FOCUSAbove Below 
The RuckRaft drybag
‘Enjoyment not endurance,’ is how Tom Watt describes the experience of adventure-based swimming. It could just as easily be describing the ethos behind Above Below, a swimming brand he has run since 2016 with his brother Will.

The brothers have always been avid adventurers and swimmers. Growing up in Yorkshire, they regularly travelled to the Lake District and Scotland, where they explored lakes, hills and forests. Excited by the changes and challenges in terrain, Tom describes how they wanted to be able to travel without restrictions. ‘We just wanted to move, uninhibited, along a straight line on a map’, he says,
‘swimming across lakes rather than walking around them,’ thereby unlocking new routes and ways of experiencing the wilderness. ‘We see water as an opportunity, rather than an obstacle.’

Their love of adventure led them to set up ‘The Swimmer’ event, in 2012, where enthusiastic explorers navigated their way across London’s natural ponds, pools and park routes.

Its success helped inspire the founding of Above Below and with it Cross Country Swimming – a phrase coined by the brothers to mean self-supported journeys over land and water.

The brothers’ passion for Cross Country Swimming was behind their idea for the RuckRaft. It’s been a few years in the making – since 1996, to be precise. They were on holiday on the Greek island of Amorgos and wanted to explore, but realised they had to create something that would allow them to carry everything they needed as they swam, trekked and climbed across wild routes. ‘Usually you have to hide your stuff in the bushes and come back for it. Dry bags are often too small, and there are always logistical issues,’ says Tom.  They wanted to make something that would provide ‘a self sufficient sense of keen adventure’.

Over the next few years, the brothers took multiple trips in order to test out prototype DIY rafts for the RuckRaft. The breakthrough, Tom says, came in 2016. ‘We took a different route to see if we could work out a way to carry enough stuff to stay overnight. So we tried with combined “kits” strapped onto children’s floaties and tubes.’

The final result is a lightweight, two-piece kit consisting of a 70 litre drybag that stores all of your gear, plus a zipless, marine-grade float that can be inflated in seconds and then be towed across water. ‘It allows you to support the kit you already have,’ says Tom.
The RuckRaft weighs just a kilogram, and yet the streamlined design allows you to fill and float anything you need for your adventure: all your layers of clothing, tents, food – they have even packed in a Brompton folding bike.

Tom shares an impressive ‘up-river assault’ journey undertaken by his friend Fenwick Ridley in 2019, who trekked and swam up the North Tyne from Newcastle to Kielder Water for charity. Over a period of seven days, he swam 60 miles against the current, spending up to 12 hours a day in the water, pulling the RuckRaft, stocked with his essential kit, behind him.

It is a good, if rather extreme, example of how, purpose-built for endurance, the RuckRaft encourages Cross Country Swimming. ‘I don’t think it’s something absolutely new, because there are dry bags that exist, but we felt like they weren’t enough,’ says Tom.

For the intrigued but uninitiated, Will shares his tips on getting started…

1. Keep it simple at first – pick a route or area that you are familiar with. Get used to the kit and what you are comfortable carrying in and out of the water. The RuckRaft is as useful going 200m down a river as it is on big adventures.

2. You should feel comfortable when out of your depth in open water. It can be daunting swimming across the middle of a lake, but that’s often where the best view of the area can be found! However, it’s also possible to enjoy Cross Country Swimming by walking and swimming along the shoreline of a river, lake or sea.

3. The OSS (Outdoor Swimming Society; outdoorswimmingsociety.com) and Royal Life Saving Society (sh2out.org) have good tips on being safe in open water. After that, the possibilities are endless.


The longest journey the brothers have enjoyed with the RuckRaft was a three-day adventure in the Lake District. They hiked 25 miles and swam four and-a-half miles in total, from and back to Keswick via Buttermere and Crummock Water, swimming across Derwent Water and camping at Buttermere Syke Farm: ‘It was a tough few days,’ admits Tom.

He is keen to clarify that he doesn’t intend to patronise or preach a lifestyle change. ‘I’m not rushing any agenda,’ he laughs. The RuckRaft simply encourages the possibilities of undiscovered amphibious adventures. abovebelow.scWORDS JAYA MODI | STILL LIFE JACK WILSON