Graham Shapiro is an award-winning British inventor, designer & digital entrepreneur and when he signed up to swim our Great Lake District Swim Challenge (also known as the Graham Shapiro Swim Challenge) to raise money in support of his charitable foundation we were thrilled.
In this article we hope to provide you with all the information you need to help you to choose the right size of swim socks for you. It is based on our extensive experience at our Ambleside shop in fitting our customers with neoprene socks for swimming.
In this article we hope to provide you with all the information you need to help you to choose the right size of swim glove for you. It is based on our extensive experience at our Ambleside shop in fitting our customers with neoprene gloves for swimming.
You may have seen on social media the different ways swimmers are getting their water fix; in endless pools, paddling pools and tethered pool set-ups in the back garden. Many regular outdoor swimmers have found some water to quell their thirst and are swimming where it is safe to do so in local lakes [...]
Blue green algae and swimming: Summer has arrived in the Lake District and locals and visiting swimmers alike are enjoying exceptional swimming conditions in one of the most diverse wild swimming destinations in the world. In our local lake Windermere alone we enjoy 3 Environment Agency Designated Bathing Areas with exceptional water quality. However, while we open water swimmers love the calm and sunny weather, conditions are also perfect for the growth of blue-green algae, some forms of which can be harmful to both people and animals. This article aims to inform the open water swimmer of the facts and to help them choose safe swimming locations in the Lake District.
As the gills, becks and rivers link all of the different types of wild swimming covered in this series of articles, river swimming in the Lake District is really good fun and is the best way to pass a lazy summers day on holiday. Blue lining is one of our favourite things to do – get out your map and look for the blue lines (rivers), that’s where the adventure begins and all you need to do is find the best places to swim. Here are our top 3 river swimming spots to get you started
Swimming in a swirling dub amidst a remote Lake District fell is the epitome of wild swimming. Whenever I’m guiding swimmers during an adventure swimming day out, it is always the wild swimming in the pools of the Lake District that puts big smiles on faces. It the kind of swimming you may have done as a child and it is an absolute delight to rediscover it as an adult.
The Lake District is the spiritual home of lake swimming in Britain and is a world class swimming destination. With some of the longest natural lakes in the country and hundreds of smaller lakes and tarns to swim, there really is lake swimming for all here. Find out where the best lake swimming is located and what to do when you get there. Better still, come swimming with the experts at Swim the Lakes on some of our favourite local swims.
Tarn Swimming in the Lake District There is nothing quite like the experience of tarn swimming; it takes you to the very soul of a place. A true tarn is formed between the enclosing arms of a cirque as a glacier melts and recedes, forming a small mountain lake. Thanks to the dramatic location [...]
Swimming at night is an amazing experience that should be on your bucket list, but please do it safely, here we share our experience and tips on how to go lake swimming in the dark. How to go Lake Swimming in the dark: Do a daylight recce: check entry and exit points, potential dangers, [...]
We often get asked 'which Lakes can you swim in the Lake District?' But access to our beautiful lakes shouldn't be confusing if you are armed with the right information and a map. Always ensure you access any lake or water using public access, i.e. a public footpath / bridleway and follow the countryside [...]
The Thermal Helix is based on blue seventy’s top wetsuit, the Helix. It has all of the major design features of the Helix, a suit that is regarded to be one of the best wetsuits around. It has the 5-5-4 mm construction (5 mm neoprene in the chest and torso, 4 mm in the [...]
We’ve already covered Cold Water Swimming Tips and Wetsuits for Cold Water Swimming in previous articles. But what about the bits of you that often feel the cold the most? Wetsuit wearers as well as winter dippers and potential Ice Swimmers who forgo the wetsuit can still benefit from wearing neoprene accessories to stave off frost nipped extremities as well as use of the ubiquitous Dryrobe or Robie for instant, post-swim cosiness.
Temperatures are dropping and you are struggling to find swimming friends, BUT YOU STILL WANT TO SWIM OUTSIDE! Well, I’m with you on that one; years of swimming outdoors have given me a serious aversion to over-chlorinated indoor pools and busy swim lanes. Why put up with that when I can have the whole lake to myself… in December… when it’s bloody freezing…
So… you’ve fallen in love with open water swimming and you can’t bear the fact that the season will end and you want to swim right throughout the winter? Or are you are one of the growing number of competitive swimmers and triathletes that want to push your boundaries in freezing cold conditions outside of the traditionally accepted temperature parameters of your sport?
Switch the lights off and everything is more exciting isn’t it? Add swimming in a remote tarn, a moonlit mountain backdrop or even a twinkling lakeside town and you have something really special, Night Swimming in the Lake District. I remember when we first started night swimming as a way of prolonging our weekly [...]
Getting the perfect size wetsuit for open water swimming is quite an art form, we've put these tips together to help you get the wetsuit on correctly and to get the fit right first time. Fit is everything with a swimming wetsuit - too tight and you'll feel restricted, too big and you'll be [...]
My top tip for this week is a lovely area of the South Lakes to swim as it has multiple swimming options, and a good café and pubs nearby too if the weather gets really miserable and you need to put your escape route option into play. I have also seen the otters and the lovely goldeneye ducks fishing and playing around here over the past two weeks which is always a lovely sight.
