IF Victor from Still Game had to try wild swimming, his choice of words would probably be as blue as his body – but that hasn’t stopped Greg Hemphill from taking the plunge.
In one memorable episode of the much-loved series Victor, played by Hemphill, narrowly avoids a dook in the River Kelvin and it’s not an experience he is keen to repeat.
In contrast, Hemphill is such a fan of open-water swimming that he’s now produced a book about it with his actor wife, Julie Wilson Nimmo of Balamory fame.
The pair have already made two TV series about cold water swimming in Scotland and will start filming their third tomorrow, this time focusing on the south of Scotland.
The new book, Jules & Greg’s Wild Swim, takes a deeper dive into the practice, sharing exclusive behind-the-scenes tales of their swimming adventures.
Having taken the plunge during the Covid lockdowns, Hemphill enjoys it so much now that he can’t understand why Rangers manager Russell Martin was mocked for recently taking his team for a swim in Loch Lomond.
“I genuinely thought that the media were being unfair to him, given that Alex Ferguson used to take his Aberdeen squad into the North Sea back in the day,” said Hemphill.
“I don’t think anybody in the Scottish media would have the nerve to mock Ferguson for doing that but they thought it was OK to mock Russell Martin.”
Martin took his players for a dip in Loch Lomond as a team bonding exercise, which makes sense to Hemphill as he loves the community aspect of open-water swimming.
“You build these relationships with other people and that becomes just as important, if not of paramount importance, in the whole exercise,” he told the Sunday National.
“It’s a very open and supportive community. It’s not like these sporting communities, where you have to have all the right gear.
“It’s not snobby – one of the episodes we did in the TV series was called Urban Swimming because we wanted to dispel the myth that you have to buy a dry robe, drive a Range Rover and have a picnic with a bottle of Prosecco.
“Wild swimming is the total opposite of that. Just come along in your trunks and a towel if you want to try it.”
Being with a group means he is more likely to take the plunge, Hemphill admits.
“As much as I’m a proponent of it – and I do love it – if I’m on my own, there’s a good chance that I can talk myself out of it, whereas if I’m with a group, I’m going in,” he said.
Hemphill might be reluctant to get back in the water at times, but loves the feeling when he comes out.
“You feel like your body’s a furnace, firing blood around the core, and you just feel alive. You feel amazing.”
That’s the case even if he only goes in for a few minutes in winter without a wetsuit.
“Three minutes is enough – you get the same effect from that,” he said. “Most of the time when I swim, I feel a rush of endorphins that lasts throughout the day.”
He’s also found that he doesn’t get bored with open-water swimming, whereas he does at the gym.
“If you go wild swimming, you can go to different places, you can meet different people, and you can go to different cafés when you come out,” he said.
“It’s like a whole sort of social practice, rather than just a little thing that you do to feel better for five minutes.”
As well as the community aspect, Hemphill enjoys the fact that it is an activity that he and Wilson Nimmo can do together, although he admits it took him longer to try it out, partly because his wife usually went on a Sunday morning when he was still recovering from the night before.
Eventually, he decided to join her because he noticed the positive effects it was having.
“She was glowing! I thought there must be something in this so I joined her, and the two of us were hooked from then on,” said Hemphill.
“Actually it’s a lovely thing to do together. We are both in our 50s now, and I think it is easy for couples in their 50s to have almost separate lives and do their own thing, but we really wanted something we could do together, and that’s kind of where it came from.”
The TV series has seen them meet open-water swimming groups all over Scotland, and the pair hope the new book, which celebrates the joy and health benefits of wild swimming, will encourage others to try it.
Full of practical advice, personal anecdotes and snippets about their dips with other wild swimming enthusiasts, Jules & Greg’s Wild Swim offers both curious first-timers and seasoned dippers a guide to the invigorating world of open-water swimming.
Hemphill said: “We are thrilled to be publishing our first book together to accompany the series.
“It’s for fans of the show who want to expand on their knowledge of the programme and the people that have been covered in the show in their areas.
“But I would also say it’s for the curious because if you’re curious about wild swimming in Scotland, it might be a gateway or a doorway into that community.
“This is what our book is all about – tips and advice, an introduction to the incredible wild swimming community, a few laughs and, most importantly, the encouragement to give it a go.”
Hemphill himself hopes he will still be wild swimming when he’s Victor’s age.
“I’m a convert for life,” he said. “I’ll be doing it when I’m 95 if I can.”
Jules & Greg’s Wild Swim is published by Black & White Publishing on October 16
