Flock Together, Swim Dem Crew, Ultra Black Running and The Outrunners: Meet the new wave reclaiming nature in post-lockdown London

“Basically, if you’re a young individual from Hackney, we want you to be equipped to operate without any obstacles, say, if your mothers and fathers just cannot or will not choose you, or you really do not have the right package,” he claims. “Running opens your eyes to parks and lots of other eco-friendly spaces but not if you have mothers and fathers who really don’t truly feel at ease in these areas. We’re right here to prevent history repeating by itself.”

Swim Dem Crew

Vicky Grout

London’s flyest freestylers

In no way has converse of lengths and lanes brought about a lot more of a splash about pockets of London, nor have goggle marks, colourful caps and swimwear been worn with additional pride than in 2022. Lidos these kinds of as those people at London Fields and Brockwell Park are rejuvenated, their waters abuzz with freestyle strokes and tumble turns thanks to the communities of Swim Dem Crew.

The aquatic spin on Run Dem Crew, the place founders Nathaniel Cole and Peigh Asante satisfied, was born out of a drive to make swimming much more social and inclusive. Back in 2013, the pair experienced starry-eyed ambitions of coaching little ones to swim at the Olympics, but nowadays their purpose centres about encouraging the 95 per cent of Black adults who do not swim, in accordance to a 2020 Swim England report, to confront their fears. “We want persons to be risk-free in the h2o and delight in it because swimming is a great entry place for other things to do like surfing and wakeboarding,” states Cole.

“Swimming is considered of as a activity rather than a talent, so after we improved that strategy we got far more uptake,” provides Asante, “but never did we consider that we had been heading to start out one thing this significant.”

With an on the internet community of a lot more than 10,000, Swim Dem Crew’s backstory has revealed people today that the drinking water can be for them, regardless of what your measurement, colour, shape or swimming means. Although Cole has been a potent swimmer given that he realized aged four, Asante’s working experience displays the worries going through Black youth discovering to swim. Aged 14, he was even now skipping swimming classes for anxiety of getting humiliated by small children half his age. These times, at 36, he just can’t get plenty of of open h2o swimming – and the fantastic unknown of what lies beneath.

Extremely Black Operating

Vicky Grout