Out here, on the first Saturday of December, cold became a remarkably variable concept. Onlookers wore heavy coats and knit caps pulled low and clasped their palms around steaming drinks. Around them strolled the 50 or so swimmers, ages 12 to 65, wearing swimsuits and flip-flops. They would be plunging into water measured at 39 degrees.
To an uninitiated observer, ice swimming, as it is called, can seem deeply peculiar. From afar, in the absence of snow or ice, it resembles normal swimming in any lake. But lakeside, stooped and shivering in a parka, flexing your toes inside multiple layers of socks and witnessing groups of half-naked people splashing into the frigid water of their own accord, your mind naturally struggles to comprehend why.
Yeah I paddle all winter (sometimes with ice on my paddle) and even I think is stupid. I'm pretty sure I got frostbite on my toes four years ago due to a leaky boot and stepping in the water to get the boats in and out and I still feel the effects of that.
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime. Mark Twain
"Buckley said in an interview that he went off a “mental cliff” in the final couple of hundred meters of that swim. He said he was hallucinating, thinking there was black rain falling from the sky. "
What? No.
I grew up on Lake Michigan. Just dipping my toes in the lake during most of the year is enough. I talked to people who did the triathlon last year when the temp dipped below 60 and people said it was hard to swim - the cold just took your breath away. I'll pass.
The polar plunge and similar things are SO popular here. I think it is crazy, but that is just for a few seconds. Were the people in this case actually swimming or just jumping in quickly?
ETA: I see that they are competing in actual swimming events. Hell no. That seems crazy stupid.
No damn way. I love open water swimming, and have loved regular pool competitive swimming forever, but this is taking the single moment I hated most about winter morning practices, ratcheting it up to 11 on a scale of 1-10, and then making an entire sport out of it.
Plus it's stupid-dangerous. I get riled up enough about people who sign up for Ironman talking about "I just need to survive the swim and then I'm good." Fool, if you're talking about surviving the swim, you do not belong in a 140.6 mile race that starts with a 2.4 mile open water swim. This is at least that reckless.
Nope. I won't even do the polar plunge. I get cold diving in the Caribbean Sea in a wetsuit.
Yup. It takes a lot for me to get in the sea here between Christmas and Easter as I feel it is too cold then!
My people! Below 80 is too cold for me.
There's a whole international ice swimming org. I think I first heard about this nonsense in Seward, AK. They call it the heart attack swim. That told me all I needed to know.
My grandfather used to do the polar bear swim on New year's day. He lived well into his 80s but I doubt it was because the bracing cold did him any good.
Post by lexxasaurus on Dec 16, 2016 17:38:07 GMT -5
I'd do a polar plunge! Maybe not ice swimming? I've had hypothermia before and it was really, really scary, but in Alaska we swam all the time and it was anywhere from 44 to 56 degree ocean so not a whole lot warmer.
ETA: lol, sushi I didn't see you mentioned Seward. I'm from Ketchikan so similar part of the world.
Just no...yesterday was 23 degrees and I walked around in tall Uggs, wool socks, a turtleneck, Thick sweater and huge heavy coat when I had to go outside to get in the car. These people are totally insane.
Post by mrs.jacinthe on Dec 18, 2016 1:16:39 GMT -5
I love cold water, but the coldest water I've ever swam (swum?) in was mid-40's. It was unpleasant (to say the least), but not terribly difficult. That said, it takes a lot of acclimation to be able to swim in water that cold safely and I wouldn't recommend it for most people. And the water temp feels exponentially colder for every degree, so even the difference between 50 and 45 is shocking.