TriSwim Brand Ambassador intro:
Hi! I’m Adam. I’m a Dad and husband, lover of the outdoors and co-owner of a company who create and mix sounds for people who need stuff.
Now, it turns out, I’m a fully immersed open water swimming evangelist too, and I am unbelievably excited to be TriSwim’s first Brand Ambassador!
My swimming journey began the moment my Mum plonked some inflatable arm bands on three-year-old me (remember them?) and supported me whilst I bobbed around in an outdoor pool, bathed in the warm sunshine of the West Indies.
My teens were spent jumping into the beautiful lakes and rivers of the Lake District, and after school my Dad took me swimming in my local pool too. But other than school lessons, I’ve never had any long-term formal coaching or training; I’ve just talked with people who’ve been kind enough to share tips, and loved to be outdoors.
Fast forward to summer 2021, I was forced to stop commuting to a job up in London. After decades of not swimming at all, I headed off to my local pool and nervously started to turn my arms again. After a while, a dauntingly talented triathlete asked me if I’d heard of TriSwim at Bewl Water, and from that moment on, well I’ve been hooked.
Bewl is a gloriously wonderful location to swim at, and both the community of people who swim there and team at TriSwim are all so genuinely friendly. As a newbie back in autumn ’21, I was pretty nervous about what to expect from my first open water swim in years, but the team held my hand and made sure I was happy and safe.
I’m writing this in winter 2022, and am happy to report that I’m still going and have loved every minute of it! The team there make sure, quite directly, that you’re ok once you emerge out from the water, and that fuzzy sense of achievement you feel from knowing you’ve swum in cold water stays with you for ages after! Shhh, but dare I say it, it’s all very addictive and you feel like you’re a superhero; who doesn’t want to feel like that?!
From my initial “Hello, I’m new here”, so much has changed thanks to TriSwim. I’ve met awesome new people, each with their own personal stories. I’ve swum under huge blue skies, through beautiful rays of sunlight which puncture the surface of the lake. I’ve seen people with massive smiles laughing, squadrons of geese fly just feet above my head and achieved things I’d never thought I could, like swimming 2k in 5.4°C water (full body neoprene rules!). Swimming there is the best thing.
Since starting to swim again, I’ve done 5k swims in Bewl, 6k in my local pool, completed the Swim22 challenge for Diabetes UK, and now, it’s time to focus on something very close to my heart.
I’ve signed up to swim the 2022 Chillswim Ullswater event in summer. It’s 7.5 miles in England’s second longest lake, and is a place which holds some very precious memories for me. Frankly, I’m bricking it, but through their specific and individually tailored coaching techniques, TriSwim and the community of people who swim there will be right at the centre of helping me to achieve this dream.
Swimming has brought me this far, and I wonder what it could do for your dreams too? Come down and have a swim, just one stroke at a time. We’ll look after you, and you might just surprise yourself…
Thanks for your blog, nice to read. Do not stop.