This is Ben Gaskins on the cover of our February 2019 issue. You will notice that Ben's hair has not been carefully styled for this picture. Instead, it has just been released from under a swimming cap, the line of which you can clearly see across his forehead. His face isn't tanned or made up, but covered in a fine layer of silt from the River Waveney. What we like best about this shot though, is Ben's smile, that tells us exactly how he feels after swimming for more than three hours.

Our cover policy at Outdoor Swimmer is, wherever possible, to use pictures of real swimmers doing real swimming, not models pretending to swim. We don't care about your age, gender, body shape, swimming speed or whether or not you choose to wear a wetsuit. If you swim in open water, you could end up on one of our covers - and then we'll probably ask you to do an interview with us too.

As well as a write up from the Waveney Swim that Ben completed last year, our February issue has a full list of events to choose from in 2019, tips to help you swim faster by slowing down and advice on how to mentally prepare yourself to cope with cold water.