This article is about a specific case: swimming in open water without an organised session, a venue operator or lifeguard cover. In a pool, a long list of checks has been done before you arrive. Here, none of them have, and the transfer of those checks to the individual is the entire subject.
We are staying inside our remit. Physical water safety, cold water shock and rescue are the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, water safety's field and should be read at source. What we cover is the planning shape and the exposure question, which is what this publication is for.
Before you leave the house
- Look up the site. Is it a designated bathing water. What is its classification and its history. Is there a short term pollution forecast or notice for today. Use the Environment Agency data explorer for England, Scottish Environment Protection Agency, bathing waters for Scotland, Natural Resources Wales for Wales.
- If it is not designated, note that you have no data. That is a fact about your information, not a fact about the water.
- Check the weather and the ultraviolet index forecast. The index is not a temperature and a cool bright day can carry a meaningful one, as covered in timing an outdoor session.
- Check recent rainfall. Heavy rain shortly before a swim is the standard reason to reconsider a site, and it is why the short term pollution forecasting system exists.
- Check tides where relevant, and the physical safety information published for the site.
- Tell somebody where you are going and when you expect to be back. The single cheapest safety measure available and the most commonly skipped by solo swimmers.
It is the difference between a difficulty and an incident. Where you cannot swim with somebody, being seen from land by somebody who knows you are in the water is the next best thing, and telling somebody your plan and your expected return is the minimum. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution, water safety makes this point in its own guidance and it is worth reading there.
On arrival, before changing
Look at the site before you commit to it. This takes two minutes and it is the check that most often changes a plan.
- Signage. Advice against bathing, hazard warnings, and any operator information are displayed at the site. Read them rather than walking past.
- The exit. Identify where you will get out before you get in, and check that it is reachable from where you will be. Exits are the thing that fails.
- The water itself. Flow, surface, colour, debris, anything unusual. You are not performing an assessment, you are noticing whether it matches what you expected.
- Other people. Is anyone else in, does anyone local know the site, is there anyone who would notice if you did not come out.
- Where the sun is and where any shade is. Usually the answer is that there is none, which is worth knowing before you are wet and cold.
The exposure plan, for the whole session
The mistake is to plan sun protection for the swim. The swim is the part where you are wet, cool, and mostly submerged. The exposure is concentrated in everything around it.
| Segment | What matters | Common failure |
|---|---|---|
| Before entry | Applied early, not at the water's edge | Applying while already standing in the sun in swimwear |
| The swim | Face, neck, ears, hands, reflected component | Assuming the water protects you |
| Getting out | Towel first, then reapply | Reapplying while wet, then towelling it off |
| After the swim | The longest and least planned segment | Standing about in swimwear for an hour with nothing on |
| Travel | Driving home with an arm at a window | Not counted at all |
Bring something to put on. A shirt and a hat, worn for the standing about part, does more than any amount of reapplication, and it also helps with getting warm, which is the more urgent problem after cold water.
Rewarming after cold water immersion has its own guidance and its own failure modes, and it is not our subject. The RNLI covers cold water. If somebody is confused, shivering uncontrollably, or not improving, that is an urgent situation and the route is emergency services, not a website. Do not improvise.
Is there an indoor equivalent of this planning?
Almost none of it, and that is the point of including the comparison. Indoors, the water is treated and tested, somebody is watching, the exits are obvious, the temperature is controlled, and there is no exposure question.
The indoor equivalent is a two minute list: shower, goggles, get dry afterwards.
At an outdoor pool, roughly half the list applies: exposure, timing, shade, the whole session duration. Water quality and supervision are still somebody else's.
In unsupervised open water, all of it is yours, and that transfer is the single biggest thing to understand about swimming outside a supervised venue.
Every check at an unsupervised open water swim
Owns all of it. Water quality lookup, weather and index, tides, entry and exit, telling somebody, the decision to enter, the decision to get out, and the exposure plan for the whole session. This is the one part of this site where the answer to who owns this is simply the swimmer.
Not present by definition. If a leader is present, the swim is an organised session and the answers change substantially: see open water groups and supervision.
Usually absent. Where a landowner, beach operator or local authority exists, they own signage and any provision. Where nobody does, the absence of an operator is itself the information: nobody has assessed this and nobody is coming.
Where a duty attachesWater quality data from the Environment Agency, Scottish Environment Protection Agency, bathing waters and Natural Resources Wales. Water safety guidance from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, water safety. Sun protection guidance from the NHS and Cancer Research UK, sun, UV and cancer.
Solo swimming, and being visible
A great deal of wild swimming is done alone, and pretending otherwise would be unhelpful. The useful distinction is between being alone and being unseen, because they are not the same thing and only one of them is easily fixed.
Practical measures that experienced swimmers use, all of which are about being seen rather than about being accompanied: a brightly coloured cap, a tow float, staying within sight of somebody on land who knows you are in the water, swimming parallel to the shore rather than away from it, and telling somebody your plan and your expected return time. None of those requires a companion and all of them change what happens if something goes wrong.
Water safety guidance on swimming alone comes from the RNLI and is worth reading at source rather than from a summary. What we would add is only the exposure point that this publication exists for: a solo swimmer has nobody to notice they have been out for three hours, and nobody to point out that they are burning. Everything that a group leader would have decided is now theirs to decide while cold, tired and pleased with themselves.
The kit that changes the session
- Something warm and dry to put on immediately, which serves both rewarming and exposure.
- A hat, for the long standing about part rather than for the swim.
- Water to rinse with, because the site almost certainly has none.
- Water to drink, which is easy to forget when you are surrounded by it and cold.
- A phone kept dry and reachable, which is the difference between a problem and an emergency.
Summary
Look it up before you leave. Note when there is no data rather than treating it as good news. Tell somebody. Find the exit before you find the entry. Plan the whole session, not the swim, and bring something to put on for the hour afterwards when you are standing about talking. Read the cold water guidance at source before you need it rather than after.