Kate founded The Outdoor Swimming Society in 2006. She grew up swimming in a river in Devon, and continues to swim all over the country. Her book Wild Swim contains 300 great outdoor swims around Britain, including all those featured in Robson Green's Wild Swimming Adventure (ITV, Dec 8th).

Read Kate's Best of Times, Worst of Times, in The Times or listen to Wilderness journeys on BBC Radio 4.

In 2006/7 the OSS ran the Breastrokes charity swims in Windermere and Serpentine, which raised over £150,000 for Cancer Research.

Kate's ambitions for 2009? 'To increase OSS membership to 10,000: 'there are 12 million swimmers in this country, we want to convert many more to the joys of wild swimming.' 

To talk to Kate's agent please call Patrick Walsh. If you have any press queries about the OSS itself  please click here.

Rob is the author of Mountains of the Mind and The Wild Places, and a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge -- where outdoor swimming has allegedly been going on since 1692. He is a mountain-climber whose ideal mountain day ends with a plunge in a river or loch or the sea. 

He's been winter swimming in Beijing's imperial lakes, in the Himalayas, and once went green after diving into a Devon lake on New Year's Day. He was a good friend and swimming companion of the late Roger Deakin, author of the swimming classic 'Waterlog'.

Cassie Patten is an OSS patron and one of our open water heroes, winning an Olympic bronze medal in the Open Water 10km swim in Bejing . A keen wild swimmer, growing up in Cornwall and taking to the seas and rivers with her two dogs wherever possible. In fact the first thing she did after the Olympics was take a wild-swim road trip with her dad - 'If it's mucky, I'm in it.' she says.

This year, Cassie has been swimming the channel, teaching OSS members how they can move that much more easily in the water and helping support our environmental projects.

See her at this year's OSS December Dip  and also from last year's December Dip on YouTube. 

Out of trees, off bridges, through limestone sea caves and down what seem a bit more like ditches: we can only thank Michael for broadening the type of swims we go on (having tested the safety and depth of the water first). Michael is a keen swimmer who pioneers swims across estuaries and down rivers under a full moon in Autumn. We thank him for that. And for having a boat.

In 2008 Michael led a core of OSS swimmers down the Bosphorus in Istanbul as part of a Turkish annual race, which made a nice break from his normal fixation with muddy estuaries. In 2009 he went one better: buying the an OSS wood-fired hot tub we have taken on the road to a series of events. See us on the bank after a long chilly swim....

Oliver was an early convert to the way of the Outdooor Swimming Society and has been up-hill and down-dale on swims - as well as stoking the hot tub, mulling the wine and making the chai.

Oli is a regular face behind the stall at OSS Events and is now picking up the tongs and the challenge of organizing the 2010 Midsummer Night's Swim (June 24th) and OSS December Dip (December 4th).

Plans are already underway, but if you have any thoughts, improvements or suggestions and would like to pitch in with anything from free cider to a band, just drop Oli a line via Facebook or email him at gospitt@gmail.com

With more wetsuits than business suits, Tim Bond has successfully built up a large network of Oxfordshire based swimmers, encouraging them to share their swim plans and organize their own social swims.

Since being dropped into Waterbaby Swimming class at a very early age, sailing, and kayaking as a child in the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District, he progressed to SCUBA diving whilst at university, teaching and leading diving expeditions round the world. Tim now works in operational support for a large oceanography research group and in his 'other life'  can be found chasing storms around the USA.

Sarah is currently building up a social network of swimmers in the Lakes and North Yorkshire, organising swims in the sea, rivers, lakes and tarns. To join her swims see OSS Facebook.

Sarah developed a love of swimming at an early age whilst growing up in Yorkshire, a passion which has followed her through life. With a swimming cossie always packed in her hand luggage on holidays just in case her bag goes missing, and a kit bag in the car she’s happy swimming outdoors all year round.

Sarah works is a rural and environmental policy adviser and is currently studying an MA at the University of Exeter.

Adam joined the raft of volunteers in May 2009 to bring new organisation and power to our swimming map for the summer.

A regular outdoor swimmer and swim-planner, having been reintroduced to the outdoors again by a swim with OSS Oxford. He now swims most weekends. 

Please check out the map  and send in contributions - wherever you swim.

Anna has been going on Great British wet weekends and seaside holidays since she was three and travels everywhere with her swimming costume. Anna describes herself as a swimming 'plodder'. Alongside contributing wonderful spots to our swim map, Anna edits and writes stories for the newsletter, and has a roving brief of spotting interesting things from Pestival to Caught by the River that interest water lovers and bringing them home for the rest of us.  

When Anna is not looking for ponds, lakes or sea to jump into she can normally be found knitting, sewing, camping, enthusing about the great outdoors, adopting chickens, singing or playing folk instruments. Aside from that, she is a writer and new media and communications consultant.