Coffee Table Book of: The Sport of Swimming (Hardcover)

Description

Coffee Table Book of: The Sport of Swimming is a large format book of swimming, printed edge to edge in colour, one picture to a page and the widest carried across two: the kit of the pool and of open water, lanes and blocks, quiet pools from dawn to night, lakes, rivers and the sea at dawn, the old baths and bathing places of the past, and a few swimmers seen far off.

The kit is laid out plain: clear goggles on wet tiles and a mirrored pair on a lakeside boulder, a navy silicone cap and an orange one on the pebbles, a racing suit, a kickboard afloat and a stack of them at dawn, a pull buoy, short fins, hand paddles and a snorkel, a tow float, a wetsuit on a rock, a rescue tube, a ring buoy on its post, a stretch cord for training on land, starting blocks, a touch pad, lane ropes close up and on their reel, and a line of backstroke flags.

Pools appear in changing light: still water before practice, a dark lane line ending in its cross, sunlight rippling over the tiles, the gutter brimming at the edge, the end wall and a lane rope from under the water, a pool steaming on a frosty dawn and another glowing in the snow at night, rain on an empty pool, a pool drained in autumn, leaves lifted with a skimmer net, a cover rolled out at dusk, tiles and a trowel beside a partly laid lane line and a shallow learner pool with its steps.

Open water follows: a buoy on a misty lake, a jetty and a raft, a river swimming hole and a pool below a waterfall, a cold mountain lake, a hole cut in the ice and a sauna by a snowy shore, a frosty beach, a buoy in a running tide and a sea stack in a calm sea. The past runs from a stone plunge pool and the tiled pillars under a Roman floor to a bathing machine, beach huts, a sea pool on a rock ledge, an old lido, an old public bath with its row of changing cubicles, a wool swimsuit, a petal cap, a cork float and an old pair of small goggles.

A few small swimmers are seen far off: a pack at sea at sunrise, a lone swim across a lake with a tow float, breaststroke on a misty river, a wade into a winter lake, a swim beside a kayak, a crawl across a turquoise cove and a swim over pale sand in clear sea.

Short notes explore swimming equipment, pool design, open water and the history of bathing. Topics include lifeguard duties, backstroke flags, starting blocks and pool gutters.

Printed in full colour on heavy 150gsm coated paper at 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 inches), as a hardcover with the art printed on the case.