English Riviera Swim

We're doing our best to minimise our environmental impact. Here are a few of our initiatives. Trees Not Tees For all the events where we include a t-shirt, we're now offering the option to plant a tree instead. We've partnered with Treesnottees.com to make this happen. Avoiding Single Use Plastics We use paper cups designed to be fully recycled back into high grade paper. Medals now optional We know quite a lot of competitors are not interested in finishers medals so they are now optional. We make a £2 charity donation for every medal not selected. Swim hats on request We still supply swim hats for our open water swim events as they help the water safety teams keep track of swimmers. However for all our pool events, swim hats are now on request to reduce wastage. Zip Ties & waste We only use reusable zip ties. We minimise single use plastics & sort rubbish for recycling after our events. Food is not wasted For events, such as our cycling sportives, where we're know for our excellent feed stations, all left over food goes to the local foodbank. Reducing Car use In Devon where most of our events take place this is easier said than done. However at our Burrator 10K running race we offer a £5 discount to anyone who commits to walking or cycling to the event. We'll be looking to add this to other events in the future. To read more about our sustainability policies read our article

You will need your swim suit, and if required, your wetsuit. You'll also need some decent goggles that don't leak. Many people bring old trainers or flipflops to where while waiting for the race to start. It's essential to have warm, easy to pull on clothes to change into afterwards. Remember cold fingers can make buttons & zips tricky. The layered clothing approach is best along with warm socks & a warm hat to reduce heat loss from your extremities. A flask of your favourite hot drink is also a good idea  

No you don't!  However if you're new to open water swimming and haven't trained regularly in open water, we strongly recommend you wear a wet-suit. And for almost everyone a wet-suit will mean you swim faster too.

Yes they are. We recommend you start with one of the shorter distances and make sure you do some open water swimming in advance. See our Open Water Swimming Tips for more advice