swimming sydney: a tale of 52 swims

Swimming Sydney is a tale of 52 swims in and around Sydney that take place over a calendar year. From Palm Beach to Cronulla, Mount Druitt to Bondi, Chris Baker swims at iconic beaches, municipal pools, harbour baths, tidal rock pools, bushland lakes and a backyard pool.

Taking his weekly plunges, Baker reflects on friendship, history and family, and how swimming can help us better understand ourselves.

Swimming Sydney is a valentine to the beautiful obsession of swimming in the world’s most beautiful city. It’s a book for everyone who loves swimming, who loves Sydney, and who understands that storytelling is the best way to navigate life’s emotional currents.

’Part travel guide and part memoir, these 52 immersive essays - one a week - remind us how inextricably Australian culture is linked to water and our bodies. Immerse yourself and emerge invigorated, like the best swims leave you feeling.’ - Benjamin Law

’A poetic ode to the water that will have you reaching for your goggles and leaping into the blue. Chris Baker may swim like a fish, but he also writes like a dream.Swimming Sydney is a beguiling portrait of love, loss, community and identity in the world’s most swimmable city.’ - Yves Rees

’Chris Baker takes a deep dive into the watery history of Sydney, focusing by turns on its conflicted history, ravishing beauty and salty present. His eye for detail is sharper than a gull’s, and while his love of the liquid landscapes he traverses is palpable and at times nostalgic, it is never sentimental. Reading his 52 swims made me long to don my togs and to get away from my own daily comfort pool. I ached to rush to a dive-in, to slurp a Sunnyboy or chomp a pluto pup, and above all, to immerse in the ＂dignified consolation＂ that he offers in every chapter. This book is both a keeper and a giver, an invitation and a challenge, a guide and a gift; it’s a love song to the caress of watery wonder.’ - Alisa Piper.

Chris Baker is a lifelong swimmer, educator and writer who was born and raised in Sydney. He has spent much of his professional life overseas, living and working in Vancouver, Prague, Hong Kong and Berlin. Chris was lured back to Sydney by its beautiful beaches, superb municipal pools, wild swimming holes and world-famous ocean baths. His favourite swimming venue in the world is Wylie’s Baths in south Coogee.