In Nordic winter conditions, water is always around 0°C. How cold you get from ice swimming depends mainly on 3 things:
- How much of your body you dip
- How long you stay in
- Air temperature, wind chill & how fast you can get dressed
At least the first two are completely within own control. The third is always the hardest for me, and if I struggle, it’s always with this.
Once you start, you’ll quickly find out what works for you, and what you prefer. To get going, maybe some of this will help:
- Preferably choose a swim spot you are familiar with, or at least one that seems easy.
- Choose a time when air temperature isn’t too low.
- Plan the clothing so you can easily get dressed.
- Use footwear to protect feet, doesn’t need to be neoprene shoes, sandals, socks or even an extra pair of normal shoes will do.
- When undressing, organizing a little bit will speed up dressing. An open bag to put clothes in may be useful.
- You badass. Get in the water! Take a deep breathe in, sink into the water and slowly breathe out.
- Sometimes you hyperventilate, sometimes not. Keep breathing calmly (pun intended).
- If you want, only go in up to the waist or armpits the first time.
- Avoiding to get the hands wet may be a really good choice also. If you do wet them, dry them first when getting up. Getting dressed with non-working fingers (due to cold) is extremely hard. And not getting dressed is a bad option...
- A small towel or something to stand on may facilate in getting dressed and warm quickly.
- If you use swimwear, remove it as fast as possibly. Skipping underwear when getting dressed also speeds things up 😜
- Get moving to regain some heat!
Start small, go bigger!!
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