When I, as a completely talentless 45-year-old, after a lot of struggling, learned freestyle swimming well enough to complete the Vansbrosimningen and participate in triathlon competitions, gradually new opportunities for experiences opened up. When I began to tackle my different challenges, Lotta was also inspired to swim in open water and discovered that she even enjoyed it more than me.

The presence and nature experience of swimming in a cold sea with big waves or a warm lake with still water was almost as strong as running in the mountains or on narrow trails through dense forests. When we then took the initiative in 2014 to arrange Skärgårdsutmaningen, which in English means the Archipelago Challenge, a swimrun competition, we also began to explore and discover how fantastic it was to combine trail running and open water swimming. Since then, open water has taken up more and more space in our activities.

When we started testing swimming and playing in the water during winter with wetsuits for surfing in cold seas, we also discovered the endorphin rush of exposing ourselves to really cold water. Then it wasn't far to also start taking a dip afterwards without a wetsuit, and thereby discovering the joy of cold bathing.

Gradually, different types of swimming and bathing in natural environments in all seasons and in different places have become a natural part of our outdoor activities and micro-adventures. It has given us lots of nice and exciting experiences and opened up new creative ideas for what we can do in our free time.

Learning freestyle swimming has given me so much more than I could have imagined.

This page about Open Water Swimming is an attempt to share some of all those experiences and maybe inspire someone else to find their experiences in Open Water.