"Wild swimming" - spare me!

[inulro]

So anyway, I thought that my reaction to the expression "wild swimming", which is "or, as we used to call it, swimming", was as a result of my prairie upbringing.

Much to my relief, the comments page on a recent Guardian article that used the ludicrous expression (but at least conceded that it's safe) displayed a plethora of responses that are much the same as mine.

It's good to know that as a society we haven't become that flippin' pathetic, it's just the chattering classes, as always.

Yeah, by education and choice of living environment I'm supposed to *be* part of that demographic, but see above re prairie upbringing. I may have worked hard to become the kind of urbanite whose nose bleeds if I go north of Bloor Street, but at heart I think just about everyone (in North American/Western European societies) is a wimp. Including me, for the record.

Comments

[sarah-mum.livejournal.com]

It seems that we've equated swimming with chlorine baths and school lessons of dread. 'Outdoor swimming' is perhaps a better term for enjoying rivers, lakes and the sea?
I know I'm guilty of using the term Wild Swimming, but it is just shorthand for messing about and not being in a council pool.

[badnewswade.livejournal.com]

Hah - they closed all the council pools in Bristol ages ago. Not much choice but to go alfresco in the sparkling waters of the Severn, or failing that in Abbots Pond. Doesn't work so well when the weather is less than scorching though.

[girfan.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure the pool I go to is council run...

[inulro.livejournal.com]

It is, but they did close the outdoor pools and the stand-alone indoor pools (the remains of one of the latter is 2 minutes from my house).

[badnewswade.livejournal.com]

OMG that really is a thing!

http://www.wildswimming.co.uk

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t9r28

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/jul/13/wild-swimming

Thank god they haven't found my spot yet...

[girfan.livejournal.com]

I didn't use a pool until I was around 10 years old. I swam in rivers and lakes on a regular basis. So, I must have been wild swimming when I learned!

[cybermule.livejournal.com]

Yeah - I learned in the sea. Much more floaty :) Other than that, there was a local pool complex but we only went to the outdoors one in the summer as a teenage social thing. Saying that, my parents were always too addled to do any of that sort of thing when we were little so we both learned late.

[inulro.livejournal.com]

LIke all urban kids, I learned in the pool at the Y (private lessons, not school. Those came later, and were a joke because all but about 2 kids in the class were already strong swimmers), but a lot of the aim of that was so that we'd be safe during inevitable trips to the local lake in the summer holidays.

[kekhmet.livejournal.com]

The ludicrously overdramatic term Wild Swimming for swimming in just about anything other than a swimming pool does seem to be confined to British English to my great relief, judging by the results of a brief Google search. I certainly have a hard time picturing it catching on as a term for going swimming outdoors in the bits of the USA where I grew up either! (I grew up in the Midwest, but in & near a major university town: Ann Arbor, Michigan, and less than an hour's drive from Detroit so not a totally rural upbringing by any stretch!)

[lil-m-moses.livejournal.com]

Weird. I grew up swimming in lakes in Michigan, so that's my standard. I could (and did) regularly walk to a beach as a youngish kid. The pool was the special occasion. I don't like ocean swimming usually, since it feels more like battling the elements to stay alive and not get touched by seaweed and not accidentally get stung by anything. Plus oceans are stinky. With pools you have to worry about washing all the chlorine out of your hair and suit after. Lakes are awesome, with minimal BS (just sometimes cold).

[inulro.livejournal.com]

I Do Not Do being cold, plus I can't see, so indoor pools are much the safest option for me. Of course if it's screamingly hot in the summer any old water will do.