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MUD & WATER - Open water swimming & pottery.

Sunday 6 September 2026 17:00
Friday 11 September 2026 14:00

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A five day immersive dive into swimming outdoors and into pottery, tutored by experts in their field. This course is for anyone that loves swimming outdoors, who also wants to spend some time in the pottery - throwing at the wheel and hand building, including slab building, using moulds and simple pinch and coiling techniques.

Coombe is located 1 mile from the banks of the River Dart and the village of Dittisham, the site where the infamous Dart 10K finishes each year. During the weekend there will be swims in the River Dart and along the nearby coast between Dartmouth - Bantham (exact locations will determined by weather). Each swim will be tutored and led by Outdoor Swim Society former Director and Muse Kari Furre, with a professional support boat. Kari is also an artist, specifically a sculptor working with metal and fish skin. She has also recently been experimenting with pottery and will attend the pottery sessions with Laurel and Jodie.

Our on site pottery runs year round with specialist pottery courses for beginners to advanced potters. Our weekly classes are attended by 40 participants during term time; we also have members who access the studio to make their own work and run an apprentice technician programme. Both of our pottery tutors for this weekend also teach on our year round pottery courses.

Laurel Keeley is a master potter who has taught at Coombe for over ten years. Laurel works with coloured slips and drawn line in stoneware and porcelain clays, with glazes and oxides applied. It is a hugely admired and distinctive style and Laurel is an excellent teacher. She is also a keen swimmer, has been taught by Kari and completed the Dart 10K. During the weekend Laurel will teach handbuilding and she will join the swims.

We will also have a throwing tutor on site throughout the week who will be leading the pottery sessions on the wheel for those that wish to throw.

The swims will take place daily Monday-Thursday in the River Dart and nearby sea locations on the coast near Coombe. The pottery sessions will also be daily and you will have the chance to throw on the wheel as well as handbuild.

This course has been designed for all abilities so if you are used to swimming long distances or used to having a quick dip and want to build your confidence in the water we will tailor the swims to you. Likewise the pottery sessions are suitable for those with intermediate or advanced levels of skill or complete beginners.
After booking the course we will send you a questionnaire (a few weeks before the course starts) asking you about your aims for the course and experience levels, we then plan then swims and pottery sessions around those attending.
Sunday
5-7pm Residents arrive
7.00pm non residents arrive
7.00pm Welcome Drinks
8.00pm Dinner
Monday-Thursday
8.30am Breakfast for residents
SWIM
1.00pm Lunch
2.00pm Pottery sessions
7pm Dinner for Residents
Friday
8.30am breakfast for residents
9.30am final tuition session
1.00pm Lunch
2.00pm Course closes
SWIMMING
Swim goggles - essential
A really warm coat or dry robe or winter/ski jacket are essential for post swim, Kari also always recommends a woolly hat post swim.
Wetsuit (swimming one) we highly recommend so you can stay in the water longer but if you would like to swim without one that's fine too.
Swim hat - again to keep you in the water longer and for visuals in the water.
Beach shoes for getting across pebbles might be useful.
Gloves and boots are not obligatory but are useful if you feel the cold
POTTERY
We will have all the tools you need but if you have your own tools you’d like to bring please feel free to do so. Please also bring a notebook and a sketchbook.
Our address is TQ6 0JA [What3words: What3words: fulfilled.exploring.branching] and we have plenty of free onsite parking. Trains > nearest station is Totnes then we can arrange lift shares or send taxi details. We are about 20 minutes from the station.
Min 6 max 12.
RESIDENTIAL
£1,023 + VAT - includes all accommodation, food, water safety, tuition, materials, pottery clay and firings & transport to swim locations.
NON-RESIDENTIAL
£804 + VAT to include the above excluding accommodation, breakfast and dinner.
Residential and non-residential spaces available.
Residential = includes all your food, accommodation and tuition from arrival on Thursday evening through to departure after lunch on Sunday.
Non residential = includes tuition and lunch.
NB Residents are not required to share bedrooms, but bathrooms are shared [we do not have any en suite rooms on site]. See accommodation for more info.

FOOD & DRINK: Food is a key part of an immersive course at Coombe. Meals are taken at a long shared table with the other participants either inside in the cooler months or outside in our courtyard when the weather is warmer. Our onsite chef caters for you including all/any dietary requirements. We grow our own vegetables and keep chickens for fresh eggs daily. For those that enjoy wine, we have a fantastic wine merchant who supply us with a small range available to buy onsite.

SEASON: We’ve chosen September for this course because the water is at its warmest and its a gorgeous time of year to be at Coombe - it has all the benefits of summer without the crowds. The weather still warm and you’ll be able to work inside the pottery and get outside for walks to gather source materials for the course. If it’s starting to get cooler we can light the log fires. If we get lucky with a warm day we can eat outside. Bliss.

WATER QUALITY & SAFETY: The River Dart near to Coombe has been granted safe bathing status and is monitored regularly by friends of the Dart. That said we will work with our safety team to monitor and asses all the swims on the day, each day, including in the sea. We will assess using local knowledge, wisdom and experience as well as apps including safer seas & rivers service. During the course you will also get teaching and guidance for you to assess swims in your local area.

“The need to swim like that – not for fitness, but to see new things – comes from the same place in my brain as making things,’ Furre explains. ‘They’re both very process-led: about me finding out how to do something, then doing it again and again. It’s all about focus, really. I mean, if you’re swimming or making something and thinking about other things, you might as well not be swimming or making things.’ In other words, Furre’s art and her sport are at a piece with each other – and indeed, at a peace. ‘For me, swimming is travelling through water – and I travel to find it,’ she says. ‘And when you’re in it, you think about the ancient-ness of it. The rivers, the seas – they’re as old as mountains. And we know less about the sea than we do about space. That keeps pulling me back.”

— Kari Furre