In At The Deep End

In 2011, there was no magazine for people who swam outdoors. No shared home for the stories, the training, the destinations, the growing community of people quietly falling in love with open water. So Simon Griffiths made one. As the founder and publisher of Outdoor Swimmer, he helped give a movement a voice, and in doing so built one of the most quietly influential publications in UK sport. But the story behind the magazine is more personal, and more compelling, than the cover lines suggest. Simon started Outdoor Swimmer in the aftermath of the worst thing that had ever happened to him, driven by a need to keep moving, to build something and to stay afloat. More than a decade on, he is still doing exactly that, now turning 60 with a personal best 100m time, training across every stroke and distance, and launching the Renaissance Swimmer Project, a new venture that asks what swimming might unlock in the rest of your life.Together, Salim and Simon explore:How a grief-driven idea became a landmark publication, and what it actually took to launch a magazine with no funding and a Google search.Why the open water swimming community felt different from the start, and the names and early believers who helped the magazine find its feet.What it means to get faster as you age, and how Simon broke a lifetime personal best in the pool on his 59th birthday.The training principles that actually matter as you get older, including why sprint work is more important for long-distance swimmers than they think.The case for swimming everything: why mixing strokes, distances, and environments makes you a better swimmer in all of them.The Renaissance Swimmer Project, what it is, what it is not, and why Simon believes swimming is just the beginning of a bigger conversation about how we live.Whether technology belongs in open water, from GPS goggles to coaching headsets, and where the line between useful and reductive sits.Useful linksOutdoor Swimmer Magazine: outdoorswimmer.comThe Renaissance Swimmer Project: renaissanceswimmer.comSimon's book, Swim Wild and Free: Available from all good book resellers nowShepperton Open Water Swim: sheppertonopenwaterswim.co.ukSwim with SalimSwimLab — Learn to swim with SalimBe a part of the show: Here's how to get in touch...Email us: inatthedeependpod@gmail.comUse the get in touch form HERE - https://inatthedeepend.transistor.fm/be-a-part-of-the-showSend us a voice message HERE- https://www.speakpipe.com/InAtTheDeepEndProduced by The Good Studio - thegoodstudio.co.uk

Lorraine Candy is one of Britain's most recognisable media voices. She is the former editor of Cosmopolitan, Elle and The Sunday Times Style, she's also a Sunday Times bestselling author and co-host of the hugely popular Postcards from Midlife podcast. But in this episode, it's not the magazine covers or the bestseller lists that take centre stage. It's the water.Lorraine came to open water swimming at 47, after a panic attack during a sprint triathlon left her terrified and determined never to feel that way again. What followed was a decade-long journey that she describes, without exaggeration, as the single thing that has most improved her life. In this episode Salim and Lorraine talk about what cold water actually gave her during the hardest years of perimenopause, why community is the most underreported benefit of open water swimming, and how the two of them ended up working together on something many swimmers avoid facing: going faster.It's a rich, honest conversation about bravery, belonging, and what it means to find a sport that will carry you through the rest of your life.In this episode:How a panic attack in a triathlon lake became the start of Lorraine's real swimming journeyCold water swimming and perimenopause - the mental, physical, and community benefits Why the open water swimming community is one of the most inclusive and body-positive spaces Lorraine has ever foundThe moment she realised she'd been "plodding forever" and the mindful approach to speed that actually workedFavourite swims: Lake Geneva at sunrise, the Scilly Isles, swimming through a shoal of mackerel in CornwallFantasy swims on the horizon: the Strait of Gibraltar and AlcatrazAdvice for midlife women and teenage girls - why getting in the water might be the best thing you can do for both of themUseful LinksLorraine CandyPostcards From Midlife podcast: https://www.postcardsfrommidlife.com/What's Wrong With Me? 101 Things Midlife Women Need to KnowLorraine's Substack newsletter, The Candy Club: https://substack.com/@lorrainecandyInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lorrainecandy/Swimming & Open WaterShepperton Open Water Swim: sheppertonopenwaterswim.co.ukHampton PoolOutdoor Swimmer MagazineWatergate Bay Hotel - where Salim holds his swimming retreatsSwim with SalimSwimLab — Learn to swim with SalimBe a part of the show: Here's how to get in touch...Email us: inatthedeependpod@gmail.comUse the get in touch form HERE - https://inatthedeepend.transistor.fm/be-a-part-of-the-showSend us a voice message HERE- https://www.speakpipe.com/InAtTheDeepEndProduced by The Good Studio - thegoodstudio.co.uk

In Episode 3, Salim is joined by Adam Filby - technology professional, fundraiser, triathlete and dad. In May 2017, on the same day the WannaCry cyberattack was tearing through NHS systems across the country, Adam was on an operating table donating part of his liver to his seven-year-old daughter Florence, who had been born with a life-threatening liver condition. He came round from the anaesthetic not in intensive care, but in a makeshift room in a hospital corridor, and within 24 hours had signed up for an Ironman.Adam's relationship with swimming began years earlier, quietly shaped by the knowledge that one day his daughter might need him to be in the best possible shape. What followed was a journey from a man who could barely swim 50 metres, through triathlons, half Ironmans and four full Ironmans, to someone for whom the open water has become the place he finds the same peace he once found running through a forest the night before the operation. This is a story about love, purpose, the human body's extraordinary capacity to heal and what happens when you refuse to set a limit on what you might be capable of.Key themes in this episode:Biliary atresia, the rare liver condition Florence was born with, and what it means for families waiting for a transplantTraining for a triathlon in your early 30s with a quiet, deeper motivation behind itWhat it's like to be on the transplant list - the waiting, the restrictions, the fearThe day of the operation - two theatres, a cyberattack, and a photo taken over a surgeon's shoulderGoing from lying in a hospital bed to completing an Ironman in five and a half monthsHow swimming and exercise became a vehicle for processing an enormous experienceThe calm that open water gives and why Adam can no longer train in a poolThe case for living organ donation, and why fitness is no barrier to recoveryFinding purpose through sport: from proving something to simply thrivingUseful LinksSwimming & Open WaterShepperton Open Water Swim: sheppertonopenwaterswim.co.ukHampton Pool — where Mei-Ling rediscovered swimming during the pandemicSwim Serpentine — open-water event completed during her recoveryKingfisher Triathletes - Triathlon clubBritish TriathlonOutdoor Swimmer MagazineSwim with SalimSwimLab — Learn to swim with SalimOrgan DonationNHS Organ Donation — register as an organ donorChildren's Liver Disease Foundation — supporting families affected by childhood liver diseaseAdam FilbyFollow Adam on InstagramBe a part of the show: Here's how to get in touch...Email us: inatthedeependpod@gmail.comUse the get in touch form HERE - https://inatthedeepend.transistor.fm/be-a-part-of-the-showSend us a voice message HERE- https://www.speakpipe.com/InAtTheDeepEndProduced by The Good Studio - thegoodstudio.co.uk

In this debut episode of In At The Deep End, host and swim coach Salim Ahmed welcomes his first guest, Dr Victoria Rose - or 'Rosie' as he knows her - a consultant plastic surgeon whose life is defined by two remarkable worlds: the operating theatres of London hospitals and the war-torn hospitals of Gaza.Rosie shares her journey from dedicated runner to passionate swimmer, how a serious knee injury changed everything and why swimming has become a lifeline - not just physically, but mentally and emotionally - as she processes the harrowing work of treating children with blast, burn, and bullet injuries in one of the world's most dangerous conflict zones.Key themes in this episode:What plastic surgery really involves and why it has such an unfair reputationThe IDEALS charity and its decades of work supporting surgeons in conflict zonesLife in Gaza before and after October 2023 - the contrast between restaurants and rubbleThe friendship and responsibility that drives humanitarian volunteers back into dangerThe physiological magic of cold water and the body's response to immersionSwimming as community, fitness and mental health supportOpen-water swimming at Shepperton Lake, and the eureka momentSwimming for body, mind and soul: resilience, mindfulness and showing upUseful LinksSwimming & Open WaterShepperton Open Water Swim: sheppertonopenwaterswim.co.ukSwim England — Find a Club — find a Masters club near youBritish Masters SwimmingOutdoor Swimming Society — open-water locations and resourcesSwim with SalimSwimLab - Learn to swim with SalimOrganisations MentionedIDEALS Charity — supporting surgeons in conflict zonesDr Victoria RoseFollow Rosie on InstagramBe a part of the show: Here's how to get in touch...Email us: inatthedeependpod@gmail.comUse the get in touch form HERE - https://inatthedeepend.transistor.fm/be-a-part-of-the-showSend us a voice message HERE- https://www.speakpipe.com/InAtTheDeepEndProduced by The Good Studio - thegoodstudio.co.uk