Suziswims - Open water swimming and coaching in Essex

Winter swim challenge 2025/6 complete. Very cold, especially my fingers when I forget gloves. Here's to summer!

550m swum in a choppy sea. My mouth tastes of salt! Proper slow. It took 20 mins to find a parking space. What shape is my swim?

Quick New Year's Day dip near a waterfall. Really peaceful and relaxing, but cold, as you can tell from my facial expression. Also got a fishing hook stuck in my swim shoe. I always want to wear swim shoes for safety, despite doing the Polar bear challenge where I have to take them off. Luckily there is a small scratch on my foot and the hook had no barb.

Looking fierce in the river today. Face in. Mixture of front crawl and fly. Relaxing sumer vibes. Loved it. Maybe summer is here?

They are planning to build 3000 houses by this beautiful river and Im gutted to lose my happy place. Lets hope the campaigners stop the planning being approved.

Beautiful warm water in Trakai. So much more provision for outdoor time in Europe than in the UK

A light green scum on the water ... this is the first time Ive actually seen blue-green algae. Don't swim if you see this. N.B. I am not in the UK currently

Today I finished off 10 MILES of winter swimming! With a photo shoot at a night swim at . Fabulous evening. Roll on summer. Warmer water (although 10 degrees today felt toasty) and distance!

Despite the cramp, cheap swimsuit slicing my neck open and not actually being able to breathe properly during front crawl, I finished! Note to self, buy quality swimwear! Bouggt a kind of cover up from amazon so I didnt get sunburn but it was abrasive on my neck everytime I breathed to the side so couldnt get any rhythm to keep going front crawl. Breathing is so important to swim distances!

Stopped to take a selfie 2/3 of the way round swim serpentine. Im tired, sore and very green but I did it. Got the worst cramp ever.

Serious swimming. at the weekend for . I would love your sponsorship. My Grandma died since I signed up for this so its now in her memory!

https://swimserpentine.enthuse.com/pf/susannah-hughes-f548f?utm_source=EnthuseSendGrid&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=website

# openwaterswim

Beautiful afternoon at Shoeburyness East Beach with some safety .essages to share:

1. There have been sewage releases into the sea near here in the last 24 hours. Its gross, but this is one of only two beaches near here OK to swim at. Check the app.

2. The water looks calm but when up to my neck I can barely stand, there is a strong current. I heard some really sensible kids saying they werent going to deep as they arent professional swimmers. I didnt go to far out either. Float for a bit and see where you go. If you go somewhere you dont want, and too fast, stay where you can touch the bottom.