This friend of mine has done cold water swimming for forever, and he invited our parkour group to come join his swimming group today. I was the only one crazy enough to take him up on it. I've gone swimming in some pretty cold water, but I think this was probably the coldest - it was around 32 degrees out and someone said the water was 36 degrees. So, apparently warmer in the water then outside, though it didn't really feel that way! Also, it was snowing out - kind of a weird day for a swim!
The way that it works, everyone gets there, you chit chat and socialize and hang out for a bit. There was a group photo taken. Then, you go down to the water, strip down to your swimsuit, and get in. Since it was my first time, I asked this guy who wasn't going in to take a video of me and it wound up being about a minute and 11 seconds. I was probably in the water for about 45 seconds. Mostly I had to get out because my hands and feet were freezing. If I'm going to do this again, I need neoprene booties and gloves so I can stay in longer. (I've already ordered them.) After you get out of the water you stand in a bucket of hot water to warm up the feet, then change in the parking lot. Then you eat chocolate, which is the best part.
There were some women there who were super hard core - they swam out to the ice and climbed out on it! It's snowing today, so they made snow angels and took a photo standing on the ice, then got back in and swam back. That would be pretty cool.
My hands and feet were really cold after, but the rest of me was OK - I do like to get into the ocean and lakes when it's pretty cold out, though this was beyond anything I'd done before. I'm still a little chilled - it will be interesting to see if I sleep better tonight, or have any other after effects. Definitely would do again!
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