Our Story

Cross Country Swimming – our journey from land to water

As brothers growing up in Yorkshire, we enjoyed adventuring across the landscape, over hills, through forests and of course, swimming in rivers and lakes. For years, on holiday in the Lake District or Scotland we walked around the lakes and wished we could simply swim across and keep hiking.

This was how our idea of Cross Country Swimming evolved and Above Below was born. We always saw the water as an opportunity rather than an obstacle. We wanted to just jump in and go from A to B without any limits and take all we needed with us. 

Tom and Will

So, over the years we experimented with ways to transport our kit across water, cobbling together different bits of kit from hiking, swimming, sailing and surfing and started to create our signature product, the RuckRaft – a tow raft to get us (and our gear) from A to B. 

TAKING SHAPE

The RuckRraft really started to take shape in 2016 when we used luggage straps to tie large children’s swimming inflatables to waterproof rucksacks and swam across Lake Windermere and Lake Coniston on a journey between two Youth hostels. The trip felt a little bit epic, like we were mountaineers who had opened up new routes across land and water. And just like that, with the invention of the RuckRaft, Cross Country Swimming was born.

During that trip we had proved to ourselves that a big day out or multi-day trips across land and water were possible but there were still problems to solve to make a product that was fit for purpose, so we got to work.

After a series of design prototypes, extensive product testing and tweaking, the RuckRaft was ready to go. And we’re proud to say it works like a dream. 

OPENING UP THE LANDSCAPE

We now look at maps in a different way, we’re looking for where that crossing of the river, lake or bay could open up a great new trip.

But what really fills us with huge pride and joy is to get emails from people from all over the world; in Holland, Germany, Sweden, France, Canada, USA and New Zealand all using the RuckRaft to discover and open up routes they have always wanted to try out. And as our mate Pete said,“for the price of a night in a fairly crap hotel room, a whole new world of swim adventures just opened up” – we couldn’t agree more.

OUR NEXT ADVENTURE

The list of ideas, plans and schemes are endless.

We have run our own RuckRaft Retreat in Devon and The Lakes. We publish Cross Country Swimming routes down rivers, across bays and lakes. The possibilities are endless and we’re currently working on new adventures, events and a couple of new products that, like the RuckRaft, make adventures over land and water more practical and comfortable.

Come on in, the water’s lovely!

All the best

Will & Tom - founders of Above Below