Episode Details

In 2011, there was no magazine for people who swam outdoors. No shared home for the stories, the training, the destinations, the growing community of people quietly falling in love with open water. So Simon Griffiths made one. As the founder and publisher of Outdoor Swimmer, he helped give a movement a voice, and in doing so built one of the most quietly influential publications in UK sport. But the story behind the magazine is more personal, and more compelling, than the cover lines suggest. Simon started Outdoor Swimmer in the aftermath of the worst thing that had ever happened to him, driven by a need to keep moving, to build something and to stay afloat. More than a decade on, he is still doing exactly that, now turning 60 with a personal best 100m time, training across every stroke and distance, and launching the Renaissance Swimmer Project, a new venture that asks what swimming might unlock in the rest of your life.

Together, Salim and Simon explore:

• How a grief-driven idea became a landmark publication, and what it actually took to launch a magazine with no funding and a Google search.
• Why the open water swimming community felt different from the start, and the names and early believers who helped the magazine find its feet.
• What it means to get faster as you age, and how Simon broke a lifetime personal best in the pool on his 59th birthday.
• The training principles that actually matter as you get older, including why sprint work is more important for long-distance swimmers than they think.
• The case for swimming everything: why mixing strokes, distances, and environments makes you a better swimmer in all of them.
• The Renaissance Swimmer Project, what it is, what it is not, and why Simon believes swimming is just the beginning of a bigger conversation about how we live.
• Whether technology belongs in open water, from GPS goggles to coaching headsets, and where the line between useful and reductive sits.

Useful links

• Outdoor Swimmer Magazine: outdoorswimmer.com
• The Renaissance Swimmer Project: renaissanceswimmer.com
• Simon's book, Swim Wild and Free: Available from all good book resellers now
• Shepperton Open Water Swim: sheppertonopenwaterswim.co.uk

Swim with Salim

• SwimLab — Learn to swim with Salim

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Produced by The Good Studio - thegoodstudio.co.uk