My Limit is 9 degrees!!! - NOT

Breaking the Ice for a Swim.....are we normal!

So how do you celebrate the 12th day of the 12th month 2012....well you go for a swim at 12 noon of course. Well that was the plan, Tony Robson and I agree to meet for a swim. The temperatures the previous evening had been sub 4 degrees, now for some reason that did not compute in my brain about what will happen to the water!!!!

Yes you have guessed it...frozen solid. Should we swim or not, those of you who know my blogs will know that there really is only one answer...its a YES. Of course we will get in. The non wetsuit option went out of the window, we did not want to get cut to bits by the ice, so neoprene it was. And i was glad we did, the bits that bumped and sliced against and around me meant that if we had not i would have been cut and bruised to bits!

Breaking a bit of ice so i could put the watch in (it has a temperature gauge  so we could get a rough idea of what we were getting into, not that it would have stopped us but its interesting to know. 

water temp in the shallows

air temp and this was at 11.15 am!!!

But not swimming was never an option, Tony only started open water swimming later this year but already he is going great guns, had already competed and done some social swims, today however would be a nice challenge for him. This is a man who at every swim with ever decreasing temperatures tells me that 9 degrees is his limit, hes not swimming past that!!!

Even at this time of the day with the sun shining there was not enough warmth to melt the hard frost we had had!

Right decision made it was time to get changed, oh for heated changing rooms!!! I have never got into a wetsuit so fast in my life! Heading towards the jetty the heartbeat started to raise, i love this type of challenge to see if i can do it, to see how the body could cope. I had researched the effects of cold water immersion in sub 0 temperatures and yes we could die. Even with 2 swim hats on i still kept my woolly hat on, i had the feeling we would need as much heat retention as possible!

The caretaker of the lake who clearly thought we were nuts came to watch, so i gave her my camera so she could get some of the pictures of us swimming. Her mouth hanging open as we literally had to punch and pummel the ice to get through it.

Getting in was not the issue it was the breaking of the ice, it started off thin then thickened with every stroke we tried to take.

We were both working really hard to try to make progress through the ice, who thought you could work up a sweat in -.5 degrees of water!!! Watching it all from the bank was Lynn who looks after the lake in the owners absence. I think she was a bit flabbergasted that we had even got in let alone that we were actually going too swim too!.

Having  reached our goal it was time to turn back to the jetty, wow, its quite a strange feeling to have solid (and yes they do hurt!) bits of ice floating around in the water with you, for anyone who does not like 'things touching' you in the water, this was not the swim for it! It was like swimming in a slush puppy! Lynn on the jetty looking rather toasty obligingly taking photos for us, whilst shaking her heads! Time to get out....ah...new lesson to be learned, walking on completely numb feet, now when i say completely numb i mean it, no sensation what so ever! 

A quick change (possibly the fastest i have done in a long time!) and it was flasks out and warm drinks to be drunk. Tony literally grinning from ear to ear. So for a man who says 9 degrees is his limit....breaking the ice sure must top the lot...nope the following week, ice melted...he gets in to join us for a 3.1 degree NON wetsuit swim....where is this mans limit!!!! Watch this space!