The Wild Swimming Brothers

Meet Jack, Calum and Robbie Hudson… Three brothers from the outback of Northern England, raised by Scottish Wilds. These boys grew up swimming together in Cumbria's Lake District, scrambling down rivers like clumsy commandos and leaping off stacks and piers, flailing into deep water. Eventually they stumbled into that deathly clinch they call ‘adulthood’. Then waves of semi-seriousness rolled in and the brothers found that they and their friends had lost contact with the outdoors. They’d settled into the urban grind, put on a few stone and drifted into concrete habitats patrolled by world-weary pigeons and howling foxes. Suddenly stress, apathy and anxiety seemed commonplace. It became apparent that they were part of a widespread dislocation. They’d been inured to an artificial world of flickering screens, routine walks around manicured green spaces and juddering trains. It was time to seek out something less ordinary. So, grabbing hold of their family root, they reunited in Cumbria for one long source-to-sea river swim that would change their lives forever. Today the brothers continue to promote wild swimming, conservation and the link between creativity and the outdoors. Writing, creating artwork and, most importantly, swimming, whilst also hosting weekend events, invitational swims, motivational talks and exhibitions. To date their big swims include: world-first crossings of the three most powerful maelstroms (the Corryvreckan, Saltstraumen and Moskstraumen), a 9-day/90-mile River Eden swim from source to mouth, a 5-hour/13C swim the full length of Loch Broom, and a crossing of the Turkish Hellespont, from Europe to Asia. Their next event is an invitational swim the whole length of the Lake District’s longest lake: Lake Windermere (August 2019). Visit the website: https://thewildswimmingbrothers.com/