Leap In

by Alexandra Heminsley

  Rest if you need to. If you’re in the pool, there is no shame in taking a breather in the shallow end to calm your mind. And in open water, you always have the option to take good old Everard Digby’s advice and flip yourself onto your back for a moment. If you’re in a wetsuit, you will float with little or no effort, so you can gather your thoughts. Switching to breaststroke or simply slowing down a little may also work for you.

  Get to know your neighbours. You are more likely to feel relaxed about what is lurking in the water if you actually find out what is lurking in the water. You will never be able to know for sure, but a little research into what is around you will at least provide distraction from the worst your imagination can come up with, and ought to give you a little reassurance at least.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Swimsuits and Beyond

  From wetsuits to nose plugs and everything in between, there is almost no limit on the amount of gear you can buy for swimming, particularly if you’re going to commit to swimming in open water and equipping yourself for year-round adventures. But it is worth doing your research before buying everything presented to you as a potential lifesaver. After all, swimming is one of the most democratic forms of exercise available to us: you don’t even need a swimming costume to plunge into a local lake, sea or river.

  Swimming costumes

  A note on swimming costumes: one of the main reasons people give me for not wanting to swim is, frankly, not wanting to be in a swimming costume. Research done by Sport England backs up the fact that it is one of the primary factors stopping people, specifically women, getting into the water. I know those fears, I know those dark days, I know the overwhelming sensation that you’re not the right shape for Lycra, that you aren’t like the models on the swimwear website or in the shop, that people will look disparagingly at you in your costume. And I’ve only found one way to get over it: to put on a swimming costume, again and again and again, until it stops feeling like exposure and starts feeling like freedom. I stare at myself in the mirror and tell myself that in five years’ time I will kill to look like this. When I was fifteen, I thought I was chubby, but when I was twenty, I looked back and saw that I’d been lovely … and so it has continued for nearly twenty years.

  It is not your responsibility to feel more confident or to be more fabulous. It is everyone else’s responsibility to respect the shape and size that you choose to be, and for us all to extend that courtesy to each other. The variety of shapes, sizes and weights is both enormous and magnificent, and hanging out in swimwear will make that more obvious. Whether you wish there were less of your hips, more of your boobs or fewer of your wrinkles, no one else in the world is seeing what you see, because they can’t access your inner monologue, your hang-ups and your worries. They’re too busy thinking about their own. Unless they’re a long-term swimmer. Because there’s a secret that long-term swimmers often keep to themselves, hugging it close to their hearts as they huddle and shiver around that cup of tea: the more time you spend in swimwear, the less you actually care what you look like in it.

  Well, I’m happy to share. It’s what we see and what we do in swimwear that matters to swimmers. If you’re in a bikini three times a week, feeling the water around you, acknowledging the fish below you and watching the birds dancing above you, you have redefined what a bikini body is: it’s your body, in a bikini. You feel weightless in the water, and as time passes it is that inner sense of how much you feel you weigh rather than any external perceptions about your size or shape that starts to matter more. And then you are free, floating like the swimmer who has just kicked off from the shore, feeling dry land and its tedious judgements pulling away behind them. Anything is possible.

  Let’s get shopping.

  Advising people on what swimming costume to buy is a little bit like advising potential runners on running shoes: ultimately, the most important thing is going to be that you feel positive enough about yourself in it that you will want to wear it and get swimming. The variety of colours, shapes and styles out there is magnificent and apparently infinite, and truly there is something for everyone. I won’t try to guide you on what you need or what you should look like, as frankly I think swimsuits are only needed for decency’s sake anyway. They provide little practical benefit beyond not getting you arrested, and even then some swimmers will take that risk in order to feel the water truly surround their body!

  The only practical considerations you need to bear in mind are that suits with a ‘sporty’ or ‘racer’ cross-back style are terrifying to get into if you have a bottom wider than your shoulders, but are incredibly comfortable for front crawl once you’re in them; and that what feels uncomfortable as you walk to the pool – gravity working against you – might feel delicious once you are horizontal, moving in the water with gravity on your side. I have two swimming costumes that are unbearable out of the water, constantly riding up if I wear them for more than about eight minutes, but a perfect fit once I’m in and moving. It took time to work this out, and now I simply don’t wear them to the pool or on the beach: they’re business only.

  Given these rather lax boundaries, I am confident that there is a swimming costume for everyone out there. There are modest suits, similar to the Edwardian bathing style, that cover hips and bums. There are extra-long suits for the lengthy of torso. There are post-surgery suits for those fresh from either a mastectomy or prior gender transition surgery. There are suits with tummy-tightening fabric to help you to feel supported after having a baby. There are suits with bra inserts, suits with temporary padded inserts to combat over-assertive nipples, and tankinis for those who don’t want to be held back by a one-piece. The best, most affordable of many of these things are available globally at M&S.

  There are burqinis for those who choose to wear them for religious reasons (also M&S), suits that cover your entire body if you want to avoid the sun (from labels such as Coverswim), high-end brands that make sturdy, sporty styles in fabulous neons, and technical suits that promise to shave seconds off your time. Truly, whatever you are looking for, it is out there. Just remember this: the sizing for each and every one of these items will be erratic.

  I am pretty much a standard size 12. I have some clothes that are larger, the consequence of a year of IVF treatment. And I have some clothes that are smaller. But I know that I am not an XXL. Nevertheless, Sweaty Betty sizing tells me that I am: I have a couple of beautiful swimming costumes by them that I have had to buy in XXL in order to fit over my body. On the one hand: fine, I don’t care what size they say I am! On the other: having vowed to begin exercising, I spent years never getting further than the changing room, as it just left me so sad to be told I was too big for the nice stuff. I’ve spent enough time observing this industry to know that I don’t care any more if I’m the biggest at a sportswear event. But I wonder if some of those brands know how many people are put off exercise by that kind of sizing, or whether they’re simply not bothered. How many other women never reach the water because their experience in the changing room was too depressing?

  Please don’t be one of them!

  Either buy online or go armed for swimwear shopping: take a bottle of water, take extra underwear, and take your time. Try on four times more costumes than you feel like, because then you’ll never have to come back. Try not to think about whether you look acceptable, slim-sexy, or swimmer-y enough. Imagine yourself gliding through the water, weightless and supported, floating on your back looking down over yourself and enjoying the sight.

  Wetsuits

  Wetsuits have two main purposes: to keep you warm, and to keep you buoyant. They work wonderfully at both, but do require the potential lonely agony of finding one that fits. And a wetsuit that doesn’t fit is worth nothing at all, so it is worth investing a bit of time and energy in getting it right. Helpfully, you don’t have to buy a wetsuit immediately. There are many places that make them available for hire – either for a specific event or to let you try one out for fit and comfort. Of
ten companies let you hire a wetsuit first with a view to keeping it and buying it. Good places to look into wetsuit hire in the UK are www.mywetsuithire.co.uk, www.greatswim.thetristore.com and www.triuk.com.

  Wetsuit types

  Wetsuits for swimmers and surfers are slightly different. Surfers do not need as much upper-body flexibility, and are less constantly aerobic in the water (a lot of lying around on boards, looking dashing), so their suits are generally thicker. Surfing wetsuits are about 5mm+ in thickness, and can be quite cumbersome to try and do consistent swimming in.

  Swimming wetsuits, often sold as triathlon suits, are generally thinner, or a mix of thicknesses. Some are as little as 2mm in areas such as around the shoulders, but thicker around the vital organs. And unlike surfers’ wetsuits, they are designed not to make your legs so buoyant that they pop up above the surface of the water, leaving you kicking the air or unable to do breaststroke. Swimmers’ wetsuits are also coated with a slick external layer that reduces the drag in the water (and makes you feel like an otter).

  I love my full wetsuit, and have always felt very comfortable in it. But I have only worn it a handful of times, for events. I was still in just my swimming costume well into October, and for the coldest months of winter I have worn a half-wetsuit, which is designed for surfers. It has none of the coating or slick design of a swimmer’s wetsuit, and is simply a swimming costume made of neoprene, but with long sleeves. It is from a brand called Neon, and I bought it in a surfwear shop in Covent Garden when I spotted it in a sale. It isn’t slick, and the surf fabric gives a little too much drag to wear it in an unheated pool, but I adore it. I love having my legs out in the water, and I am definitely planning to invest in a second suit, this time with no arms. I confess that I don’t know anyone else who does this, though. Everyone else I swim with is in proper wetsuits or swimming costumes!

  Brands

  There are all sorts of swimming wetsuit brands, such as Blue Seventy, Orca, Speedo, Snugg, Zone 3 and 2XU. I have no particular preference, and I have never managed to establish among the swimmers I know whether there is any particularly excellent brand or one to avoid. This is because the most important thing is not the pink and purple squiggles up the outer thighs, or the seconds that it can shave off your race time, but whether it fits you and fits you properly.

  Online, wiggle.co.uk is a good place to get an overview of what is available, and H2Open magazine (which is also available online) has a good selection of reviews and advertisements.

  Fit

  When you’ve never tried a wetsuit on before, it is completely impossible to tell whether or not the thing fits as it is supposed to. They are by nature quite uncomfortable when you’re out of the water, but with good reason: the way they work is by trapping water between you and the neoprene of which they are made. A thin trickle of water creeps in at the neck, wrists and ankles as you first enter the sea, lake or river, and is then supposed to stay there, warmed by your blood temperature, protecting you from the colder water on the outer side of the suit. Consequently, a wetsuit that is too big (i.e. one that feels lovely and comfortable when you’re standing around in a shop chatting) is going to let in a constant icy stream of water as you’re trying to swim. Grim, exhausting, and why you should always go for a wetsuit that feels somewhat claustrophobic when you initially try it on.

  But be warned! Don’t go for one that is too small either – the fabric should be flush to your curves, dipping in the small of your back (if it is stretched across it, it will create a pocket for cold water). It shouldn’t be too tight around the neck, either. A wetsuit that fits perfectly everywhere else but chafes every time you need to breathe will prove a waste of money, since swimming in it will be miserable and you will either end up not swimming or replacing the wetsuit.

  Shops, either on- or offline, should have a chart that will show your height, weight and measurements and how they correspond to sizes. If you are extreme in any direction, there are places that make bespoke wetsuits, but they do cost approximately twice as much as off-the-peg ones.

  How to get it on

  The aforementioned tightness required of wetsuits makes them the most traumatic of all equipment to put on. At best, they’re a time-consuming faff. At worst, they can trap you in what feels like a prison of your own flesh, and leave you sweating and exhausted before you so much as dip a toe in the water.

  The main thing to remember is that you cannot rush the process of putting a wetsuit on: you have to start at the bottom and go up inch by inch. Trying to bend forward and hook your shoulders in as you would a hairdresser’s gown will leave the entire middle area bunched and inflexible, and since the coating on swimming wetsuits is delicate, you’ll be at risk of ripping that as well.

  First of all, put on your swimming costume. This is another layer of warmth, and it means that if you’re taking the wetsuit off in public, you will have something underneath it to protect your modesty. Next, take a deep breath and pick up the wetsuit. It sounds daft, but it’s a great idea to pop a couple of plastic bags on your feet before putting the wetsuit on. This will ensure that your feet and lower legs slide right down without catching on any of the fuzzy inner fabric, meaning you’ve already done a few inches. To get the rest of the leg on, pinch the fabric between the side of your thumb and the middle of your forefinger and inch it up until you’ve got it over your hip and bottom. Do not, no matter how tempting it is, grab your upper thighs with your fingers splayed like a bear claw and drag: you will be left with four half-moon nail marks in the wetsuit, which will itself have remained stationary.

  Make sure that you are fully wearing the bottom half of the wetsuit, like a pair of trousers with a strange elaborate belt, before you even think about putting your arms in. Once you do, again make sure that you yank with thumb and forefinger rather than grabbing wildly at the shoulders. Eventually, make sure that you pull up the fabric at the top of your shoulders (where you’d pat yourself on the back, if you were so inclined). Finally, once everything is in place, try and zip it up. Wetsuit zips have a long enough cord attached that you can usually pull it from quite high above your head, in a much more comfortable position than if you were trying on a dress with a discreet zip. Once it’s up, don’t forget to tap the hitherto mysterious square of Velcro at the end of the cord onto the small dot somewhere at the bottom of the zip, around the small of your back: this will keep the cord from floating around and brushing against you, convincing you that you’ve swum into a swarm of jellyfish. You’re in!

  When to wear

  Wear your wetsuit when you want to. Some people feel comforted by the buoyancy and wear them year round if they’re in unheated water; others despise them and will only wear them if taking part in an organised event that stipulates that they are compulsory. Then there are many who decide what to wear depending on how long they want to swim: whether they want a quick blast of the cold or a decent forty-five minutes’ exercise.

  Budget

  It is possible to get a decent wetsuit for around £100 and for it to last several years. There are technical advantages to more expensive ones, but prices can ascend pretty steeply. It is always worth checking on eBay or in Facebook groups for swimmers and triathletes, as there is a healthy market in wetsuits bought either as optimistic Christmas presents for loved ones who never use them, or by people who can afford to wear one a handful of times before trading up to this season’s style. It is much more hygienic than buying second-hand trainers, and can be a nifty alternative to hiring, especially if you then sell on.

  Care

  Make sure that you rinse your wetsuit out after every single swim. Chlorine and salt water will corrode the fabric, leaving it either stiff and unusable or coming apart at the seams. I usually turn mine inside out as I take it off, then wash it in the shower with me. Be careful only to use water-based lubricants around the neck and shoulders, and to wash off any suncream or hair products that may have got onto it, as they’ll rot the neoprene. Once clean, coated swimming
wetsuits dry faster inside out, as this exposes the more porous fabric. Be careful not to dry them near direct heat or leave them in very hot sunlight for too long. And beware long nails and intricate jewellery near that fabric! (See below for what to do if you do create a snag.) If you’re travelling with your wetsuit, try to roll it up to avoid creases in the coating.

  Swimming caps

  I didn’t own a swimming cap until I started doing front crawl, as my delicate breaststroke days were largely motivated by keeping my head out of the water, which meant I never needed one. But if you’re swimming any other stroke, they are essential – largely because you’ll want to be able to both breathe and see without a veil of hair across your face. Added bonuses are warmth in cold water, protection from the effects of chlorine and salt water on your hair.

  There are four basic fabrics for swimming caps, and each has its merits. I have a beloved favourite – silicone – but that is as much because of my hair length as anything else. Hair type and personal preference are the biggest factors here. Those with very long or very curly hair will need to buy caps specifically for that type of hair, and those with very short hair may find themselves wanting extra warmth while swimming outdoors.

  There is also a healthy market still out there for fabulous retro swimming caps – soft rubber bubble fabric in candy colours, basic caps covered in a veritable meadow of nylon flowers, and ruched and ruffled creations are all two or three clicks away online. None are ideal for swimming front crawl, so I have stuck to the more practical here.