I’m not fond of the cold.  Last winter I spent most evenings wearing two hot water bottles strapped to my torso, three jumpers on top of the hot water bottles, gloves (yes, indoors) and an electric double-footed boot slipper – the type you see in the assisted living section of your local chemist.  Yep, I’m really not fond of the cold.

So, I was a little anxious about my first encounter with open water swimming.  Technically, the water at the lakes south of Reading was not ‘cold water’ for our hour-long introductory lesson.  ‘Cold’ means 15 degrees Celsius or lower and we were at 16.9. 

I knew my daughter would be fine.  My husband, who comes from Newcastle, has nicknamed her ‘Queen of the Geordies’ for her exceptional ability to walk around in shorts and a t-shirt at temperatures that would have even the hardiest Northerners reaching for their coats.  I on the other hand…

Luckily, wetsuit technology has come on a lot since I last wore one as a child.  Our hired suits felt like a second skin rather than the thick, inflexible shell I had been expecting.  Slightly more reassured, we inched down the wooden steps into the water.

And we were in!  Yes, it felt a little nippy at first, but not half as cold as I was expecting.  The wetsuits almost immediately started doing their job, and we felt quite pleasantly warm after only a few minutes.  Jennie, our instructor, got us to dip our faces in the water a few times and blow bubbles before setting out, so that we could acclimatise to the unfamiliar conditions of the lake, reducing the risk of our panicking once we swam further out.

As we set off round the lake course, it was reassuring to have Jennie paddling beside us in a small boat, offering encouragement and advice.  Miranda, braver than I and a technically better swimmer, alternated between breast stroke and front crawl, while I stuck to breast stroke.  

We found that swimming in certain directions felt much harder, despite the lake being calm, and that without the proximity of a pool’s sides, it was much harder to judge how much progress we were making towards the next course marker.  Half-way across the lake, we both began to struggle a bit—the distance seemed endless and with the wetsuits constricting our breathing, it was difficult to stop the fear rising.

With short rest and a bit of gentle advice from Jennie, we were soon back on track and finishing our first 750m loop.  Then it was time for the big challenge—getting our wetsuits off.  Jennie showed us how to let water into the suit to make removing it easier.

Rather than heading back to the changing rooms, though, we decided to get back into the lake to see what swimming ‘skins’ (i.e. without wetsuits) was like.  Absolutely fantastic, as it turns out.  Cool, refreshing, and the absence of the suit felt wonderfully liberating as we swam another, shorter, loop.

It took 2 hours and a hot bath for the feeling to return to my feet and hands, but it was totally worth it.  We were both on a serious high for the rest of that day, and it lasted for a few days afterwards.  I think my new Dryrobe, Zoggs goggles and Swimsafe hat are going to see a lot of action in the future.