NORTHERN PLANNER

So yesterday I swam in a lake. After pining for swimming in water and finding a pool not, I don't know, visceral enough, I decided to engage in the open water swimming sub-culture. 

And it really is some sort of secret society, or at least the Leeds version is.

A Facebook group you need to be accepted into, codes for names of the lakes you swim in, yet open arms for those who are willing to be inducted into the ways of the force.

I went swimming in 'Carolines' which to the laypeople, is a lake in a nature reserve on the far outskirts of Leeds. A kind soul offered to take me on my first adventure, simply to assist with the small codes and rituals you need to adhere to.

The biggest dilemma was wetsuit or not. This was the hottest day in August for ages. Added to this was the context that this little cult is divided between the moderates and the zealots. The moderates are happy to feel they are getting something more real than a chlorinated pool, while the zealots follow the one true path, where anyone foregoing bare skin is somehow lesser.

Sod it, it was hot anyway, bare skin it is.

Before you think its all weird, these little rituals and subtle ways of initiation matter.

I ride my bike. A lot. No one told me you don't wear lycra bib shorts without pants. That's right, those middle aged men in lycra are going commando, usually with a good dose of chamois cream (arse butter) to boot. In certain cycling circles, men without shaven legs 'just don't get it'.

(I don't care that you know I shave my legs, after one horrible crash, I skidded across 20 metres of tarmac and experienced a month of sleepless nights, as the layer of skin trying to grow back on my leg was hampered by the ooze of matted hair. Ever since then, it's all been whipped off. Attractive no?)

Before you decide to read something a lot less like a fetish website, I presume you're here because you're something to do with brands and agencies.

Consider the hidden rituals in your own tribe. Look at the uniforms in the, supposedly original creative department. Go to an all agency meeting for the first time and try and understand the acronyms cheerfully thrown about. We all love to belong to tribes, its just who we are. Some just take it further than others.

I digress. 

This is what you are greeted with when you arrive at 'Carolines'. 

It takes your breathe away.

And into the water I go, The sensation of the mud and reeds underfoot totally new. The cold water refreshing in a way the chorinated version can never be.

Skin is water proof, but nevertheless, the fresh water penetrates the outer layer and invigorates the soul.

I dive in properly. Then swim. Really swim. The cold takes your breathe away, but you keep going. Swimming is an natural to me as breathing, but experiencing it here was like doing it for the first time. Usually, it takes a while to loosen up, to really feel the water. 

Not today.

I do a circuit around the edge of the lake. It's about a mile and a half. At one point I have to swim around swans. I'm doing front crawl full pace, cutting through the water, the sun in my eyes and the cold on my skin. I zip past other folks, I'm not racing them, I'm just doing my own thing. Somehow more present in the moment than I've been for a while.

Everything feels different, yet exactly the same.

It's magical. 

By the time I do a full circuit, I have that familiar ache in my arms and shoulders. What's new, is the sense of feeling cleansed.

The cold has seeped into my bones. So when I'm done, I just sit on the grass and let the sun warm me. 

What did I like?

We're all bit jaded these days, even though I arrived with someone and joined a group, it just felt more real. It was just me, the cold, the sun in my eyes and the feeling of the water. 

I liked the feeling of doing something the usual people don't. You know when you like a band and it becomes really popular and ruined for you? It feels like 'somewhere only we know'.

Mostly though, I was born to swim. I've never lost that joy of doing something well. Doing it in a different context made me discover it all over again, like a renewing wedding vows or something. 

I'll be back.