In At The Deep End

Pete Abell grew up in Gloucestershire. No coastline, no surf breaks, no obvious reason to end up where he did. But when his dad took him to Mawgan Porth at the age of eight with a borrowed foam board, something clicked. He never really left. Over two decades on, he's still there - running King Surf, raising a family in the water, and quietly building something that goes well beyond a surf school....

In 2011, there was no magazine for people who swam outdoors. No shared home for the stories, the training, the destinations, the growing community of people quietly falling in love with open water. So Simon Griffiths made one. As the founder and publisher of Outdoor Swimmer, he helped give a movement a voice, and in doing so built one of the most quietly influential publications in UK sport. But t...

Olympian. Marathon swimmer. History-maker. In this episode of In At The Deep End , Salim sits down with Alice Dearing, the first black woman to represent Team GB in Olympic swimming. But this conversation goes far beyond medals and Olympic qualification. Alice opens up about the emotional reality of elite sport: the burnout, the self-doubt, the pressure of representation and the strange tension be...

Lorraine Candy is one of Britain's most recognisable media voices. She is the former editor of Cosmopolitan, Elle and The Sunday Times Style, she's also a Sunday Times bestselling author and co-host of the hugely popular Postcards from Midlife podcast. But in this episode, it's not the magazine covers or the bestseller lists that take centre stage. It's the water. Lorraine came to open water swimm...

What does a life fully lived in the water look like? For Jane Asher, it looks like five world records broken in a single weekend, at the age of 95. A South London swimming legend and great-grandmother, Jane didn't even begin her competitive career until she was 55. Since then, she has become one of Masters swimming's most remarkable figures, currently holding world records in the 95–99 age group a...

In Episode 3, Salim is joined by Adam Filby - technology professional, fundraiser, triathlete and dad.  In May 2017, on the same day the WannaCry cyberattack was tearing through NHS systems across the country, Adam was on an operating table donating part of his liver to his seven-year-old daughter Florence, who had been born with a life-threatening liver condition. He came round from the anaesthet...

In Episode 2 of In At The Deep End , Salim is joined by Dr Mei-Ling Lancashire - GP, cancer survivor, single mum and swimmer. At the peak of her fitness, Mei-Ling discovered a breast lump and, as a GP with a background in breast cancer research, knew instantly what it meant. What followed was an aggressive diagnosis, gruelling chemotherapy, a double mastectomy and the challenge of holding everythi...

In this debut episode of In At The Deep End , host and swim coach Salim Ahmed welcomes his first guest, Dr Victoria Rose - or 'Rosie' as he knows her - a consultant plastic surgeon whose life is defined by two remarkable worlds: the operating theatres of London hospitals and the war-torn hospitals of Gaza. Rosie shares her journey from dedicated runner to passionate swimmer, how a serious knee inj...

Welcome to In at the Deep End, a new podcast hosted by swim coach Salim Ahmed. In this trailer you'll get a glimpse into the kinds of stories featured on the show: honest conversations with people whose lives have been shaped by swimming in ways that go far beyond the pool. Stories about resilience, identity, loss, ambition and the moments when the water became a place to think, heal, push on or s...