If OSS has ever made you feel braver, less alone, or more at home in the water, this is the moment we ask for your help. One £5 ticket keeps OSS free and independent for another year — and could broaden your swim horizons for 2026.
Imagine opening your inbox to find you’ve won tickets for a weekend at the Watergate Hotel, three nights in an Unplugged cabin or £200 in alpkit vouchers.
It could be you.
We thought long and hard about what we’d want to win for 2026 — and then went out and got it. We’re very jealous we can’t enter ourselves.
Imagine waking up, pulling back the curtains, and the whole Atlantic is there — vast and completely yours. This is a two-night B&B stay for two at one of Cornwall’s most beautiful beachside hotels, with a two-mile beach on your doorstep and optional access to their expert-led swim breaks.
That first cold step into the morning water will stay with you long after you’re home. Watergate Bay Hotel
Three nights in a digital-detox cabin deep in rolling countryside where you can disconnect from screens and reconnect with nature. No phone, no news, just a morning swim in cold water and the whole day ahead to fill however you want. When’s the last time you had that?
Choose from 40+ cabins across the UK and Wales. We’d book one of their cabins in Betws-y-Coed — perfect for a dawn swim before most people have had their first coffee.
After one night off-grid, the days stretch out differently – full of space you didn’t know you’d lost. Unplugged
Picture this: you’ve just stepped out of cold water, your skin’s tingling, and a few moments later you’re sitting in a warm sauna with friends.
This pop-up sauna goes wherever you go — river, lake, coast — and the panoramic windows mean you get the view of the water while you thoroughly warm up..
If you swim through winter, you know exactly how good this would be.
The prize includes:
Wetsuits, merino layers, rucksacks, booties, performance knitwear — Alpkit has been part of OSS swimmers’ adventures for years. Rather than choosing for you, we’re giving you £200 to choose what you need.
We love Alpkit because it’s an Aladdin’s Cave for us outdoor enthusiasts. Something interesting in every hidden corner!
There’s something about getting new kit that pulls you into new adventures — a small commitment to your future swims. And the planning? That’s half the joy. Alpkit
When is a DryRobe not a Dryrobe? When it’s a DryRobe Tech-Lite.
Light, warm, waterproof — a favourite among the OSS team for year-round adventures and swims that involve travel. Packs small, stands up to weather, and makes cold-water transitions far more comfortable. Made with recycled materials.
Pulling this on after a swim brings a small but unmistakable flood of relief — warmth arriving exactly when you need it. Dryrobe
Including the sold-out Bantham Swoosh.
We have a pair of tickets for a full summer of Level Water’s iconic river swims for you and a friend:
These aren’t just swims — they’re the events everyone’s talking about. The Swoosh sells out in minutes every year. The Dart is a bucket-list river adventure. The Hurly Burly is pure joy and chaos. This is your chance to experience all of them, with friends, without the stress of securing tickets.
This is the prize that turns “I should do those swims one day” into a summer already mapped out, booked, and waiting for you. Level Water
If we could enter our own draw, we’d choose this one
Half a day of swim-dreaming with OSS founder Kate Rew — the mind behind the Dart10k, Bantham Swoosh, Hurly Burly, and author of The Outdoor Swimmers’ Handbook and Wild Swim – plus a night in a Shepherd’s Hut and a swim in Somerset’s Vallis Farm.
The prize includes:
Kate can’t say this herself but we can: there’s a moment, mid-conversation with Kate, when a new idea drops into place and your whole swim life opens out a little. @kate_rew Vallis Farm
The prize that money definitely can’t buy.
The first organised 10km Thames swim since 1947 — revived for a new era of river access and adventure. The course is downstream, tide-assisted and seriously fast, making 10km feel closer to 5km as the ebb carries you towards the finish.
There’s a point in every long swim where the world goes quiet and you realise you’re part of something you’ll be talking about for years. That moment will be somewhere on this river. Event launch: 2026.
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A rare chance to train with Olympian and marathon specialist Hector Pardoe — one of Britain’s leading open-water swimmers.
This 4–5 hour coaching day at Swim Six Hills in Loughborough includes a pre-swim warm-up, a technical open-water session, post-swim coaching, cake and hot drinks, a Q&A, and a goodie bag with kit and a signed swim cap.
Hector only runs a handful of these days each year — and places aren’t usually available like this. Likely dates are 13-14th June, and the masterclass is suitable for anyone wanting to improve their open water swimming. @hectorpardoe | Swim Six Hills, Loughborough
Ever watched someone make butterfly look effortless and thought, “How?” Kari Furre teaches butterfly with a calm precision that makes the stroke feel completely different — gentle adjustments and thoughtful pacing.
Imagine finally swimming the stroke you’ve always wanted to master.
A one hour lesson with Kari – in Totnes or London – could change how you move through water for the rest of your life.
For 20 years, OSS has been the home of swimming stories — genuine adventures that capture small moments and make them vast.
This special edition of Elsewhere is our first printed magazine. A good journey changes how we see the world, and each other, even slightly. In this issue you will meet many different kinds of journey: wild synchronised swimmers, a man swimming in the dead of night and the peak of a storm, an 85-year-old who spends all summer diving for trash. You’ll find urban swimmers reclaiming their city centres, and one who navigates open water with almost no sight.
It’s part travel journal, part time capsule, and a love letter to water and the people who gather around it.
Ten winners get a copy before it sells out. £15. Selling worldwide.
International friends: You’re always welcome here. Prize draws fall under UK Gambling Laws and are only open to residents of Great Britain only (England, Scotland, Wales). Please consider making a donation – we are grateful for every bit of support! If you can, please help us stay afloat for one year more. This fundraiser funds the thing thousands of swimmers value most: a free, independent, joy-filled community where no one gets left out of the water.
Our fundraising target: £20,000
Open to residents of Great Britain only (England, Scotland, Wales) in line with gambling regulations.
For 20 years The Outdoor Swimming Society has kept the water open — no membership fees, no paywalls, no barriers. Just water, stories, and that spirit of adventure we all know swimming brings out in people. What we’ve been doing for two decades: