Turning the tide: choosing the sea over swimming pools is becoming a trend

Purists are abandoning pools for the open-water beauty of the sea, lakes and rivers, says Nuala Woulfe.

PEOPLE are taking the plunge, swimming year-round in our seas, lakes and rivers. Devotees say open-water swimming is healthy for mind and body. Ned Denison, from Kinsale, a distance swimmer with Sandycove Island Swim Club (sandycoveswimmers.com), says there are many reasons why people of all ages and abilities are swimming outdoors.

“Swimming costs nothing. It’s healthy; you can swim if you’re 80, or even if you’re overweight, and the water quality in Ireland is very good,” he says. Denison, who travels the world to compete in open-water races, says there are three kinds of swimmer; the dipper, the triathlete, and the distance swimmer. In the last few years, there’s been an explosion in tri-clubs and people have better transport, factors which, Denison says, have also made swimming outdoors more accessible and enticing.