Winter swimming
Encyclopedia
Winter
Winter is the coldest season of the year in temperate climates, between autumn and spring. At the winter solstice, the days are shortest and the nights are longest, with days lengthening as the season progresses after the solstice.-Meteorology:...
season, typically in outdoor locations (open water swimming
Open water swimming
Open water swimming takes place in outdoor bodies of water such as open oceans, bays, lakes, rivers, canals, and reservoirs.The beginning of the modern age of open water swimming is sometimes taken to be May 3, 1810, when Lord Byron swam several miles to cross the Hellespont from Europe to Asia.In...
) or in unheated pools or lidos. Many winter swimmers swim with standard swimming costumes rather than with wetsuit
Wetsuit
A wetsuit is a garment, usually made of foamed neoprene, which is worn by surfers, divers, windsurfers, canoeists, and others engaged in water sports, providing thermal insulation, abrasion resistance and buoyancy. The insulation properties depend on bubbles of gas enclosed within the material,...
s or other thermal protection. The activity may or may not involve freezing water, depending on the geographical location and the local temperature. Famous winter swimmers are Lynne Cox
Lynne Cox
Lynne Cox is an American long-distance open-water swimmer and writer. In 1971, she and her teammates were the first group of teenagers to complete the crossing of the Catalina Island Channel in California. She was always the slowest swimmer in her swim classes...
and Lewis Gordon Pugh
Lewis Gordon Pugh
Lewis Gordon Pugh, OIG is a British environmental campaigner, maritime lawyer and endurance swimmer.Pugh was the first person to complete a long distance swim in every ocean...
.
Ice swimming is swimming in a body of water with a frozen crust of ice
Ice
Ice is water frozen into the solid state. Usually ice is the phase known as ice Ih, which is the most abundant of the varying solid phases on the Earth's surface. It can appear transparent or opaque bluish-white color, depending on the presence of impurities or air inclusions...
, and may be synonymous with winter swimming in colder countries. This requires either breaking the ice or entering where a spring keeps the water from freezing over. This may also be simulated by a pool of water at 0 °C, the temperature at which water freezes.
Ice swimmers typically dip their heads below the surface to ensure that they are completely wet, whether or not the water is over their heads. They usually do not swim beneath the ice, as it is easy to get disoriented when turning around and not be able to find one's way back to the hole. Some ice swimmers avoid this problem by swimming from one hole to another, or by swimming under the ice while tethered to the shore. Due to the diving reflex, a swimmer is able to hold his or her breath for a long time while under the ice.
Maintaining the hole in the ice
One way that the hole is maintained at regular ice swimming places is with a pump that forces the water to circulate under the hole, preventing ice from forming. Small ice-holes can also be kept open by keeping a lid over the hole to prevent ice forming.Most ice swimming places also use a specific heated "carpet" going from the locker rooms to the ice-hole, both to make walking to the hole more pleasant and for safety as otherwise the water dripping from returning swimmers would freeze and create a dangerously slippery surface to walk on.
Northern Europe
In Finland, Northern Russia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia the ice swimming tradition has been connected with the saunaSauna
A sauna is a small room or house designed as a place to experience dry or wet heat sessions, or an establishment with one or more of these and auxiliary facilities....
tradition. Unlike dousing
Dousing
Dousing is the practice of making something or someone wet by throwing liquid over them, e.g., by pouring water, generally cold, over oneself. A related practice is ice swimming. Some consider cold water dousing to be a form of asceticism....
, it is not seen as an ascetic or religious ritual, but a way to cool off rapidly after staying in a sauna and as a stress relief.
Ice swimming on its own is especially popular in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
. There is an Avantouinti (ice-hole swimming) Society, and swimming holes are also maintained by other groups such as the Finnish skiing
Skiing
Skiing is a recreational activity using skis as equipment for traveling over snow. Skis are used in conjunction with boots that connect to the ski with use of a binding....
association (Suomen Latu). The Finnish Sauna Society maintains an avanto for sauna goers.
There are lots of places where you can swim without sauna in Finland during winter. Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
has several places for avantouinti, with dressing-rooms and sometimes with saunas. Tampere
Tampere
Tampere is a city in southern Finland. It is the most populous inland city in any of the Nordic countries. The city has a population of , growing to approximately 300,000 people in the conurbation and over 340,000 in the metropolitan area. Tampere is the third most-populous municipality in...
area has a number of ice swimming and winter sauna locations.
United Kingdom
Famous locations include the Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park, London. The largest fresh water pool in the UK is the Tooting Bec LidoTooting Bec Lido
Tooting Bec Lido is an open-air fresh water swimming pool in South London. It is the largest swimming pool by surface area in the United Kingdom, being 100 yards long and 33 yards wide....
in South West London which is home to the South London Swimming Club. The pool is 100 yards in length ie neraly twice as long as an Olympic pool. As the winter approaches and the water temperature drops then swimmers stay in for less and less time, swimming just one or two widths rather than several lengths. Races take place all year including on Christmas Day and New Year's Day.
Russia
There are strong traditions for ice swimming and dousing with cold water in Russia. They are done for health benefits, as a ritual of the Orthodox Church for the feast of the Baptism of Our LordTheophany
Theophany, from the Ancient Greek , meaning "appearance of God"), refers to the appearance of a deity to a human or other being, or to a divine disclosure....
, and for sports. Such club members are called "walruses" instead of "polar bears".
North America
The members of Canadian and AmericanUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
"polar bear clubs" go outdoor bathing or swimming in the middle of winter. In some areas it is unusual or ceremonial enough to attract press coverage. "Polar bear plunge
Polar bear plunge
A polar bear plunge is an event held during the winter where participants enter a body of water despite the low temperature. In the United States polar bear plunges are usually held to raise money for a charitable organization, while in Canada they are associated with New Year's Day.-Canada:In...
s" are conducted as fund-raisers for charity, notably the Special Olympics
Special Olympics
Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, providing year-round training and competitions to more than 3.1 million athletes in 175 countries....
. Cosmo Kramer
Cosmo Kramer
Cosmo Kramer, usually referred to as simply "Kramer", is a fictional character on the American television sitcom Seinfeld , played by Michael Richards...
briefly joins a New York polar bears club in the sitcom Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
.
The oldest ice swimming club in the United States is the Coney Island Polar Bear Club
Coney Island Polar Bear Club
The Coney Island Polar Bear Club is the oldest winter bathing organization in the United States. The club was founded by famed health advocate Bernarr McFadden in 1903...
of Coney Island, New York, who hold an annual polar plunge on New Year's Day
New Year's Day
New Year's Day is observed on January 1, the first day of the year on the modern Gregorian calendar as well as the Julian calendar used in ancient Rome...
as well as regular swims every Sunday from November to April.
See also
- Ice bathIce bathIn sports therapy, an ice bath or sometimes a cold-water immersion or cold therapy is a training regimen usually following a period of intense exercise in which a substantial part of a human body is immersed in a bath of ice or ice-water for a limited duration...
- Cold shock responseCold shock responseCold shock response is the physiological response of organisms to sudden cold, especially cold water.-Myth of sudden hypothermia:In humans, cold shock response is perhaps the most common cause of death from immersion in very cold water, such as by falling through thin ice...
- Cold water dousingDousingDousing is the practice of making something or someone wet by throwing liquid over them, e.g., by pouring water, generally cold, over oneself. A related practice is ice swimming. Some consider cold water dousing to be a form of asceticism....
- Polar bear plungePolar bear plungeA polar bear plunge is an event held during the winter where participants enter a body of water despite the low temperature. In the United States polar bear plunges are usually held to raise money for a charitable organization, while in Canada they are associated with New Year's Day.-Canada:In...