Ah Who Dem? Swim Dem

13 minute read

I like swimming alone.

Give me a body of water, indoors or outdoors, and I’m good to go. I don’t need anyone come with me and hold my hand. Sound a little anti-social? Maybe just a tad, but the truth is, I am content swimming alone. I love swimming alone.

Acknowledging that I need to be more sociable, I joined Swim Dem Crew, an inclusive swimming club, who meet up for swimming and socialising at the best swim spots in London. Swim Dem was founded in 2013 by Nathaniel, Peigh and Emily – all on a mission to make swimming inclusive and community based. Right up my street!

I had already swam with the Crew indoors, but I was beyond excited when I found out Swim Dem had a Hampstead Mixed Bathing Pond trip in the pipeline. Quick time, I signed up via Eventbrite. Yaaas, I was off to the Ponds again, but with this time with a racially diverse crew of swimmers with a fondness for water. I was keen and ready to mingle!

A total eager beaver, I showed up at the Mixed Pond a little before 10.30am. As I walked into the clearing before the entrance to the pond, I didn’t spot anyone who might be part of the crew. I was relieved – at least I wasn’t late. Hampstead Heath can be incredibly difficult to navigate due to the deliberate lack of signage. I’ve spent far too long shlepping across the Heath either trying to locate where the Mixed Pond is in relation to the Ladies’ Pond, or shlepping back trying work out where the hell I parked my car. I very much anticipated getting lost this time around when I disembarked at Hampstead Heath station. I followed a gust of small groups, hoping they were all heading to the Mixed Pond (highly unlikely but a possibility). Luckily, I spotted the dusty bridge that runs parallel to the top of the Mixed Ponds after a few minutes of walking. Unlike Kenwood Ladies’ Pond, the Mixed Ponds are open for all to see, stare and marvel at as they cross the bridge.

Anxiously, I waited under the tall trees blocking out the Saturday morning sun. Feeling the cold, I zipped up my jacket to my chin.

Was I in the right place? Was I supposed to meet the crew at the station? Had they gone in already? I had no idea.

Spotting a Black man who had the ingenious idea of waiting in a spot of sunshine further up the hill, I approached. Hampstead Heath is not particularly diverse, so I put two and two together and thought there was a chance that the man stood in the sun, looking at people on their way to the Mixed Pond, could be part of Swim Dem Crew. It was worth a try, even just to get out of the chill of the trees.

“Hi,” I ventured, joining him in the sunny section of the hill, “Are you waiting on a group?”

Registering the Adidas shell jacketed stranger before him, the stocky, bald man responded: “Yes, I am.”

If I had any sense, I would have stopped my line of enquiry here. There was something closed in his facial expression that indicated he was not a part of Swim Dem Crew. Unable to break the conversation so early, I continued:

“Who are they?”

“They’re my friends.”

“Oh, I beg your pardon” I said, laughing loudly, “I thought you were part of Swim Dem.”

Looking over the top of my head, he said “No, I’m waiting on some friends.” He’d lost interest already; he only had eyes for his friends.

“Ok, sorry” I said, still laughing at myself and turning to head back down the hill.  I could hardly stay up there with the uninterested guy not waiting on Swim Dem Crew, so I had no choice but to head back to the chilly shade of the trees.

Where the frick were the crew? Where was Sonita? I met Sonita at my first Swim Dem swim. It was her first meet up and my first meet up with the crew and we just clicked. To avoid a long queue at reception to change £1 for the 20p lockers (why do they still do that?), Sonita let me share her locker and didn’t run off with my belongings. Swim buddies for life, I say.

Sonita had already texted to say she was running late, but as everyone else in today’s swim crew seemed to be running late, I hoped she would magically appear, whatever obstacle making her late suddenly clearing and the overground train speeding her along to Hampstead Heath.

It wasn’t long after I sent Sonita a useless text asking her where she was (she already told me her battery was about to die) when the first two crew members arrived. Both Ash and Tonea had completed the Hackney Half the week before but were still up for a bit of open water swimming. They were followed by Joan, first time with the crew and first-time swimming in English waters. Joan was followed by Ciara, who arrived with a North Face rucksack strapped tightly to her back and a tote bag full to the brim with a folded red lined Dryrobe and classic blue and white striped sliders. Ciara was prepared! She even had her wetsuit with her just in case.

If you’re wondering just how Ciara and Joan knew that Ash, Tonea and I were part of Swim Dem Crew, just remember that SDC are an inclusive swim club. The Black guy was now surrounded by a big crowd of White folks all excited to swim so we were the only group with more than one Black person waiting around. That and we were stood right by the gate to the Pond!

The last to join us was Nathaniel, co-founder of Swim Dem Crew, wearing navy blue shorts, a yellow/orange tie-dye effect t-shirt and a small black rucksack. After hugging us all and apologising for his lateness, Nathaniel told me to lead the way as I was the only one in today’s crew who had been to the pond before. Uncertain about my newly appointed position of ‘Pond Leader,’ I opened the countryside gate that only allows one person to enter, stop, close the gate behind them, before proceeding to the other side. After we had all tapped £4.25 out of our various bank accounts onto the contactless reader held by a wrapped-up lifeguard, I led the way to a patch of grass overlooking the pond. I cannot recall exactly what prompted me to do this, but as soon as the crew were all stood before me in a small circle, I quickly launched into my ‘cold water is no joke’ campaign. Nathaniel is an experienced open water swimmer, but he said it was his first time at the Mixed Ponds, and it was Joan, Ciara, Tonea and Ash’s first proper open water swims, so I think part of me felt compelled to prep them to the max, preventing any unpleasant afterdrop symptoms[1].

“Just remember that cold water swimming is anything below 15 degrees; it’s 17 degrees today so we’re not that far off” I began.

They all looked back me, startled by the urgency in my voice.

“Afterdrop is no joke, so don’t be fooled by the sunshine and how good you feel when you get into the water. You’ll feel greaaat when you’re in the water but don’t stay in long and listen to your body” I lectured, clearly taking the suggestion that I lead far too seriously.

Nathaniel neatly summarised my advice with: “Don’t get gassed by the sun, don’t stay in long and don’t jump in.”

That’s one way of putting it, I thought as I looked up at the gentle giant. If only I could be more succinct and light-hearted in my lecture style.

Taking in the view of the pond behind me, Joan said, ‘I’m going to go in and out for now.”

Although I thought this was a terrible idea, Sonita arrived just in time to shut me up from dishing out any further unsolicited advice to the crew.

After a quick change, we all got in, everyone treading water until everyone in the crew had made their way down the sturdy steel steps into the murky green water. I think that’s what I like about Swim Dem Crew, no one is left behind and everyone looks out for one another – even if we just met for the first time 15 minutes ago.

On Nathaniel’s ‘I’m gonna do a lap’ suggestion, Sonita and I set off, breast stroking in the wake of his front crawl. Quite quickly, I learnt that swimming and any prolonged talking requires real effort. I had to keep my chin more upright than normal to avoid taking in water when responding to Sonita. It wasn’t one of those conversations that I could just mmm-humm along to and nodding wasn’t effective as most of my chin was in the water anyway. I also had to coordinate the pull of my arms with turning my neck to the right to make eye contact with my swim buddy to reassure her I was actually listening.

On a friend’s suggestion, Sonita had entered “RideLondon-Essex,” a 60k bike ride. All was well until Sonita found out that the same friend who encouraged her participate, had got rid of her normal bike and got herself a spanking new electric bike for the event. Sonita was appalled. By the sounds of things, her friend didn’t tell her until very recently and the event was early tomorrow morning. I listened and asked questions as best as I could whilst trying to avoid scratching Sonita as we breast-stroked alongside one another. That was another difficulty, trying to stay close enough to have a conversation, but at the same time giving each other enough space to breaststroke around the pond. Coordination, concentration and caution were all necessary to hear my swim buddy out.  Being a sociable swimmer was much harder than I anticipated!

Chatting and lapping my way around the pond with Sonita, I lost track of time. By the time we made it back to the concrete pontoon where the rest of the Swim Dem Crew were, I sensed I had been in the water longer than I normally would have stayed at 17 degrees. By the looks of things, everyone apart from Sonita and I had followed Joan’s ‘get in, get out’ plan as Ash, Ciara, Tonea and Joan were all sat chatting on the sunny pontoon, legs dangling into the pond. Nathaniel was by the pontoon rail taking some side shot photos of them.

Feeling a cold chill on my upper back, my body was already sending my brain signals that it was time to get out. Holding onto the steel ladder, I soaked up a little bit more of the pond’s energy before making my exit. Sonita got out too and went to join the rest of the crew on the pontoon. I had no time for any more talking. Sensing that the shivers were on their way, my main priority was to get out of my skins[2] and into dry clothes ASAP. The first step was washing off the pond water. Resisting modernisation, there are no hot showers at all of the Ponds … Would it make you feel better If I told you that there are two incredibly powerful, freezing cold showers hidden under an ivy cove to the left of the Mixed Pond? Most people don’t seem to use them, and I can truly understand why. I actually like cold showers, but I did not enjoy soaping up and forcing myself under the painful jets of water. Every unbearable short burst under the water felt like my skin was being sliced with cold, sharp knives. Horrible, but it had to be done.

Grateful for the sun’s light and warmth after my cold, dark shower, I got dressed alongside the fence next to the pond. By now I was shivering[3] – I told you cold water is no joke. Those additional few minutes in the water were already taking their toll on my body. Speed was of the essence, so with chattering teeth, I dragged on my black denim shorts, grey top and Adidas shell jacket and got to warming up at the back of the pond as quickly as I could.

I needn’t have bothered!

Nathaniel and Peigh, who had joined the crew since I got out, led us on an exhausting walk from the Pond to their favourite post-swim spot: Mario’s Café in Kentish Town. Nathaniel said it was a 10-15-minute walk from the Mixed Pond, but he was either lying or totally misjudged it!* We ended up trekking up the hills of the Heath, past Parliament Hill Lido, and through the backstreets of Kentish Town in the hot midday sun. Not cool. Fuelled only by some pistachio nuts Sonita found at the bottom of her bag, I was tired, hungry, thirsty and just a tiny bit resentful of the 1.7 mile shlepp when we could have easily hopped on the overground at Hampstead Heath to Kentish Town West in two stops. Sonita and I trailed at the back of the crew, keeping each other alive with stories about theatre shows we’d seen or were going to see, if ‘Killing Eve’ is believable or not and a dog called Max that Sonita looks after every now and then.

By the time we arrived at Mario’s, I plonked myself onto the only table outside and showed no interest in helping the rest of the crew bring tables from inside the café, outside onto the pavement to join me. Famished, I’d lost my crew mentality and reverted to good old self-preservation.

It didn’t last for long.

Revived by the hot chocolate Sonita bought me, I was once again able to engage in conversation with the crew. It was easy, it flowed, and I could focus on just one skill: maintaining a thoughtful, engaging conversation on land.

Music that came to mind as I blogged:

1. Who Dem? Capleton (clean)
2. They Don’t Know, So Solid Crew

GQ magazine article featuring Swim Dem Crew:

The new wave reclaiming nature in post-lockdown London, Mike Christensen, GQ (April 2022)

Links:

1. Eventbrite: Swim Dem Crew
2. Instagram: @swimdemcrew
3. Mario’s Cafe, 6 Kelly St, London NW1 8PH

*I later found out that the walk took longer than normal because we took a wrong turn!

[1] Afterdrop symptoms can include prolonged shivering, difficulty warming up and feeling disorientated, faint and generally unwell.

[2] Skins: a conventional swimsuit or shorts.

[3] Shivering is a natural way of the body warming itself up during and after cold exposure. When you exit cold water, your body temperature continues to drop, meaning that it is imperative you get changed quickly.