Open water swimming in Britain happens across a spectrum. At one end, a person swims alone and owns every decision, as covered in planning a wild swim. At the other, a commercial venue runs sessions with safety cover, marked courses and a written system. In between sits the majority: informal groups, club sessions, community swims and friends who meet at the same place every Saturday.
The interesting question is where along that spectrum responsibility moves, and the uncomfortable answer is that it moves gradually and people rarely notice it happening.
The spectrum, and what changes along it
| Arrangement | Who checks the water | Who decides to cancel | Who counts people |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solo swim | The swimmer | The swimmer | Nobody |
| Two friends | Both, informally | Either | Each other, informally |
| A regular informal group | Unclear, and this is the problem | Unclear | Usually nobody, and this is the problem |
| A club session with a named leader | The leader | The leader | The leader, formally |
| A commercial venue session | The venue | The venue | The venue, formally |
| A paid open water event | The organiser | The organiser | The organiser, formally |
The row in the middle is where things go wrong. A regular informal group has all the social characteristics of an organised session, including newcomers who turn up assuming somebody is in charge, and none of the structural ones. Nobody has assessed the site, nobody checks the water quality, nobody counts, and nobody has agreed to decide anything.
The person most at risk in an informal group is the newcomer, because they reasonably assume the regulars have systems. The regulars know the site, know the exits, know the conditions and have an unwritten understanding of who looks out for whom. None of that is visible to somebody arriving for the first time, and none of it is transmitted to them. If your group has newcomers, somebody is briefing them or nobody is.
When a swim becomes an organised session
We are not going to give a legal test, because that is a matter for lawyers and the circumstances vary. What is worth stating is the practical shape. Where an organisation, a club, a business or a person holds themselves out as running an activity for others, duties follow. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 places duties on employers and those in control of activities, and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks. Where children are involved, safeguarding obligations apply as well.
Practical indicators that a group has crossed the line, none of them definitive:
- It advertises. A social media page inviting people to come along is holding out an activity.
- It charges, even a small amount, even for tea.
- It has a named leader, a coach, or somebody who runs the briefing.
- It has members, a list, or a joining process.
- It provides equipment, safety cover, or a marked course.
- It accepts beginners, and particularly if it accepts children.
A group ticking several of those and telling itself it is just friends meeting for a swim is telling itself a story. The useful response is not alarm, it is to be deliberate: decide who leads, write down the basics, and brief newcomers.
What a session leader actually holds
- The site assessment. Specific to this site, this season and this group. Entry, exit, depth, flow or tide, hazards, and what happens if somebody needs to come out fast.
- The water quality check. Classification and any current notice, per bathing water classification, or the acknowledgement that at an undesignated site there is no data.
- Safety cover. What it is, who provides it, and what it can actually do. This is specialist territory and the reference is the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, water safety and the relevant governing body guidance from Swim England.
- The briefing. Route, exits, recall signal, buddy arrangement, and what to do if you need help.
- The head count. In and out. Written down. This is the one that is skipped and it is the one that matters most.
- The cancellation decision. Made in advance against stated conditions rather than in the car park under social pressure.
- The exposure plan. Which is this publication's specific contribution: the session is much longer than the swim, and the standing about is where most of it happens.
What constitutes adequate safety cover for an open water session, what qualifications the people providing it should hold, and how a rescue is actually conducted are specialist matters. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution, water safety and Swim England are the places to go. We are not going to summarise them, and a group planning its first organised session should be taking advice from a governing body rather than from a website about sun and water chemistry.
The part that belongs to us
Open water sessions are long, exposed and cold, and the exposure planning is almost always absent because everybody is thinking about the cold. The specific things a leader can do:
- Time the session away from the middle of the day where the tide, the safety cover and the daylight allow it.
- Tell people, in advance, to bring something to put on and a hat, which serves warmth and exposure at once.
- Keep the briefing short and in shade if there is any, rather than delivering it to a group standing in swimwear in full sun.
- Have somewhere for people to be after the swim that is not an exposed shore.
- Include your own exposure and that of any safety crew, who are outdoors for longer than the swimmers and often on the water rather than in it.
Where does supervision sit?
Indoors, with the facility. Lifeguard cover is a condition of operating, it is professional, it is continuous, and a session leader's supervision sits on top of it rather than replacing it.
The environment is bounded, visible and controlled, so supervision is a much smaller problem than outside.
At a lido, still with the facility. In open water, with whoever is running the session, and at unpatrolled sites with nobody at all.
That transfer is the defining feature of open water. A group that does not know which of these situations it is in has a problem it has not identified.
Who is looking after whom at this open water session
Owns their own decision to enter and to leave, being straightforward about their own competence and how they are feeling, and telling the leader if something is wrong. Owns not assuming somebody is watching unless they have been told somebody is.
Owns the site assessment, the water quality check, the safety cover arrangement, the briefing, the head count in and out, the recall signal, the cancellation decision and the exposure plan. Owns being clear with newcomers about what is and is not provided.
Where a venue exists, owns the site, its marked areas, its safety provision and its information. Where no venue exists, nobody holds this, and the leader is operating on a site that nobody has assessed except them.
Where a duty attachesThe Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 for organised activity. Governing body guidance from Swim England and water safety guidance from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, water safety.
Summary
Decide whether your group is a group of friends or a session, and then behave like whichever it is. The dangerous position is the middle: all the social appearance of organisation with none of the structure, and a newcomer standing on the shore assuming somebody has checked something. If you lead, lead: assess the site, check the water, brief people, count them in and out, decide the cancellation rule in advance, and remember that the session is far longer than the swim.