• Happy Panic Over Radio Broadcast of "War of the Worlds" (1938)!🛸👽

Winter Swimming?

Joined
Jul 11, 2014
Messages
4,890
Reaction score
1,446
Location
Ontario Canada
Recently I was listening to a yarn told by a Dubliner. He reminisced about when he was a chiseler (a young lad) and the traditions around Christmas time. This fellow mentioned "New Christmas" and "Old Christmas", being the difference between Julian and Gregorian calendars and particular habits around this time leading up to Epiphany. Diving in (sort of) to figure all this out lead me to one such tradition of "wild swimming" or winter swimming. Whether an act of contrition or celebration, it seems winter, or ice swimming has a long history predating our more modern "Polar Bear" swims.
Do any of you swim in winter, and why?
 
I enjoy an icy dip from time to time. It's mentally challenging, hysterically fun with a group, and the endorphin release when you get out and start warming up is unbelievable.
 
Before my time, the first female member of the Coney Island Polar Bear Club in 1941. The club was founded in 1903 and swims every Sunday at 1:00 pm from November to April 1. I wonder if anyone has ever dived or flipped out of a canoe into the water.

1st female member Coney Island Polar Bear Club.jpg
 
As a much younger man when I lived in Northern Minnesota I’ve jumped into a big hole we sawed into the lake ice. Only after thoroughly being heated to the core, in a Sauna. It felt like being dipped into liquid silk. After getting out a quick sprint back to the sauna to re-warm was in order. I have also rolled in snow between toasting in the sauna. These day’s rinsing in cool water in the shower, between bouts of heat in the sauna, is as bold as I get.
Shrinkage is a hazard in mixed company.
 
I've capsized into a partially frozen lake in sub-freezing temps. There was a bit of an initial shock but otherwise it didn't feel all that bad. I'm guessing that was due to the adrenaline and being more concerned with not dying.

Judging by how difficult I find it to submerse myself in 55 degree water on a 90 degree day I don't think I could consciously make myself plunge into a frozen lake during winter.

the endorphin release when you get out and start warming up is unbelievable.

I certainly got that feeling in spades but I attributed it to being happy to be alive. Interesting that cold water causes and endorphin rush.

Alan
 
We used to swim in cold water and surf in the ocean all the time. Swim practice was at 0800. Now I am old and have heart problems and barely swim in the summer.
 
I've capsized into a partially frozen lake in sub-freezing temps.

I interpreted this topic as inquiring about voluntary swimming in winter, but Alan's response reminded me that the only time I've unintentionally capsized an open canoe in flat water was in my Lotus BJX in February 1985 in the Wallkill River in New York.

I was in my street clothes with no kit with me, and had paddled upstream about three miles. I decided for some dumb reason to stand up while in a small cove in that tippy, 25-inch waterline, flared hull canoe to look at something. I lost my balance and fell into about four feet of water not far from shore. I quickly got to shore, dumped out the water, wrung my clothes out a little, and got back in the canoe, soaked from head to toe. The water and air temperature were probably both in the mid-30's F (~1.7 C).

I paddled as fast as I could back to my car to heat up my body as much as I could, but hypothermia was setting in, as I later realized because of what I did when I got back to my car. I convinced myself that I had to tie my canoe back on top of my car before getting in it, which is what I'd always done at take-outs. But I was so cold that I was fumble-fingered and couldn't tie proper knots in my cartopping ropes. I struggled with uncooperative fingers, shivering.

Finally, I got the boat tied on. Then, per my plan, I got in my car and sat for about 20 minutes with the heater blasting to warm up. Only after warming up did I realize that my thinking had been disturbed by the onset of hypothermia. Why didn't I sit in the heated car for 20 minutes and warm up before tying the canoe on top? That obvious plan never occurred to my frozen lizard brain.
 
I've done the Polar Bear thing in Nova Scotia when I was a young man. It was on New Years day, a very large hole was cut in the ice at a local lake. There were about 50 of us standing around the hole, and the ice started sinking. The mere act of standing was quite difficult as the water swirled up to mid calf. There was a very buxom young lady standing beside me who couldn't take it, and leapt into my arms, where she stayed until the bell rang, signifying the plunge. I jumped in with her still in my arms, but she didn't stay there long. As soon as people hit the water, they exited with Olympic speed, and ran for the changing cabin. Only one had been provided, and people were so cold that nobody respected the usual norms of concealing nakedness from strangers. The women must have thought they had arrived at the Shrinky Dinky convention or perhaps they were seeing a bunch of turtles in danger. In any case, a good time was had by all, and we made it onto the local news that night for our 15 seconds of fame.

Previous to that, me and two of my chums had taken a sportspal canoe down a local river in the middle of March. The river had just opened up, but there was still a lot of ice clinging to the shores. The water was very high, so there were trees normally on the banks in the middle of the river. We were around 15, and our paddling skills were very minimal, so we broadsided the first tree in the middle of the river. The sportspal folded in on us like a soft taco. Two of us managed to extricate ourselves, but the canoe wrapped around the third guy and was sucking him down. We had him by the arms, and we thought we were going to lose him, but he had on hip waders, and they suddenly got pulled off his feet by the sportspal taco, releasing him from its deadly grip.

It was a long walk home through the snow in our sock feet.
 
My wife "polar plunges" in November to raise money for Special Olympics, the water is rarely below 50, but the air often is.
I have swam in cold water as a drill in the USCG, also to recover a knife and to set an anchor. I once capsized a narrow sailing canoe in winter. I was wearing a short wet-suit, which was enough protection to let me get ashore without too much discomfort.
 
My son does polar plunges pretty regularly. Like every few days. Crazy. And I've got a longtime friend who is an open water swimmer, including the Memphremagog Winter Swim Festival, and several Ice Miles. Also crazy. Though not winter, her most recent adventure was swimming the English Channel.

 
I love to swim but have no desire to ever jump into cold water again. In fifth or sixth grade my buddies and I rode our bikes to a nearby reservoir for a dip in mid May. The water took my breath away and was something I never wanted to repeat, and I didn’t even know about death by sudden cold water emersion then. As I got older I realized that my love of swimming was tempered by my dislike of getting wet. I either need a good reason to get wet or the water must be very warm.
 
I grew up on Lake Michigan. As kids we swam in the lake everyday during the summer with the water temp rarely out of the 60’s. Many times we went home with blue lips and pain in our chests from the cold water.

As a 10 and 11 year old I went to a summer camp and earned the Polar Bear patch for daily early morning swims. Still proudly displayed in the family room.
IMG_0392.jpeg
Now at age 76 I experience a shock every time I enter the lap pool (kept in the low 70’s) at the Y and after about 20 minutes in the pool feel slightly chilled - this is cold enough for me.
 
I don’t purposely swim in the winter. I did receive Baltimore Canoe Club’s swimming trophy, presented to first swimmer of the year, several years, twice swam on New Year’s Day, first paddle of the year. I swam with ice blocks on a different outing, and this was pre drysuit days. I remember thinking I was okay, I’ll go swim after my boat, then having the thought “they say your judgement is the first thing to go,” and heading for the river bank, leaving others to chase my boat.

According to stories I remember hearing 30 years ago, Grandfather, living in Boston, was a daily swimmer. One year, must have been around 1920, he was planning to swim every day through the year. He quit on Washington’s Birthday, sick, from swimming in the snow, according to grandma. He swam at some sort of facility on the Charles River, which I imagine could have been the source of his illness, rather than snow. This thread has me curious about that story. There was a big snow in Boston on Valentine’s Day, 1923. Was that it? And I’d like to know more about the swimming facility. Nobody left from that generation in my family, so nobody to ask.
 
Back
Top