Open Water Swimming Quotes

I always wanted to swim the Channel, which is insane.

My preference is swimming in the sea. I find the sea is more liberating, wild and good fun rather than plodding up and down a pool.

For previous generations, swimming the English Channel was the feat to accomplish. And that's been done.

I do a lot of swimming, both in the ocean and in the pool.

I try to swim every damn day I can, and I've learned to scuba dive and snorkel.

I swam at school a lot. Long-distance swimming in pools, and diving, then when we moved to Hastings when I was 13 I used to swim in the sea all the time; I loved it out of season and when it was rough.

Swimming is my passion and something that I love.

In triathlon you don't get to race that much so when you're on the start line you just need to make sure you focus on the job in hand and enjoy yourself.

The swim at Deception Island was by far the hardest swim I've ever done. Antarctica is a very unforgiving environment. If you don't train properly, you'll die.

While scuba diving off the British Virgin Islands about 25 years ago, our boat's anchor got stuck. I dived down to release it, but I got separated from the boat and was stranded as it sped away. I had to swim for an hour to the nearest island with all my scuba kit on before I was rescued.

I've gradually gained more confidence swimming for distance in the open sea, but I still return to the rock pools.

It was a downriver 10-K in the mouth of the Amazon. I won in an hour and 20 minutes. It has to be one of the fastest times ever swum. The race director said there were no piranhas in that part of the Amazon. The water was too dirty.

During an open water swim, it's easy to lose your direction. With all the splash, it can be quite hard to see the next buoy, so I look behind it for something bigger, like a tree or a building, and aim for that instead.

In swimming, especially training out in the ocean and open water, you got fogged-over goggles, you're stuck with your own thoughts - there's great benefits to that, deep thinking like that after many hours, but there's also tremendous loneliness. You burn out. You want to run, jump, ski, do anything. So at age 30, I was finished.

Pool swimmers are very slim, and they're stronger. Marathon swimmers have to train an awful lot, and they end up losing a bit of muscle mass. So we need to have a bit more fat, though that's not the case with me. Many swimmers have a little bit of extra fat though, so that they can deal with the cold and get through what is an exhausting event.

Swimming is still very much a part of me.

I haven't swam in any of the rivers outside of Baltimore. I try to keep it in the pool.

I used to go out with someone who was a really great diver, and we used to go to all the great dive spots all over the globe - although I would spend most of my time crying because I was often too scared to go into the water. But once I was in the water, I loved it.

With marathon swimming, I think you have to use your head more than you do in pool events, which are more automatic. You can just go out and replicate your training pace in competition. With the marathon, though, you have to contend with nature, physical contact, and time.

Ultimately I wanted to be a pioneer swimmer, a distant descendant of Scott, Amundsen and Hillary, except that I would be an explorer of the water.

If you want to swim across the English Channel from England to France - you have to leave your doubt on the beach in England.

As a kid, I did some running but especially loved biking and swimming. I grew up on Long Island, and our mom took us all the time to the ocean, so I grew up doing open-water swimming in the Atlantic.

Swimming in the cold and the dark of British autumn is not for the faint-hearted.

I think I'm going to my grave without swimming from Cuba to Florida.