Another New Year swim done!

These reckless swimmers put rescuers lives at risk.

Well done!

I love to swim in the sea, but most definitely not in this cold 🥶🥶🥶

But not all winter swimmers are reckless Grantanow many follow the rules of both common sense and the area, just like people driving, most follow carefully the rules of the road, but some don’t and may get a very bad end result.

Primrose53

This daft craze for “wild swimming” makes me laugh. People think it’s trendy - my old schoolfriend told me in Sept that she was just back from wild swimming. I asked where and she said “in the sea”. I said “ but that’s just swimming. Where does the “wild” come in?”

Growing up on the coast and seeing the sea from my bedroom window, myself and all the other local kids swam almost daily from Easter through to when we went back to school in Sept but we never swam in winter because we knew the dangers and our parents would never allow it. We respected the sea and tides.

After the tragedies in the past few days let’s hope the message gets through to people that it is foolhardy and unfair on the rescue services. If you want the feeling of being in icy water just take a cold shower!

My not-dear-sister in law “wild swims” it’s so ludicrous, it’s simply outdoor swimming! We gafaw everything time she uses this ridiculous expression!

BlueBelle

But not all winter swimmers are reckless Grantanow many follow the rules of both common sense and the area, just like people driving, most follow carefully the rules of the road, but some don’t and may get a very bad end result.

I completely agree!

We have a bunch of swim every day swimmers in (not so) sunny Sarfend and they do it in groups very safely.

Irresponsible swimmers and sailors sadly do exist all the year around, countrywide, just like irresponsible hikers, but they are very much in the minority

I have this picture in my head of all the people who didn’t drown at Withernsea smugly saying
“It wasn’t too dangerous for me!”

The man was trying to save the lives of a mother and daughter, who I believe had got swept into the sea. I should imagine we all feel the same, whether we were at Withernsea or not, just huge sadness for the lives lost. A fifteen year old girl, her mother and a 67 year old man who lost his life trying to save the lives of other people.

Mollygo

I have this picture in my head of all the people who didn’t drown at Withernsea smugly saying
“It wasn’t too dangerous for me!”

The Whithernsea drownings were not caused because someone had chosen to swim.

The girl who drowned was not swimming but standing far too close to huge waves crashing over and was dragged into the sea. Naturally her mother jumped into save her and also drowned. As I suspected they were not locals so were probably not aware of the danger of being so close.

The brave man who also drowned also went in to help. All very tragic but people must respect the power of the sea and not put themselves in danger.

It wasn’t that long ago there was a pic in the national press of a couple with a baby in a buggy or pram standing on the edge of a promenade with waves crashing all around and going over their heads. Absolute madness.

Condolences to all the families.

Why are people so dismissive of people calling those who swim outside normal swimming pools because they are called 'wild swimmers'

The reason it is called 'wild' swimming is because over the last 40 years or more if someone said they enjoyed swimming it would automatically be assumed they were swimming in some warm municipal pool safe from all danger.

In fact for uite a lot of that time swimming other than in warm indoor pools was actively discouraged.

I can remember reading all kinds of articles of the dangers of swimming outside nicely regulated swimming pools, the diseases that lurked in nautural water courses, lakes and gravel pits, the weeds, and parasites etc that would get you.

Wild swimming as a term and a way of swimming was resuscitated by a a small handful of non-swimming pool people to describe what they did because they were fed up with constantly having to explain to people, that no, they didn't swim in swimming pool, they swum in those water sources considered so dangerous by HSE and other jobsworth. They swam in rivers, lakes, the sea etc.

Next time you want to guffaw when someone describes themselves as awild swimmer, think back to when you would have assumed anyone who said they enjoyed swimming, swam in a nice indoor pool. You are the reason this namewas coined.

Also wild swimming is very different to pool swimming. Where you are in a controlled environment, temperature assured, lovely warm changing facilities. Wild swimming is to swimming pool swimming as fell walking is to walking aroundyour local park.

Why are people so dismissive of people calling those who swim outside normal swimming pools because they are called 'wild swimmers'.
Dismissive? Really?
I’m just pointing out that all the swimmers who didn’t die or contribute to someone else’s death or risking life at Withernsea were as guilty of stupidity as those who did.

Growing up on the coast we went “swimming”. We swam in the sea but we didn’t need to preface it with the word “wild”. It was just swimming.

The use of the word “wild” must be like saying “wild camping”. Which basically means camping where you don’t have to pay site fees and you pee and poo in the undergrowth. rather like the fakers in The Salt Path book/film claim they did. 😉

We have several campsites advertised here with wild swimming. I take it to mean swimming in a lake or in the sea as opposed to a pool. It sort of conjures up being off grid with a feeling of adventure.

Sea swimming is rarely described as 'wild' swimming. no one going on holiday in warm weather to paddle with children is going to call it wild swimming, and I am not sure that any of those swimming in the sea at Christmas would describe it as wild swimming. In fact most of those on beaches in the aftermath of Christmas actually swim. The majority walk into the water up to about their waists and then retreat.

Originally 'wild' swimming meant swimming in natural waters like rivers, lakes etc inland at a time when HSE and other authorities reacted as if to swim anywhere other than a nice chlorinated pool was to risk death ot a life time of disease and disablement.

I can remember the first 'wild' swimmers wrote books about their exciting discovery of swimming in natural waters and the difficulties they had being allowed to do so. The term 'wild' was used to differentiate it from the 'domesticated' swimming done in a man made heated pool.

Looking back it seems incredible that at one stage we became so bureaucratically namby pamby, that swimming in rivers and lakes. Things most of us did as children as a normal activity should have been so tideid away and banned that when someone started doing it again, they faced the opposition they did and had to give it a new name to seperate it from pool swimming, which is what most people have only experienced (except on the beach in summer)

I would understand that wild swimming advertised at a campsite would be shorthand for...we have no swimming pool but you can swim in the lake. There is no lifeguard and the lake bottom can be stony, the wster cold and there are no changing rooms.
That would be a sensible use of the words. But swimming in the sea at any time of the year in my book is just swimming. Or maybe sea swimming as opposed to river swimming. I shall google the term and see what AI has to say.

The Withernsea tragedy is just that. An accident with the most awful heartbreak for all the families involved and the town itself.

AI basically says that wild swimming AKA open water swimming is swimming in unrestricted bodies of water such as lakes, rivers, waterfalls and seas.
So those calling their swims in the sea as wild swimming are technically correct according to AI, bur maybe a bit OTT.

Someone I knew was drowned several years ago whilst walking his dog on a beach. His dog got swept into the sea and he tried to save it. He drowned but the dog survived. No one described him as "stupid" he acted instinctively just like the mother and the brave man who died at Withernsea. The daughter who was swept off the steps was involved in an unfortunate accident. Why there's this need to put blame on people who have lost their lives and denigrate people who enjoy a dip in the sea is totally beyond me. We can't all live by the sea and many who do rely on visitors to keep the local economy going. Fgs let's try to be a little kinder and more inclusive in 2026.

I'm pleased that others are willing to risk their own lives to save others. It shows that the compassionate side of human nature is inherent in most people. The man who was drowned in Budleigh was already exiting the water and returned to save a lady who stumbled. Even children leaving the burning bar in Switzerland went back to rescue their friends. Kindness above everything.

HelterSkelter1

AI basically says that wild swimming AKA open water swimming is swimming in unrestricted bodies of water such as lakes, rivers, waterfalls and seas.
So those calling their swims in the sea as wild swimming are technically correct according to AI, bur maybe a bit OTT.

Yes, interesting HelterSkelter.

I live on the Jurassic Coast, and much literature here, including the publication Visit Devon, lists our beaches as suitable for coastal wild swimming. Like at Beer, for example. Access to the sea is often beneath large cliffs, and the beaches are quite private. Budleigh has a nude wild swimming area too.

“Jurassic Coast” ? 🤔. Tourist Board and Advertisers tag. We holidayed down there for decades as my inlaws lived in Devon and nobody called it that in the 80s and 90s.

M0nica

Sea swimming is rarely described as 'wild' swimming. no one going on holiday in warm weather to paddle with children is going to call it wild swimming, and I am not sure that any of those swimming in the sea at Christmas would describe it as wild swimming. In fact most of those on beaches in the aftermath of Christmas actually swim. The majority walk into the water up to about their waists and then retreat.

Originally 'wild' swimming meant swimming in natural waters like rivers, lakes etc inland at a time when HSE and other authorities reacted as if to swim anywhere other than a nice chlorinated pool was to risk death ot a life time of disease and disablement.

I can remember the first 'wild' swimmers wrote books about their exciting discovery of swimming in natural waters and the difficulties they had being allowed to do so. The term 'wild' was used to differentiate it from the 'domesticated' swimming done in a man made heated pool.

Looking back it seems incredible that at one stage we became so bureaucratically namby pamby, that swimming in rivers and lakes. Things most of us did as children as a normal activity should have been so tideid away and banned that when someone started doing it again, they faced the opposition they did and had to give it a new name to seperate it from pool swimming, which is what most people have only experienced (except on the beach in summer)

Oh come off it MOnica!

People have always swum in those places but they didn't write books about it!

Not everyone lived near the sea or could even access a municipal swimming baths.

In summer lots of people went for a swim in the local res and rivers etc...

We've been called The Jurassic Coast for 25+ years Primrose. Not just by the Tourist Board, but by UNESCO when the area became officially designated as a World Heritage Site.
Everything bears the label now!

I think if it was described as “ open water swimming” rather than “ wild” swimming would people be so snooty about it? I think open water swimming has become more popular since lockdown, when indoor pools were closed. Yes, it was more commonplace in the past, but went out of favour a bit when more local leisure centre pools became available - my early swimming experience was in an open air lido, which alas, is no longer there, but more people are now going to lidos where they still exist.

keepingquiet

M0nica

Sea swimming is rarely described as 'wild' swimming. no one going on holiday in warm weather to paddle with children is going to call it wild swimming, and I am not sure that any of those swimming in the sea at Christmas would describe it as wild swimming. In fact most of those on beaches in the aftermath of Christmas actually swim. The majority walk into the water up to about their waists and then retreat.

Originally 'wild' swimming meant swimming in natural waters like rivers, lakes etc inland at a time when HSE and other authorities reacted as if to swim anywhere other than a nice chlorinated pool was to risk death ot a life time of disease and disablement.

I can remember the first 'wild' swimmers wrote books about their exciting discovery of swimming in natural waters and the difficulties they had being allowed to do so. The term 'wild' was used to differentiate it from the 'domesticated' swimming done in a man made heated pool.

Looking back it seems incredible that at one stage we became so bureaucratically namby pamby, that swimming in rivers and lakes. Things most of us did as children as a normal activity should have been so tideid away and banned that when someone started doing it again, they faced the opposition they did and had to give it a new name to seperate it from pool swimming, which is what most people have only experienced (except on the beach in summer)

Oh come off it MOnica!

People have always swum in those places but they didn't write books about it!

Not everyone lived near the sea or could even access a municipal swimming baths.

In summer lots of people went for a swim in the local res and rivers etc...

Yes of course they did, but in my children's childhoods (1970 to around 2000), it was actively discouraged. Swimmers were banned from swimming in many previously widely used swimming areas in rivers and pools, DH had swum in his local river with most of the rest of the small town he was born and brought up in. By the time we had children it was closed. The usual reasons given were polluted waters, dangers of disease, weed growth and half a dozen other reasons.

I suspect the real reason was, with swimming pools being built in every town, town councils wanted people paying to use their nice new pools to cover the cost of building and running them. River and lake swimming was free, so needed to be discouraged. My children spent much of their childhood in an area riddled with gravel pits and rivers. I cannot remember there being any being open tfor swimmers. It was all Danger signs and 'Trespassers will be prosecuted'.

However when DC were still paddlers I did know a quiet place on our local river. It was down a footpath and had a nice gravelly 'beach'. We would wander down there in hot weather and set up camp by the river, with a snack and drinks. had we been seen by anyone official, we would have been sent about our business and I would have been warned abut putting my children in danger. It happened to others.

MartavTaurus

We've been called The Jurassic Coast for 25+ years Primrose. Not just by the Tourist Board, but by UNESCO when the area became officially designated as a World Heritage Site.
Everything bears the label now!

Thanks. So what I said was correct. Prior to 2000 it wasn’t called The Jurassic Coast. We had great holidays down there for many years.