WORLD SWIMMING

By Bridget Bayer
 
My husband and I have always wanted to cross an ocean. I was raised on a connecting lake to the Great Lakes in Michigan, and he started building boats as a teenager so we’re both addicted to being on the water.
A couple years ago, we signed up with a few friends for a repositioning cruise* across the Atlantic Ocean to Puerto Rico. We made it across the ocean and arrived in PR about a month after Hurricane Maria (2017). We wasted no time in checking out our neighborhood, ...

HAP Instigator and River Hugger, Janie Malloy was lucky enough to join fellow open water swimming mavericks, Laurence Dalbou and Sophie Apnee in a surreptitious swim in the Canal de l'Ourcq, Pantin. Laurence carries a portable ladder in her swim bag, in order to get in and out of the water. You see, open water swimming in Paris is technically forbidden, and we could have been arrested. The renderings of the Seine show how fun, healthy and vibrant the City waterfronts could be if leveraged for human ...

Urban Swimways London Calling
 
By Garrett Martin
HAP columnist, Garrett Martin, is a River Hugger and lifelong swimmer. He writes a column about swimming in cities around the world.

After checking out our neighboring cold-weather counterparts (San Fran, Seattle), I decided to see what’s happening yonder across the Atlantic. Of course those cities have the benefit of having been around for about 1,000 more years than us, but maybe just maybe we can ...

Hot Boxing
 
By Garrett Martin
 
Baby, it’s cold outside. Holy cow, it’s downright freezing! What urban Portland swimmer in their right mind would consider jumping into one of our waterways right now?
Okay, okay, who said any of us were in our right minds to begin with? And yes, I admit last month I praised the seal-skinned crazies who make up San Francisco’s bay swimming community. And yes, we have all heard tales of Polar Bear swims and ‘ice mile’ swims, ...

Why just look at the view when you can jump right into it? Such words are gospel for the open water swimmers of San Francisco Bay. Despite the chilly water temperature—which hovers in the mid-50s year-round—swimmers of the city-by-the-bay can consider themselves blessed to have Aquatic Park at their fingertips.
 
Take Van Ness Avenue all the way to its northern terminus and you'll find yourself at the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park. With your toes in cool sand and ...

Welcome to Urban Swimways, a monthly column that spotlights inspiring precedents for urban swimming from around the world.
 
With each newsletter we’ll dive into an urban swimway somewhere in the world. What is an ‘urban swimway’, you ask? Simply put, something like our own dear Willamette River: a more or less natural body of water in the middle of an active city that offers all kinds of opportunities for direct human access, immersion, enjoyment and adventure.
 
Some ...