure as well as generous Turkish hospitality.

Coastal welcome

Our first swim was from Kemer to Kiriş, a distance of around 4km. We met our fellow swimmers near the marina in Kemer, posed for group pictures and started getting to know each other. From here, we headed across a bay and around a headland of vertical limestone cliffs topped with woodland. Behind that loom the mighty Taurus Mountains. It’s quite a backdrop.

The pace was relaxed, with plenty of time to enjoy the sights, take pictures and pause to chat. However, apart from Turgut, the company owner and lead guide, I was the only English speaker. But we managed. We all understood swimming and the universal joy it brings. Later, back on land, we made good use of Google translate.

Kemer is a resort town with a full range of international restaurants, but AquaRally have their own local favourites, which we wouldn’t have found on our own. We spent much of the afternoon eating local food and drinking Turkish çay (chai). Then, for something different, we spent two hours hiking up to the viewpoint on the same headland we’d swum around earlier.

Phaselis

Day two was my favourite swim, around the headland at Phaselis. This was a Roman-era port city, with sheltered bays either side of the headland. It’s only around 250m to walk across the headland and through the ruins, but we swam around, which was about a mile. Here, the golden cliffs stood out in contrast to the dark storm clouds looming over the Taurus Mountains. Some of us swam there and back but there was the option to walk back too. We then had time to explore the ruins. Although it was only a short swim, it was fun to combine swimming with sight-seeing.

Later, our fellow swimmers took us out to sample çiğ köfte. This traditional dish used to be made with raw beef or lamb, but this was banned in 2008 because of health concerns. It is now frequently served as a vegan meal made from bulgar wheat and spices. I thought it was delicious and I’m craving some now as I write.

Olympus

Day 3 took us to another ancient town, that of Olympus, which was captured by the Romans in 78BC (Julius Caeser is said to have been part of the conquering army). I learned too that while the most famous Mount Olympus is in Greece, a number of mountains share that title. Also nearby, although we didn’t have time to visit, are the eternal fires at Yanartaş, which will be on my list if I come back here.

This time we swam directly parallel to the beach for 3km until we reached the entrance to the ruins. After a snack to refuel, we spent an hour exploring, before swimming into a cave and then reversing our earlier swim back along the beach. This was our longest swimming day, and I enjoyed the opportunity to finish off with a straight 3k swim.

Sadly, our swimming trip was only for a long-weekend, but AquaRally also offer longer trips, including live-aboard options.

Authentic Turkish experience

Taking a trip with a local operator such as AquaRally perhaps gives you a more immersive Turkish experience. All the other swimmers were Turkish. But while we could barely communicate, they couldn’t have been more welcoming and friendly. We had an extra day after the swims and our new friends took us into the mountains where we enjoyed gözleme (a stuffed turnover) in an amazing local restaurant in a tree house. We then went to Antalya to explore the old town.

On the other hand, you will need to organise more for yourself than you might do with an international operator. There will possibly be occasions when you have no clue what is going on. It happened to us a couple of times, but we allowed ourselves to be swept along. All we really needed to know was that it involved swimming and there was food at the end. And there was plenty of both.

And isn’t it also amazing how you bond over swimming and food, even if you don’t share a language?

Other trips with AquaRally

I did “AquaRally Antalya 1”, a three-day trip exploring parts of the Lycian coast. Other trips on the AquaRally calendar this year include:

• 16 July: AquaRally Foça 1 – 25km over 5 days
• 1 August: AquaRally Assos – 13.9km over 3 days
• 16 August: AquaRally Ayvalik – 8.5km over 2 days
• 5 September: AquaRally Bozcaada – 6km over 3 days
• 10 September: AquaRally Foça 2 – 25km over 5 days
• 25 September: AquaRally Montenegro – 8km over 4 days
• 9 October: AquaRally Bozburun (Liveaboard) – 9km over 4 days
• 18 October: AquaRally Lycian Way 2 – 4k over 2 days
• 24 October: AquaRally Antalya 2 – 10.7km over 3 days (this is a repeat of the trip I did)

For international swimmers, trips generally include hotel accommodation with breakfast and daily transportation to and from the swims. Meals are typically extra. Local swimmers often make their own accommodation arrangements.

Turgut Esen – Aquarally founder

Turgut (above right) started swimming in 1973. Until 1984, he trained up to 10 kilometres per day with double daily sessions. He has participated in the Çanakkale and Istanbul Strait races for about 30 years and is a three-time overall classification winner in Çanakkale (Dardanelles/Hellespont), where he also holds the course record at 39 minutes. He has won his age group five times in the Istanbul Strait. In 2015, he won a medal in the 3km open water race at the Kazan World Masters Swimming Championship. Additionally, he is the president of Marathon Masters Sports Club, which has 90 Master swimmers.

As the founder of AquaRally, he organises swimming events at 14 different locations along the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts in Turkey, as well as in Montenegro.

Find out more about AquaRally at aquarally.org/en

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How can we train effectively and what can we do to improve our speed without compromising our technique and overall performance? Nicola Butler has your guide

In this issue we are focusing on swimming careers and a range of shorter distance goals within swimming. So how does this link with swimming in the pool? Most events this summer will be host a specific distance in open water, either through a triathlon, or a single open water swim. Some sprint triathlons still use an indoor pool or outdoor lido for their swim section, with a distance goal of around the 400m mark. Many single open water events will offer a series of shorter distance swims ranging from 250m – 1k through a series of loops or a long section.

You may also be training to become a Beach or Open Water Lifeguard, which requires you to swim 400m in a set time. With such a range of distances and goals, how can we train effectively and what can we do to improve our speed without compromising our technique and overall performance?

Speed: a simple formula that explains a lot

Swimming performance in both the pool and open water really does boil down to a simple formula:

Propulsive Force – Resistance = Acceleration

Propulsive force is the forward momentum you create with your arms and legs. Ideally, you need to generate more forward force or reduce resistance to go faster. Most swimmers focus on more power excessive pull and greater effort. Smarter swimming starts with minimising drag. The objective is to create less resistance to achieve more speed from the same amount of effort.

To swim faster and at speed, reducing drag is more effective than trying to increase power.

Now, to improve overall speed, let’s look at how drag occurs in the water and what drills, solutions and sets we can do in the pool to reduce this for shorter distance swims:

Friction drag: This is the water sliding across your skin or suit. It’s minimal, but at high speeds it matters. Solution – shaving key limbs, removing jewellery, wearing tight suits/swimwear and bullet hats.

Form drag: This is the shape of your body in the water. If your head is lifted and hips are dropped, then you’re pushing more water than needed. A long, narrow body moves faster in the water. Drill – practice tight pencil like positions in the water from pencil dives through to simple push and glides off the wall.

Wave Drag: This occurs at the surface. When you push water, you displace it and this results in waves. When you swim at speed, more waves are created. To minimise surface disruption, you must remain more streamlined in the water.

Set & top tips: Short distance sprint training

W/up – 200-400m: Easy as 50fc / 50bk

10-20 x 25m FC power sprints / rest 30 secs: Start from the wall and push off as hard as you can. Aligning the body into a narrow, pencil-like shape, extending arms overhead with hands stacked and locked, head tucked down, and core engaged to maintain a straight line. DO NOT KICK until you resurface (this is a drill). Then sprint as fast as you can with leg kick until you reach the wall. Try not to breath a lot over a 25m sprint. This drill set also helps you to practice sprinting from standstill or in deep water, which replicates many 400m swims/mass starts.

C/dwn – 200-400m: Easy choice stroke

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This year’s WaterAid Swim Marathon takes place 1 August to 24 October. Sign up today and take on this fun challenge over 12 weeks

Sponsored content

Are you looking for a bespoke swimming challenge?

The WaterAid Swim Marathon is ideal if you’re looking to tackle a big distance over a set period of time, fitting your swims around work and other commitments and swimming wherever you choose, whether it be your local indoor pool or your favourite wild swimming spot.

Every summer, the WaterAid Swim Marathon invites people to swim a half marathon (13 miles) or a full marathon (26 miles) over 12 weeks. This is to raise money for the one in 10 people who don’t have access to clean water close to home.

This year’s WaterAid Swim Marathon takes place 1 August to 24 October.

I got a head start on the challenge and began my Swim Marathon back in April. I opted to go for the full marathon of 26 miles over 12 weeks.

I’m a busy working mum so I had to have a good think about how to divide the distance into manageable chunks. I planned to do three swims a week – split between my local pool and my favourite wild swimming spots. I aimed to swim 1.2km each swim, which is 3.6km per week. At the end of the 12 weeks that’s roughly 43km, which is just over 26 miles!

I’ve been swim training for over a year now and still consider myself a beginner, so I was excited to get stuck in and use the challenge to work on my front crawl technique.

Watch Abi’s video diaries about her 26-mile challenge

PART 1: One month into my swim challenge I reveal how I’ve been coping with my wonky front crawl!

PART 2: Here I share how I’ve noticed an improvement in my crawl with a simple tweak of my catch and pull.

PART 3: In the final week of my Swim Marathon I do a 2-mile swim in my local river.

Clean water for all

Being a mum, I was particularly drawn to a story of a young woman that recently benefited from a WaterAid project. Her name is Anja, a mother, a schoolteacher and a farmer in Madagascar.

Previously, even while heavily pregnant and still working, she was having to fetch water three times a day from a small pond far away from home, which was unsafe to use.

Now thanks to the support of WaterAid, there is safe drinking water in her village – her son Dylan and other children now have more time to play and study because they have running water at their school.

It’s stories like this that kept me motivated during my challenge. There were definitely moments when I felt tired and demotivated, thinking ‘Why am I doing this?’, but I remembered that stories like Anja’s are the reason why!

How to sign up

Signing up couldn’t be easier. Simply head to swimmarathon.wateraid.org, click ‘Sign up’ and use your existing JustGiving account details to log in or set up a new account.

Choose from the half marathon or full marathon distance and your personalised fundraising page will be created upon completion. You can use this page to log your swims, fundraise and keep your friends and family up to date with your challenge!

Other info

Pick your spot: Whether it’s a leisure centre, open-air lido, a safe natural spot or a mixture of different places, work out where you’ll be completing your swims.

Plan your swims: Make sure you can cover your chosen distance by planning out your swims. From 1 August you can start splashing out those miles.

What you’ll get: WaterAid will send you a Swim Marathon swim-hat as soon as you raise over £20. If you reach your target distance and raise over £100 you’ll get an exclusive 2025 Swim Marathon finisher medal. You’ll also be invited to join WaterAid’s wonderful Facebook community who’ll support you through the challenge. You’ll also get a chance to win extra prizes through their photo competition.

The post Your summer swimming challenge is here! appeared first on Outdoor Swimmer Magazine.

Adam Comfort tells us about the exciting new chapter in his swimming career

Swimming has always been part of who I am. From my early days as a competitive swimmer to coaching young athletes to school championships, my journey has been about sharing the water and helping others grow. That’s why I’m proud to announce a new chapter – Comfort Academy is officially partnering with NOWCA to deliver the STA Level 2 Open Water Coaching qualification.

My relationship with NOWCA began at Thorpe Lake as a swim coach. Since then, I’ve coached at the Royal Docks, led national swim programmes, and earned qualifications including British Triathlon Level 2 and STA Level 2 Open Water Coaching.

Inspired? Read our Swim Careers issue!

In 2018, I became NOWCA’s Head Coach, a role that allowed me to work closely with swimmers of all abilities – helping them overcome fears, improve technique, and achieve personal bests.

Over the years, I’ve received incredible feedback from swimmers who’ve said I helped them feel more confident, more capable, and even fall in love with open water swimming. Now, I want to pass that on. Through Comfort Academy and in partnership with NOWCA and Love Open Water, I’m delivering training that empowers future coaches to do the same.

For more information about the STA Level 2 Open Water Coaching qualification, upcoming courses dates and to register your interest: nowca.org

The post My NOWCA journey from Swim Coach to Course Leader appeared first on Outdoor Swimmer Magazine.

Guiding swimmers in the water, around the world or locally in the UK sounds like a dream job, but what does it take to be a swim guide and is it as great as it looks? Ella Foote shares what it is like when swimwear is your workwear

If you have ever been on a swimming holiday hosted by expert guides and swim coaches or paid for a swimming experience with one of the many experts we have across the UK and throughout the world, you might have wondered how you could do a similar role or romanticised how a life as a swim guide might look. But behind every Insta-perfect image of a group of swimmers in an interesting location there is a whole lot of work that is unseen by many.

Merging work and pleasure can be both a joy and challenge. If your hobby becomes your job, do you still get the enjoyment and escape from the activity when you are not working? We all know the age-old saying about doing what you love and not working a day… but when money is being exchanged, it doesn’t matter what you do, you have a duty to deliver a product or service. Swim guiding is all of these things – full of joy, community, adventure and growth, but it also comes with a huge responsibility. Yes, pursuing your passion can make work feel less of a burden, but even work you love can still involve challenges, effort, stress and burnout – especially if not balanced with other aspects of life.

What is a swim guide?

In simple terms, a swim guide is a person who leads or supports others in open water swimming experiences like oceans, lakes, or rivers with a focus on safety, navigation, and enjoyment. As outdoor swimming has become increasingly popular, there have been huge developments in products, services and expertise on offer. Like with other popular pursuits, as an industry grows, so do the people in it. There is a blend of psychological, social and economic forces in action when something becomes fashionable and people don’t just rush to participate, but they also are quick to teach or guide others.

When I set up my swim-guiding business, Dip Advisor, in 2018 there was a huge gap in what was being offered to casual swimmers looking for adventure and experiences without the need for long, or challenging goals. Many people could swim but didn’t know ‘how’ to swim in open water and just wanted somewhere safe to swim, play and explore with the knowledge and comfort that someone else had scoped out the risk and was on hand to help if needed. While there is still demand for similar, there are more people who offer experience and expertise within communities. Peer support groups like The Bluetits, Mental Health Swims and open water venues are stepping into this space, which is changing the swim-landscape again.

Suzanna Cruickshank, known as Suzanna Swims, is an outdoor swim guide based in the Lake District and author of Swimming Wild in the Lake District. She set up her business in 2016 and has seen many ebbs and flows in the industry since. “The best thing about the job is facilitating experiences for people who wouldn’t otherwise do it – those who are anxious, inexperienced and those with a lack of local knowledge,” says Suzanna. “Seeing how your skills and knowledge make a positive difference for people is really rewarding. However, it can often feel like it isn’t a legitimate way to earn a living and you are doing it for altruistic reasons even though the set-up costs are eye watering. Now there is also competition with an overwhelming amount of content on social media, with dangerous online advice from inexperienced influences and there is a trend for confidence over competence.”

Why would you pay someone to swim outdoors?

On a recent trip with SwimQuest, another tourist stopped to chat to ask what we were doing and when I explained we were all on a swimming holiday they seem surprised.

“Why would you pay for someone to take you on holiday to swim,” they said. “Just go on holiday and then go swimming,” they continued with a laugh. It isn’t the first and won’t be the last time I am challenged about the need for a swim coach, guide or expert and perhaps you agree. But here’s the thing, when you have confidence in your own ability, or have a decent amount of personal experience in any discipline, it is easy to forget what it is like to be a beginner or unskilled in your chosen activity.

Today, we have access to a huge amount of free information, instruction and lessons. If you don’t know how to do something, you could search the internet and there will be someone telling you how or showing you on a video. But with swimming, especially outdoors where the environment and conditions can change in an instant, there is a level of risk that, thankfully, many people are not willing to take without proper guidance.

Swimming guides, experts and coaches don’t just rock up and take you swimming. A good guide will have a wealth of experience and skills they have learnt by doing and learning through qualifications that can keep you and them safe. A fellow swimmer may be kind enough to take you to a swim spot they wish to share, or keep you company on a more adventurous swim, but what if something went wrong? Do either of you have the knowledge and skills to make a risk assessment, rescue, problem solve or administer basic first aid?

Too often, especially in spring and summer, we read headlines about swimmers getting into difficulty and often fatalities could have been avoided with some basic information or consideration from those involved. A good guide will have a lifeguarding qualification that meets the needs of the location they are swimming, will know first aid including CPR, will understand and have knowledge of outdoor environments and how to mitigate risk. They will have insurance, perhaps a swim teaching or coaching qualification. They will know their own abilities and limitations and will take time to understand yours. Their role is to facilitate the best and most joyful experience but also keep you safe.

Location, location, location

One of the best things about swim guiding is being able to support and offer swimmers opportunity to swim in beautiful, adventurous, challenging and exciting locations. This could be a simple dip in a new-to-them location or supporting a personal challenge like crossing a Channel or swimming the length of a lake. There are some brilliant swim-holiday companies across the world such as SwimQuest, The Big Blue, Strel Swimming Adventures, SwimTrek and Active England Tours. These all offer longer swims between islands, encounters with local wildlife, swimming in clear-blue waters, companionship and support. These business spend time scoping out locations, mapping swims, risk assessing, training and organising clients. People who attend these trips often talk about life-changing experiences and meeting new friends, all while doing what they love – swimming.

Paul Parish is a swim guide and coach for SwimQuest as well as supporting swimmers who take part in charity swims for Aspire. Paul was late to learning to swim properly, not mastering a proper stroke until his late 30s, but perhaps that is what makes being supported and guided by him so enjoyable. This year Paul is taking on his own solo crossing of the English Channel, which is fitting after he has supported so many other swimmers with their goals. “I love seeing the transformation in swimmers over the course of a week on a SwimQuest trip,” says Paul. “People really grow in confidence and by day three you begin to see people transform and realise their own potential. Often people will say: ‘I can’t believe I did that / swam that far/ kept up with the group / learnt that.’ You really feel like you have been the catalyst for good.”

Blame it on the weatherman…

Working outdoors in the elements isn’t for the faint-hearted. As well as learning, understanding and scoping out forecasts and conditions leading up to a swim and before anyone dips a toe, you also have to be actively monitoring the situation as soon as swimmers enter the water. When you start really examining a swim location, you will see and understand there are often thousands of risks to people when swimming outdoors. A swim guide’s job is to mitigate the risk and in some cases, not allow swimming to take place at all, which for clients can be disappointing and frustrating. “There’s nothing more frustrating than knowing the swims you could offer but can’t put into practice because there’s a force seven blowing across the sea and all you can do is try to be creative with guests in other ways,” says Paul.

It’s difficult to disappoint people when they have paid good money and are willing to get in the water regardless. But a good swim guide puts the wellbeing and safety of the group above all else. As frustrating as it can be, there is always another chance to swim or a different way to enjoy a location; it is truly better to be safe than sorry. Because, bluntly, the alternative is putting people in danger and having to deal with a fatality. I have often made decisions that have been on the edge of what might be seen as unsafe by some but overly cautious by others. Making a risk assessment is about so much more than the swimmer and the location. It is about people’s ability to cope in the conditions based on their skill and experience. It is about ever-changing conditions and environmental factors, some you can see, some that may be upstream or across the ocean.

Gilly McArthur (pictured above left) is a cold-water swim coach working predominantly in the Lake District and Scotland. “I love finding opportunities to create work in the outdoors on my own terms,” she says. “I love giving people that first experience in cold water; it’s like throwing a pebble into still water and seeing where the ripples go. Helping people believe they are greater than they think and can achieve more is a true gift, and I never tire of seeing people’s faces light up with that experience. But, the paperwork, risk assessments, health waivers and keeping up with relevant qualifications can be arduous. The weather, especially in the north, can be tough. Sometimes, I simply don’t want to be outside getting wet with strangers!”

Sounds wild, I want to do it…

There isn’t an exhaustive list of qualifications that you need to be a swim guide, coach or expert. That is the scary thing, there isn’t one governing body to monitor, protect you and/or your clients, which means it is your job to do the research, work and qualifications required in the places you wish to guide. If you want to take people up a mountain to find remote swim spots, a mountain leader qualification is probably a good idea as well as a lifeguarding certification. If you are hoping to largely work in and around an ocean, you will need a different set of skills.

Here are some organisations to explore:

Swim teaching and coaching
• STA (Swimming Teachers Association), sta.co.uk
• Swim England, swimming.org

Lifeguarding and water safety
• RLSS (Royal Lifesaving Academy), rlss.org.uk
• RNLI (Royal Lifeboat Institute), rnli.org
• Surf Lifesaving GB, slsgb.org.uk

Mountain & outdoor skills
• Mountain Training, mountain-training.org

Boating & motorcraft
• RYA Royal Yachting Association, rya.org.uk

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There’s a growing movement to make our cities more swimmable – but what will it cost us?

In June, our editor, Ella attended the Swimmable Cities Summit in Rotterdam. There’s a growing movement to make waterways safe and accessible in urban areas.

Overall, this must be a good thing – and you can read Ella’s full article in the July/August edition of Outdoor Swimmer magazine.

• Read on Outdoor Swimmer Extra (Outdoor Swimmer Extra subscription required)
• Read on Pocket Mags (free access with an Outdoor Swimmer print subscription)

But I have some concerns.

Take Paris, for example. Three sites have been created for open water swimming. This is fantastic to showcase the progress made in cleaning up the Seine but it’s hardly wild swimming. It’s time-restricted, lifeguarded and only open until the end of August.

Meanwhile, in London, swimming in the Thames downstream of Putney Bridge is not allowed at all. The Port of London Authority prohibits it due to safety concerns, despite growing interest in urban swimming.

What do we want?

This raises an important question: should we be pushing for something like Paris has (controlled, supervised access), or do we want the freedom to swim as and when we like, as we can already do upstream of Putney Bridge?

For example, the other day, I joined a group of swimmers at Richmond and swooshed down to Kew Bridge on a falling tide. It was fun, fast, wild and free. For experienced, sober swimmers, it was also low risk – but I admit that entering a fast-flowing river without a plan would be dangerous, especially for inexperienced swimmers.

So, do the steps Paris has taken pave the way for a broader acceptance of unrestricted swimming in the future? Or do they send a message that the only way to allow people into the water is to pen them into restricted, supervised areas?

This is not an unwarranted worry. An ambulance worker in Wiltshire recently launched a petition calling for a ban on unsupervised deep river swimming, citing safety concerns after several drownings.

I hope that the creation of safe urban swimming spots encourages more people into the water, increases the pressure to clean up our rivers, and creates momentum for a wider acceptance of unrestricted swimming. But I fear that the development of controlled urban swimming areas will lead to calls to restrict the type of wild and free swimming that many of us enjoy.

Which way do you think it will – or should – go? As ever, feel free to reply and let us know.

The post Is urban swimming a threat to swimming freedom? appeared first on Outdoor Swimmer Magazine.

The Rivers Trust’s interactive Sewage Map has helped us understand where and when sewage is being released in England in Wales for the past six years. Now, Scottish near-real-time data is live.

In December last year, the Rivers Trust made a big step forward by adding near-real-time sewage alerts for all water companies in England. Where the data is available, you can now also see live sewage discharge information from Scottish water companies.

This data helps us better understand what is entering the water right now, and it also enables the Rivers Trust to hold polluters accountable.

Additionally, amber points on the map now show discharges from the last 48 hours, rather than just the last 24 hours. This is important to help you make more informed decisions before heading to the river.

We’ll keep pushing for better data and greater transparency, so everyone can understand what’s really happening in their local rivers.

The post Rivers Trust updates sewage map appeared first on Outdoor Swimmer Magazine.

From brainwave to making waves – how SwimForTri and Drag2Zero created an innovative technical swim paddle from scratch

Do you have a brilliant idea for a new swim product? One that could perhaps transform people’s swimming journeys and help them master a fundamental technique point.

How do you take that idea from a rough sketch on a scrap of paper to a physical, saleable product?

This was the problem facing Swim4Tri (SFT) founder and head coach Dan Bulluck back in 2012, when he first mapped out his vision for what became the Otion technical swim paddle.

Dan is a world-leading swimming coach and expert, but at that point he had no knowledge of product development.

Chance encounter

By chance, Dan met Simon Smart, the founder of Drag2Zero, who did know about product development, but had little swimming experience. Simon was a keen cyclist and wanted to give triathlon a go. Here’s how he tells the story.

“I could run and ride a bike but had never swum competitively. [Triathlon coach] Joe Beer invited me along to one of his triathlon camps at Club a La Santa in Lanzarote – and that’s where I met Dan and the SFT team. I instantly bought into Dan’s philosophy of focusing on technique first, and my swimming came on incredibly quickly. Until that swim camp, it had never occurred to me that the concept was identical to cycling: you can produce all the power you want, but without a good position, you are wasting your time.”

Partnership opportunity

Despite their different professional backgrounds, Dan and Simon discovered they had a lot in common. Dan was trying to find the best coaching methods to teach swimmers to get the right compromise between technique and fitness. Drag2zero was doing exactly the same on the bike, finding a position that gave the best compromise for power, drag, speed and sustainability.

Simon picks up the story again here:

“During the swim camps, Dan and I talked about the challenges of business in the multi-sport world and how to develop products to achieve our goals. The Drag2zero business has evolved from 2007, when it was about teaching people to hold an optimum position on a bike using a wind tunnel, to today, where an athlete can buy a cockpit that instantly optimises the bike and body aerodynamics, providing efficiency, speed and sustainability. We developed those cockpit products to enable that.

“In parallel to the journey Drag2Zero has been on in the cycling world, we have been working with Dan to try and develop equipment to achieve the same goal in the swim world.”

The Otion Swim paddle vision

Dan needed a product to instigate a relaxed hand and to control finger spacing – ideally your fingers should be around 4mm apart rather than either clamped together or spread wide. By 2015, he had produced the first prototype of the Otion paddle but was unable to find anyone with the expertise to develop the product and take it to market. After several chats, the Drag2zero/SFT collaboration was born.

“Everything we have ever designed and developed at Drag2Zero is derived through necessity, as opposed to merely being a design exercise. With everything manufactured in the UK, it has been possible to repeat the design-manufacture-test-develop cycle many times. That’s how we end up with products that work.

“The Otion paddle development has followed this methodology. Since 2015, we have made endless prototypes and gradually improved every detail. Designed at Silverstone, printed by rapid prototype specialists Project 76 in Peterborough and tested in London by Dan (initially in secret and then after we had patent protection in place, with a wider audience at Dan’s swim classes).

“You couldn’t ask for a better scenario for developing a product before taking it to market. It’s taken a long time, but we needed to be sure it was right before committing to manufacturing.”

Multiple iterations

During the development process, the team worked through around 30 variations until prototype 10d gave them what they were looking for: a paddle that behaves like a personal swim coach, gives you instant feedback and gets you swimming efficiently. At this point, they knew they had something special and needed to get patent protection on the invention before they could get it into the public domain.

But the paddle didn’t just have to be perfect for swimmers – it needed to be designed for manufacture. It became clear that the only option was to injection mould the complicated 3D shapes that are essential to achieve a relaxed hand and the ‘transparent experience’ you get when using the paddle correctly (meaning that you almost shouldn’t know it’s there).

Dimples

When you pick up a pair of Otion paddles, you’ll notice that the top size has dimples while the bottom is smooth. This isn’t an accident. During design, they found dimples on top were important for grip, but dimpling on the lower surface affected the feel when gliding the paddle through the water. They even tested different dimple heights!

It took around five years to arrive at the final design and to be in a position to commit to manufacture. Having designed and developed the product in the UK, and with the current economic challenges post-covid, it made sense to also manufacture in the UK.

“This is something the team are proud of,” says Simon, before adding that the pandemic certainly drew out the process.

“Mould making is a declining art in the UK, but they finally had the product in their hands. The moulds were made locally in Northamptonshire, and the injection moulding is done in Shropshire.”

So, if you do have a brilliant idea for a revolutionary swim product, it looks like you need two things: the right partner(s) and the determination and patience to keep working on your product until it’s ready for market.

You can read our Otion Paddles review here.

Otion Paddles are available online here.

About SwimForTri

Founded in 2003 by Dan Bullock with his sister Keeley, SFT was looking to help adults of all abilities to swim faster at a time when this was not really a big thing. Dan has coached with the GB Tri Coach Steve Trew Tri Camp and the Joe Beer Tri camp. He is a former British Masters Record holder and medallist at Euro and World Masters Championships.

About Drag2Zero

Drag2Zero was founded in 2007 by Simon Smart who at that time was an aerodynamicist at Red Bull F1. He saw that aerodynamics was not at that time really being used in cycling to their full potential and was looking to bring aero to more people. At that time, aerodynamics were only really considered important in track and time trial events (and even then, it was hard to convince many that it made much of a difference). Drag2Zero set up the first wind tunnel testing service available commercially in Europe, allowing cyclists to optimise their rider position and Simon very soon was designing products for the likes of Giant Bikes, Scott Sports, ENVE Composites and Endura clothing, working on optimising products aerodynamically. Their product development and rider position optimisation work quickly proved to be effective and knowledge was transferred over to the world of triathlon.

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Sometimes the dreams that get away make the best books, as Simon Griffiths finds out from sports presenter Vassos Alexander during a swim in the Thames

Vassos Alexander had a simple plan: swim the English Channel and write a book celebrating his triumph.

Minor spoiler alert. He didn’t manage to swim across the English Channel. But he did write a book. Not the book he had promised his publisher but, in his assessment, a better one.

You might know Vassos as a sports presenter on Virgin Radio. You may have read his running books. I read his Don’t Stop Me Now: 26.2 Tales of a Runner’s Obsession long before I met him for the first time.

His new book, Swimmingly: Adventures in Water, is the result of Vassos not swimming the English Channel. It chronicles his journey into swimming, starting from childhood memories in Greece, where he associated swimming with freedom and adventure, to rediscovering the joy and challenge of outdoor swimming during the pandemic.

In Swimmingly, the Channel serves as a MacGuffin – something that drives the plot forwards, is essential to the protagonist, but turns out to have little relevance to the book’s core themes. Instead, it’s the journey that matters and the self-discovery, friendships and adventures that it enables.

I met Vassos for a swim in the Thames near Teddington Lock. It’s a spot he’s familiar with as he restarted his connection with swimming here during the pandemic and now occasionally swims with the local Bluetits group. It’s immediately clear that he’s evangelically passionate about swimming outdoors, in all its forms.

“I love it,” he says, with huge emphasis on the word love. “Yes, I’m a runner, but I’m equally a swimmer now. I find myself swimming more and more. It’s just lovely. It’s life affirming. You’re right there, in nature. Right in nature. And you come out feeling reborn. Every time. As you can tell, I’m a bit besotted.”

He tells me that he’s become especially attached to cold water swimming. So much so, in fact, that he feels melancholic for winter when spring rolls around. He’s even installed an ice bath in his garden so he can continue getting his cold water fix in the summer.

Out of time

We then spoke about the strangeness of his experience of time on long distance swims. For Vassos, the first 20 minutes or so of a long swim are a struggle and seem to take for ever.

“They’re horrific,” he says. “But then something happens in your brain. You sort of become at one with your stroke, the water, the feel of the water over your skin, and then hours can go by in what feels like seconds.

“It’s sensory deprivation. You can’t see. You can’t hear. It’s just, your stroke and your breath. I lose myself. It’s like magic.”

Respect

Vassos confesses that he didn’t give the English Channel the respect it deserves and put on the weight he needed to. As an accomplished endurance athlete he believed his mental strength and staying power would carry him through.

He says, “I thought I could haphazard my way through the Channel, as I do with the rest of my life. But it turns out, with the Channel, you can’t.”

All through training, and writing the book in parallel, his assumption was that it would end with him standing on a beach in France, arms raised in triumph.

Instead, he says the book has turned into a celebration of swimming and the many swimmers he spoke or swam with on his swimming journey.

“And it’s better for it,” he says.

A leisurely dip

For our swim, I wasn’t sure if Vassos wanted to pound out a training session or enjoy a leisurely dip and chat. His swimming costume choice of baggy beach shorts suggested the latter, but then he pulled out a pair of serious looking googles and a swimming cap, and I started worrying he wanted to get a few miles in. “They’re for the photos,” he explained, when he saw my apprehension.

It turned out it was his second swim of the day and he’d also been in the gym for a workout. I was also just back from the pool. We swam a few minutes of head down front crawl, just to prove we could, and then, by mutual unspoken agreement, switched to head-up breaststroke. We pottered and chatted for around 20 minutes, then went for a cup of tea. It was one of the most pleasant interviews I’ve ever done.

Vassos Alexander’s new book ‘Swimmingly: Adventures in Water’ is published by Bloomsbury

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The first Swimmable Cities summit was held in Rotterdam in the Netherlands last month. It started with a ‘big splash’ on International Bathing Day. Ella Foote jumped in and discovered there is hope for our waterways. 

It wasn’t just world leaders gathering in the Netherlands in June, over 200 representatives from over 20 countries united and plunged into the water at the world’s first Swimmable Cities Summit in Rotterdam. British Olympian Toby Robinson and American Ultramarathon swimmer Katie Pumphrey were among the delegates who started the summit with an ‘opening splash’ into Rotterdam’s Rijnhaven, one of the oldest ports on the south bank of the Nieuwe Maas River. The summit was held less than a year into the beginning of an international alliance that includes 153 organisations across 83 cities and towns, and 30 countries.  

The Swimmable Cities alliance was formed after the project to clean up the River Seine climaxed at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The summit builds on work done in Paris and across other European cities to create a global network of swimmable urban waterways. “Last summer, I took part in one of the most significant and talked about swims in history – the marathon swimming event at the Paris Olympic Games,” says Team GB athlete Toby Robinson. “That moment demonstrated to me that The Olympic Games can be a force for change, inspiring tangible action to make cleaner, healthier waterways for entire urban populations and this week I was at the summit to put my weight behind this important global movement.” 

A three-day programme of presentations, workshops (with swimming breaks) brought together government, grassroot communities and business leaders to explore the development of urban swimming. As cities and communities across the world face climate change, biodiversity loss and increasing urbanisation, people are rediscovering and reclaiming their rivers and harbours. It isn’t just the UK that has seen an increase in wild and outdoor swimming, there is a growing international community who love to swim. But many of the world’s waterways remain unsafe, unhealthy and inaccessible for swimmers and wildlife. There is an urgent need for better collaboration around improvement strategies and, crucially, better data to determine the ‘swimmability’ of the world’s urban water.  

The summit was held on the banks of the Nieuwe Maas River in the Rijnhaven which is now home to a floating park and designated swimming area, the only legal place to swim in Rotterdam’s city centre. It is a great example of what a city can do when it commits to water management and climate change. “Rotterdam is a city shaped by water – and increasingly, reclaimed by it in the best possible way. Hosting the world’s first Swimmable Cities Summit reflects our deep commitment to creating healthy, inclusive and climate-resilient urban environments,” says City of Rotterdam Vice Mayor, Pascal Lansink-Bastemeijer. “This summit is not just about swimming – it’s about restoring our relationship with water, and leading together toward cleaner, more liveable cities for future generations.” 

The summit explored several themes which included, governance around the right to swim and nature rights, waterway restoration and water quality, swimming communities, investment from public and private partnerships, water literacy and education and water diplomacy across nations. “Access to water should be a civil right, not a nice to have” says Toby. “Nothing is free in London, but here anyone can turn up and swim, for free, in the Rijnhaven and as a result the area is buzzing with energy. Local restaurants, cafes and bars are full, it isn’t just healthy for the community it is healthy for the local economy too. If swimmers are thriving, then their city is.” 

“Every citizen should feel that urban waterways are theirs to experience and protect,” says Oumaima Ouaissa, Youth Leader at Wavemakers United, a non-profit community of students, young professionals, and athletes with a passion for water. “Clean and safe urban waterways are not just environmental assets, they are vital spaces for connection, health and wellbeing.”

The Swimmable Cities alliance has launched an international research initiative to establish a baseline for the swimmability of urban waterways worldwide. This means collaboration across environmental science, urban planning, public health and community engagement. It is about establishing ‘swimmability’ as an indicator for urban liveability; with specific criteria to benchmark waterway health, accessibility, biodiversity, and social impact. The process will allow cities to measure progress, share best practices, and accelerate the transformation of polluted or neglected waterways into safe and swimmable public spaces. “This Summit demonstrates that city swimming is not just possible, it’s a right.  By the time a city is swimmable, it is more climate resilient, healthier and more equitable,” says Matt Sykes, Co-Founder & Convenor, Swimmable Cities. 

While the UK is plagued with media reports of ecologically dead rivers, dumped sewage and poor water quality, you could assume we are alone in our issues. But not only are Brits world-famous for their love of wild water, we lead when it comes to community groups connecting and swimming regardless. The act of swimming has become an act of protest, whether that is for access to water, clean bathing areas or protection of our environments. The summit highlighted common issues across borders and rather than that feeling bleak, it felt quietly hopeful. If water can bring us together from our local communities to form a global bond, then Swimmable Cities could be a strategy for our world leaders to pay attention to. It demonstrates that urban swimming is not just a passing trend but a movement that could have social, economic and climate benefits. 

Swimmable Cities Charter 

The purpose: 

– Making peace with nature 

– Promoting the rights to life 

– Empowering people in practice 

– Swimming to sustainable development 

– Investing in a better future for all 

– Connecting south, north, east & west 

Founding Principles 

1. THE RIGHT TO SWIM: 

Safe, healthy and swimmable waterways should be accessible to all people. 

2. ONE HEALTH, MANY SWIMMERS: 

Swimmable urban waterways are vital to the liveability of cities and communities, as shared civic places that promote the health of people 

3. URBAN SWIMMING CULTURE: 

Urban swimming culture is a unique expression of life in cities and communities, reflecting the distinct interplay of sports, recreation and tourism. 

4. WATER IS SACRED: 

Urban swimming should celebrate natural waterways as living, integrated entities that nurture communities, promoting universal accessibility and peaceful coexistence inclusive of religious, cultural and gender diversity. 

5. REWRITING THE RULES: 

Urban waterway swimming should become part of a new status quo in public access standards with governing authorities swiftly amending legal and regulatory frameworks to enable citizens access to its benefits. 

6. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION IN SWIMMING PLACES: 

Urban swimming places and experiences should be planned, designed, made and operated through inclusive, integrated water management approaches. 

7. RECONNECTION & RESILIENCE: 

Urban swimming places and experiences should be invested in as an innovative way to enable resilient communities to adapt and thrive in a changing global climate, environment and economy. 

8. NEW ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES 

Urban swimming development models should balance social, cultural, ecological and economic values, creating new jobs, careers and livelihoods in regenerative professions and industries. 

9. SHARING WELLBEING BENEFITS, CULTURE & KNOWLEDGE: 

Urban swimming should create wellbeing benefits to local citizens, ecosystems and economies; enhanced by the respectful sharing of Indigenous, traditional and Western water culture knowledge. 

10. STEWARDSHIP FOR TODAY, TOMORROW & FUTURE GENERATIONS: 

Urban swimmers are stewards responsible for protecting the health of their local waterways, working alongside Mother Earth’s closest carers, such as Indigenous peoples, rangers and waterkeepers as well as urbanists, architects, social changemakers, educators and policy-makers. 

For more information or to get involved, visit swimmablecities.org 

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