COLD, COLD WATER is about swim escapes and escapades into...Cold, Cold Water...if you can relate to that: Good!...if you cannot relate to that: Good!....

COLD, COLD WATER


There are people who swim in Cold, Cold Water. Most people do not. Their skin shrivels and they shiver violently at the very thought. Some outer appendages attempt to creep towards their cores. This is a reasonable response to icy cold water...after all, you can die rapidly if your body sinks to ninety-five degrees Fahrenheit!

You can die in very cold water or a little bit cold water...under sixty degrees F, isn't good for most people...
Within fifteen minutes you're losing judgment and are getting sluggish. Under sixty degrees, you can endure and survive anywhere from an hour to four or five hours, depending on your size, fat, and age. Smaller, younger people do better...I'm bigger, taller....
Being in water between sixty to seventy degrees for a Long Exposure, isn't any better. Same statistics...and:
You're not supposed to swim around...you're supposed to huddle-up into a 'ball' shape in your PFD and whistle for help...if you have a PFD and a whistle on you. and help is possibly going to come...

The worst thing that can happen is called the Torso Reflex, often called the Inhalation Response...that's when you hit cold water suddenly and take in a deep, quick gasp of air. That reflex can kill you in seconds, since you're going to breathe in water. Not good....

So why do some people...well, let's say, why do I, specifically, have a long history of cold water swimming? The answer is I Love The Trance State...
OK, so now you're thinking, Ah-Ha! So you have to be crazy! Yep. That's about it. And, I'm not alone...

First of all, I plead inexpertise in many areas of this extreme and supreme activity!...I have only been swimming with two Polar Bear Clubs...one in Lake Michigan in Chicago, Illinois. The other in San Francisco, California, in the Pacific, of course. The temperature ranges of Lake Michigan and of the Pacific in North Central California are very similar, actually...between around fifty-five degrees at the coldest, in winter, and around sixty-five degrees in the warmer months; sometimes higher or lower, of course. Oh, and I forgot, I swam several times in Donner Lake in the California Sierra, where the water temperature in the Summer, when I swam, was between sixty five to seventy degrees.

I swam in Lake Michigan in the summers as many do, of course...but also, in my young adulthood, in the winter, several times. Twice I swam in the New Years Day swim off of Lincoln Park piers, I think, but I may not be remembering that correctly...

In the Pacific, I swam off of Baker's Beach in the city, during our 'winter' season here. The water was in the fifties. There were two swims, both on New Years Day...

In Donner Lake, I just swam around for a couple of hours to win a contest, twice. I won one and came in second on the other. I thought the other person had come out already, and he hadn't!

So, what's it like to actually swim for so long in such cold conditions?
Well, of course, I am entirely alone. No one, for sure, bothers me at all...So,
It is very quiet. No one around me is splashing around just having fun...
Then, after the light hypothermia begins (if there is such a state...), I start to feel my mind emptying...
Thoughts, (if thinking describes what it is I do) definitely go first...
Images pop in and out. Everything around looks quite clear and colorful.
A certain Peace sets in. My strokes lengthen, and become more languid, more liquid.
I sense only water... only water. sky. air. water....

Then my hands become too cold and my feet become too cold.
It is harder to swim. much time has gone by, maybe an hour, maybe less. maybe more.
At that point, I have programmed myself to come out of the water.
slowly, like cold silk.,,,

The beach sand is like needles. my hands are awkward. I shiver a little bit.
I towel off. Bundle up. Drink a slightly warm broth from my thermos.

come back to a different land. a solid land. with lots of noise. colors. feelings. tastes, even...

"Wow!" someone says. "You were in there a long time! That must be really something!"

Why, yes it is! ...
It is

Really

SOMETHING....