Swimmers and staff a Faversham Pools explain why they love swimming outside

Transcript

00:00 Well I used to do triathlons, so I've done quite a lot of open water swimming in lakes, but in a

00:04 wetsuit. I haven't swam outside just in a swimsuit before, but after the lockdown I felt so shut in

00:10 and I just wanted to get out and get swimming again, so I thought I'd give it a try and get fit

00:14 at the same time and yeah I got the bug, so now I come all the time. I think it's really important

00:19 to know like what your personal limits are and the safety as well of how your body reacts when

00:24 you get in the water. So there's a few techniques I use when I get in, like deep breathing,

00:30 I usually wear my cycling shorts when I'm coming here, so I've got like open legs to the cold

00:34 before I get into the water and I keep my trunk warm so that my top half of my body's always warm.

00:40 I wear a high neck swimsuit that keeps my chest warm and I usually wear two swim hats,

00:44 so it's all good for warmth and then it's just mind over matter really. I just focus on my swim

00:50 strokes and my breathing and just be mindful of how my body feels and some days you'll do

00:55 lots of lengths and swim a mile and some days you only do 10 minutes. I just feel like when you're

01:01 in the open air it's something about mindfulness and it really really focuses your brain and it

01:08 means you have to really focus hard on the swimming, so when you swim inside I find that

01:13 I'm thinking about my shopping list or what I'm buying for dinner or my to-do list for work,

01:17 whereas I'm outside I'm focusing purely on my swimming, on my breathing, sometimes I'm looking

01:22 up at the stars and it's just a really lovely experience. So Lido's have kind of made a

01:29 comeback, so since the pandemic and Covid which closed a lot of indoor pools we've seen an

01:33 increase in natural wild swimming, sea swimming and then we've got the facility here at the

01:38 Favisham Pools to operate an outdoor evening or weekend swim year round which is really nice.

01:44 So I think here at the pool we've got a safe environment, it's lit, they know that the water

01:49 quality is going to be good, we've got problems with coastal waters, sometimes there's warnings

01:54 that you can't swim, the same with rivers, it's actually a can be a dangerous environment in the

01:59 winter and we offer an alternative to that for those that want to carry on swimming outdoors.

02:04 The health benefits are great, so you've got cold water that helps stimulate the brain,

02:09 neuropathways, we're getting health benefits for hearts, so it's all round swimming is great for

02:15 everyone and then the atmosphere and ambience of seeing the stars in the sky as you swim is lovely.

02:21 I think it's just some people's enjoyment, I think as well a lot of people like with the

02:25 beach and things like that, I have a lot of people that come to receptions and say 'oh

02:29 I like going to the beach' so I think this is like the closest really they can kind of get to the

02:34 beach and also it's a bit warmer as well than the beach, but I think people just like really enjoy

02:40 it and sometimes we have to say to people 'oh it's time to get out now' because they'll just keep