The Cult of Swimming

6 August 2025

Among serious swimmers and/or the aquatically-obsessed, The Haunts of the Black Masseur and Waterlog have become cult classics—books that don’t just describe swimming, but seem to live inside it.

Sprawson dives into the obsessive, mythic side of the swimmer’s soul, tracing a lineage from Byron to modern Olympians.

Deakins, more meditative, swims his way across Britain’s waters in search of wildness, solitude, and belonging.

For those of us who swim not just for fitness, but for meaning—these are must-reads. I've been wading through Sprawson on my morning tube journeys to the London Aquatic Centre and had to finish up Chapter VII - "The American Dream" - in the stands before diving in for my 2,500-meter taper workout this morning.

After 800-meters of race pace work on Monday, I only did one round of the broken 400 today. I felt amazing at the start and was going way too fast by #3, so I then tried to scale back the effort to see if I could lock into an easy 34/34.5. I was a bit erratic, but pleased.