Tony Forbes and Col Ritchie are regulars at the annual Pierto Pub ocean swim in Lorne, Victoria. This can be a fierce race, when swimming can be a contact sport. Notwithstanding this, this fearsome duo amount nearly a century and a half of life experience between them, and swimming enough Pier toPubs leads to the honour of receiving a shark bait award, two or more if you live long enough and/or you don’t get taken by a shark. Tony and Col take it seriously enough to train regularly in their local pool. Which is where I jointhem, one crisp Australian spring morning.

Sarah Quinn taught me to say ‘You never regret a swim’ and Ihave been saying it now for decades. And I don’t and nor does she and nor does Amenah McDonald. Sarah and Amenah have a beautiful connection through the ocean atOcean Grove, Australia. Amenah plans her week around how the surf is going to be, while Sarah reads the water every morning on the way to dropping her kids off at school. Both live close to the ocean and are in every day if it letsthem – the water is their friend, but sometimes it can be treacherous. Amenah is Captain and Director of Lifesaving Operations at Ocean Grove Lifesaving Club, overseeing safety at this beach. In the summer, there can be up to 10,000people here, and maintaining safety is paramount, while not getting in the way of people’s enjoyment of the water. There is a lively group of women who swim and surf here, and they follow their swims with a weekly life debrief – how islife treating you, what’s going on, whats troubling you? Life revolves around the water here, and companionship is key. This podcast was recorded at the look-out tower that is the focal point for safety here, the Ocean Grove Lifesaving Club.

Stanley Ulijaszek offers some reflections about swimming in Victoria in Australia on the coast at Queenscliffe. On a beautifulbeach, long and stretching towards a point to the left and another to theright, at Point Lonsdale. A swim with a Hopper-esque sailboat sailing in gentlebut business-like fashion, in front of the lighthouse that signals the pointwhere Australia lost a Prime Minister to the water and to the waves. RustCloud, Richard Serra, rusted iron slabs of sails sculpted by the wind. Strongerout there than here in gentle crawl parallel to the sandy shore. What three wordstell the world where I am? Iterative.underwrite.swimming. A day of sun andswimming to rain and a broken car key. From delight to distress and back again. 

There is a lot of good swimming to be had in the Bristolregion, with several vibrant and active outdoor swimming scenes in the region - in the city itself, but also in the nearby River Avon, in the River Brue, in the Avon estuary, and in the sea at sand point. If you can go a mile or ten out of Bristol there is a lot of choice - at Weston Super Mare there are several lido beaches to choose. River swimming at Bradford upon Avon (the river Avon upstream) is a scenic delight. People really care about their swimming here. Thesetwo accounts of swimming around Bristol are extracts from my book ‘Memories like Water – Swimming in 65 places at the age of 65’. They took place as pandemic lockdowns eased in 2020, which gave them a surreal edge – can wereally swim together again? At Cleveden Marine Lake, and at Farleigh and District River Swimming Club, just south of Bath.

Charlotte Sawyer is a documentary film maker and photographer who captures cinematic stories that cross cultures and boundaries. She has worked in conflict zones and places vulnerable to climate change, notably Iraq, Ethiopia and Nigeria. Aggie Nyagari is a Kenyan film

Tom Kearney is a Hampstead resident of over a quarter of a century and year-round swimmer at the nearby Ponds. He has a life well lived. In this podcast we talk about that life and the very special place that swimming in open water has in it. The late Al Alvarez, poet and author of the book ‘Pond Life’, Tom’s friend in Hampstead, brought him to swimming at The Ponds, something that he says has saved his life. On the eighteenth of December 2009, Tom was knocked over by a bus in London’s Oxford Street, and was in near-death coma for two weeks, making a miraculous recovery subsequently. We talk about how the accident transformed his life, and how daily swimming is central to this transformation. We talk about poetry and The Ponds. About the central importance of family, of living each day to the full. About his campaigning for bus safety in London - ‘If you shut up truth, and bury it underground it will but grow’ (Emile Zola). For Tom, campaigning and swimming outside all year round are not dissimilar - they're uncomfortable, require both physical

This podcast is about open water swimming in London – given

Sarah Giles lives and swims in open water in Oxford. She is Programme Development Manager at SportExcel UK,

There is a strong tradition of outdoor swimming in Oxford. Writer Iris Murdoch said something like this “On hot days in the Oxford summer my husband and I manage to slip into the Thames, a mile or two above the city. The art is to draw no attention to oneself, but to cruise quietly by the reeds like a water rat". A recent exhibition in Oxford showed a map of bathing places in or close to the city centre, and there were many. There was Wolvercote, Black Jack’s Hole, Fiddler’s Island, Tumbling Bay, the Sheepwash, Boney’s Bridge, St Ebbe’s. Stump Pool, Sunny Meade, St Clement’s, Milham Stream, Deep Martin, Long Meadow Bush, Codger’s Island, Astons Eyot, Saunder’s Bridge. There was also Parson’s Pleasure, Long Bridges, Port Meadow, and Iffley.  In this podcast, there are accounts of swimming in the latter four swimming spots in Oxford, extracts from 'Memories Like Water, Swimming in 65 Places at the Age of 65'.

Darrin Roles started the Lock to Lock a single swim event in the Thames in 2015, and it has grown into a series of events and distances. The first year the event was from Eynsham to King’s Lock (4 kilometers), and in subsequent years, swims from Farmoor to King’s Lock (6 kilometers) and from Farmoor to Godstow Lock (10 kilometers) were introduced. This Wild Swim series is known for being set in locations of natural beauty in West Oxfordshire. In the course of setting up and running