Happy New Year (1/365?)

[white_hart]

Happy New Year, everyone. Let us hope it's an improvement on 2020.

I am thinking about trying to do the daily posts thing, in an effort to actually get back into writing/talking more about stuff and engage a bit more with the community here. It may well not stick.

My year started with the coldest swim yet (probably 4.something degrees; my thermometer said 4.9, L's said 4.0, various other people had something in between because apparently the number of different estimates is equal to the number of thermometers present). I have a new wetsuit jacket, which is thicker than the old one and has long sleeves instead of short, but I'm not sure I felt any warmer than I do in the old one. It was also really, really busy, hopefully because lots of people wanted a New Year's Day dip rather than because they're all planning to swim regularly, because it just felt like Too Many People. I'm glad we did it, though. (One of my three had persuaded another friend to swim with her, so we had two twos, mostly keeping separate other than brief exchanges of greetings in the water and baked goods out of it.)

Only two more days of holiday left and the prospect of work is starting to loom rather :-(

Comments

[sfred]

In London I swam outdoors from May to September, but in Officially Approved places.

[white_hart]

We're lucky in Oxford to have two swimmable rivers, though neither is currently swimmable due to flooding and high currents. Technically swimming isn't allowed in the lake I swim in at the moment but I think that's (a) to cover the council against any liability and (b) to protect the revenue of the outdoor pool in the same park, which is normally only open in summer and didn't open at all in 2020 - possibly they'd be keener on enforcing no swimming if it was open!

You might be able to find official open water swimming venues near you - I know there's one not far from Oxford though I've never been there. And rivers are generally ok if there's access to the banks.

(I do have to drive to swim, which is the one downside compared to the pool, which was on my way to work!)

[sfred]

*nods* There's a swimming club that uses a reservoir outside Sheffield, when there isn't a pandemic on. The nearest place where you can just show up any time (when there isn't a pandemic on) is at least an hour away. I think outdoor swimming is an occasional luxury unless I get braver about risking being told off!