Mixtape: Helen Ostet WILD Swimrun

Welcome to episode 356 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

With ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Austin coming up and a big crew of Wildies heading to Texas, we reach back into the vault for the tenth installment of our Throwback Mixtape series. This one originally ran as episode 276 in April 2025. It's our conversation with Helen Ostet, co-founder of WILD Swimrun and one of the kindest people in the sport. Before we roll the tape, we talk about our history with WILD going back to episode 10, the Wildies on this year's ÖTILLÖ World Championship podium, The Wild Ones podcast from Viv and Sarah, and our seventh straight ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Austin.

Helen shares what WILD is all about. It's a low threshold into swimrun for women and kids, with loaner gear so nobody has to buy anything to try it, and a reminder that swimrun can be a fun activity in your own backyard as much as a tough race. We talk about getting more women into the long races, the race weekend WILD builds around Utö with a course preview, gear testing, and a team dinner, and the WILD collab paddle from our friends at Frank Paddles.

Helen also takes us inside a WILD camp. They run Thursday to Sunday and include a gear day, transition training tethered behind a World Championship podium finisher, and a Saturday A-to-B adventure along the Mallorca coast. We trade stories about partner communication and pull buoys left on backs at the first swim.

Then Helen opens up about her own journey, from a smoker who had never been active, to volunteering at races, to three shoulder surgeries and the road back to swimrun. Her take: finishing the experience course can be your world championship, depending on where you are on your journey. Fika, swim, run, friends. We're making the t-shirt. In the original episode we also kicked off our fundraiser to send a new woman to a WILD camp.

Enjoy!

That's it for this week's show. If you are enjoying the **Löw Tide Böyz**, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star rating and review since that's the best way for people to discover the show and the sport of Swimrun. You can find us on **Apple Podcasts**, **Spotify**, and on **YouTube**. Check out our **website** for Swimrun resources including gear guides, tips, how-to videos and so much more. Also make sure to check out our meme page **@thelowtideboyz** on Instagram. If you have any suggestions for the show or questions for us, send us a dm or an email at **lowtideboyz@gmail.com**. Finally, you can support our efforts on **Patreon**...if you feel so inclined.Thanks for listening and see you out there!Chip and Chris