DON'T TELL ME I CAN'T… …be a wild winter swimmer

There’s nothing like a cold-water dip to get Pippa Best ready for the day

- FIONA KINLOCH

Brushing the water past my body as I swim breaststroke, I’m overcome by a welcome tingling sensation. It’s the feeling I yearn for when I paddle into the sea off the coast of Cornwall and begin cold-water swimming. The water temperature can often dip below 10 degrees in winter. And while swimming half a kilometre in the sea isn’t how most 48-year-olds start their day, I can’t think of anything better.

From a young age, I’d been a water baby. School swimming lessons were my favourite, and in the summer holidays I’d visit my nan in Scotland, spending happy hours dipping in and out of the salty sea. Back home in London, it wasn’t easy to get to the coast, so this rare trip to the sea was truly a treat. But as I grew up, life got busy, and eventually I stopped going in the sea.