Newspaper Article

Be a rebel - take a swim on the wild side

2006

Overview

? When somebody drowns while swimming, the media (and RoSPA) usually quote figures for drownings from all causes - including anglers who slipped, suicide leaps, boat capsizes, cars driven off bridges and foolhardy diving. The accident figures for swimming are small, and nothing in comparison with climbing, motorbike racing or letting off fireworks. In some cases alcohol is a factor. Rob Fryer, a 67-year-old printer, and a veteran of the Farleigh and District River Swimming Club, based on the River Frome, in Wiltshire, has become a spokesman for the anti-RoSPA resistance. He says the turning point was a book called Waterlog, by Roger Deakin, a chronicle of swimming through Britain, published in 2000, which has become the bible of the \"wild swimmers\". ? His Yorkshire recommendations so far include the Wharfe at Bolton Abbey, Burnsall and Appletreewick; the pools below Stainforth Foss, on the Ribble, north of Settle; the Wharfe by the campsite at Skirfare Bridge, near Kilnsey (\"for paddling and picnics\"); the Swale at Round Howe, upstream of the Green Bridge at Richmond; the Cauldron Pools at West Burton, on a beck near the Aysgarth Falls in Wensleydale; the Eller Beck at Fen Bog, near Fylingdales; and Low Gill Beck, Glaisdale, to the west of the North York Moors. Access charges are made by the land-owners in some cases.

• Publisher: NLA Media
• Subject: Benfield, Chris / Fryer, Rob