Wild swimming – taking a dip in rivers, lakes, waterfalls and streams – is fantastic fun, has great health benefits and thousands of people have been giving it a go over the last few weeks. But as cooling off during the heatwave has led to a series of avoidable drownings and the as yet unexplained death of Channel swimmer Susan Taylor, people are rightly asking: is wild swimming safe?
Having just written a wild swimming book about the most beautiful locations to swim in Britain, I too have asked myself, are any of these places dangerous? One of the locations that I have always loved is Gullet Quarry in Worcestershire, a superbly beautiful spring-fed pool in a natural amphitheatre that reaches more than 18C in summer. Yet there have been two drownings of local boys there this month. The water is warmer than the sea, there are no currents and no particular underwater obstructions. Indeed, there is a community of open-water swimmers who swim there all year round because it is considered a safer place to swim than the sea, or the nearby River Severn. Yet the location also has steep cliffs and attracts young lads on hot weekends who tempt each other, often after a few beers, to jump from higher and higher ledges.
But does this mean that wild swimming is inherently dangerous? I believe that it is behaviours and activities around swimming that are dangerous, rather than any specific location. The official drowning statistics make for sombre reading but you might be surprised to learn that outdoor swimming is rated as a moderate risk, while other seemingly benign activities, such as canoeing, fishing and sailing, are high risk. When you break down the data further, more than 90% of outdoor swimming-related drownings are young males, often weak or non-swimmers, who have consumed alcohol.
The key advice I give to beginners about swimming safety is know your limits and build up experience slowly. Water can be chilly, even in summer, and though cold water itself does not kill (you could survive a good 24 hours if dropped in the North Sea in November on hypothermia grounds alone), cold water does make you much less buoyant. Work on the principle of being able to swim 10% of the distance you can do in the pool until you have built up your cold adaptation with short swims and dips. Above all, stay close to the bank or shore. In rare incidences, very cold water (we are talking winter conditions) can also cause cold shock and hyperventilation, so enter slowly and be careful jumping into deep water that might have very cold water in layers below.
In our increasingly indoor and urban society, we are losing basic outdoor skills and common sense. Half of primary school children over the age of seven cannot swim a length of a pool, and far fewer will have had an experience of swimming outdoors. Even the National Trust now recommends wild swimming for children, as one of the ways to ward off "nature deficit disorder".
So, no, I don't believe that fencing up wild swimming locations will improve safety. Instead, I want to see more inland swimming places created, such as on the continent, where almost every reservoir has its beaches, most without lifeguards, as people are trusted to be able to look after themselves. I'd like to see schools include outdoor swimming in their PE lessons, families going wild swimming together, and more water companies across the country following the example of Rutland Water and creating designated seasonal swimming beaches. The Lea Valley lakes in north London are a prime candidate. These are beautiful, clean, safe lakes near the heart of the city, and could provide health and leisure benefits to many.
We need to change our attitude to inland waters and encourage a whole new generation to get outdoors, swim in nature, and build a love of wild places that will serve them their whole lives.
• This article was amended on 18 July 2013. It originally located Gullet Quarry in Gloucestershire, rather than Worcestershire. This has now been corrected.
