It’s just me and the sea – CH030 - a podcast by Karen Parry outdoor swimming

For Corinne, this week’s guest, this is very much an origins story. She is only 5 months into her swimming adventure, but already she is hooked, and producing a blog with advice for other beginners.

It got me thinking about what gets us started as wild swimmers. For some it is a bucket list thing. For others, it is connected to a significant birthday. Others sign up for an event. Some get dragged along by a friend who can’t emphasise enough how beneficial they find it and so want to share it with everyone else.

Whatever your origins, many of us then find a group of like-minded people who welcome and encourage us, share knowledge and give advice. If we are lucky, we suddenly feel at home in this quirky family of folks.

We each then find a reason to keep going back, despite the water growing colder, the nights getting darker and the weather turning increasingly inclement. It has a place in our life. It is a fix. That fix might be the intense blast of cold of the getting in. Or the intense blast of community in the cake and coffee afterwards. Or it may be a fix of a different kind. Worries being temporarily washed away. Anxiety lessened. Grief paused. Confidence boosted.



Corinne describes feeling weightless, and with that assistance, thoughts melt away and she just becomes very present in the moment. It is just me and the sea, she says.

Things we talked about

TOSSERS, Longsands, Tynemouth, Corinne’s blog, Ella Foote, Gilly McArthur, Fausto, Ladyburn Lake, Fenwick Ridley, Corbridge, Loch Ness, Lindsey Cole, Outer Hebrides, Canadian lakes, Jim Bridges, ice mile

Further episodes of Swim Wild Podcast

Further podcasts by Karen Parry outdoor swimming

Website of Karen Parry outdoor swimming