Try the transforming effect of taking a swim in the sea

Whenever I go for a swim in the sea I feel better afterwards. That’s why we set up Sea Swim. We believe swimming transforms your imagination and your body, and that Scarborough’s South Bay is an extraordinary place to swim. Head one way and there’s Castle Headland, the Grand Hotel and the lights of the arcades; head the other, and it’s the bleak Jurassic cliffs of Holbeck and Filey Brigg.

Depending on the time of year, kittiwakes and black-headed gulls dive-bomb the water while you swim and on rare September days the water will be so clear you’ll see your shadow on the sea bed. I think it’s this contrast between the human and the non-human that makes swimming in Scarborough, a town rich in sea-bathing history, so exhilarating.

Sometimes, while I’m swimming, I ignore the land and focus on the way my breath scoops the water in front of me, on the reaching and opening of my arms. It’s then that I realise that this is the same view I’ve always enjoyed, both as a child and as a man. The colour of the water may be different to St Ives Bay where I grew up, but that same experience feels familiar, close to home, and has a salutary effect.

The very openness of the sea, always fresh, unburdened by buildings and voices, gives me space to think and find a natural movement of thought. It’s a matter of concentration. It’s a matter of silence, what some people call “otherness”. However you name it, it’s a good thing, and we’ve set up Sea Swim to encourage people to join us in this simple, free and timeless pleasure.

What has been heartening is the way swimming has freed people taking part in Sea Swim to talk about their memories and to make connections with other important things in their lives.

One woman told us how she used to swim at Children’s Corner and leave her husband looking after her clothes. While her husband had died, she still felt him watching her from land whenever she went down to the water’s edge.

Going for a swim is a mini-Odyssey and the journey, as a swimmer said to me recently, feels both slightly scary but also calming. It’s this mix of emotions that we think makes swimming in the sea so important. Add to that a wild bay and a beautiful town, and you have everything you need to bring you to your senses.

While there may be all kinds of artistic experiments and fun to be had with Sea Swim over the next 18 months, at its core it’s about the fresh perspective that swimming can offer us. Maybe it’s about time we recognised, in the run up to the Olympics, that the concentration of the sportsman and craftsperson are not so very far apart, and that exercise can be good for the imagination.

PROGRAMME LEADS TO GAMES

* Sea Swim is part of the Imove progamme of cultural events in Yorkshire leading up to next year’s Olympic Games.

* Mass participation swims will take place in Scarbrough on August 20, 24, 27 and September 3.

* For more details and times of the swims visit www.twitter.com/northsea swimmer