Winter swimming
[2] Both organizations have similar competition guidelines including water temperatures typically below 5 °C (41 °F),[3] a 25 metres (82 ft) pool often cut out of frozen bodies of water, and swimmers limited to goggles, one standard bathing suit, and one latex or silicone cap - neoprene is not allowed.
Most ice swimming places also use a specific heated "carpet" going from the locker rooms to the ice-hole,[citation needed] 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.
Unlike dousing, 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.
There is an Avantouinti Society, and swimming holes are also maintained by other groups such as the Finnish skiing association (Suomen Latu).
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.
The Middle Yeo Surf Life Saving Club hold the annual New Year's Day swim in Clevedon.
The Chester Frosties are an informal Facebook group of over 1,000 swimmers who swim all year around Cheshire, Lancashire, Wirral, Merseyside and North Wales.
The history of winter swimming (pływanie w zimie, also morsowanie, a loanword from Eastern European languages) in Poland dates back to at least 16th century, when Wojciech Oczko, the physician to the Kings Stephen Báthory and Sigismund III Vasa, published a treatise Cieplice, which contained the information on the contemporary understanding of water-based therapies, including the indications and contraindications to swimming in cold temperatures.
The oldest registered association for winter swimming enthusiasts, the Gdański Klub Morsów, was founded in 1975.
To celebrate this, holes are cut in the ice on rivers, lakes or other bodies of water, usually in the form of a Christian or Orthodox cross.
[citation needed] There is a popular belief that the practice erases a person's sins, but this is not endorsed by the Russian Orthodox Church.
[21] The members of Canadian and American "polar bear clubs" go outdoor bathing or swimming in the middle of winter.
"Polar bear plunges" are conducted as fund-raisers for charity, notably the Special Olympics, however these events do not actually involve swimming, but rather running into the water and back out again.
The Russian immigrant professor Louis Sugarman of Little Falls, NY was the first American to become a famous ice swimmer in the 1890s.
He attracted worldwide attention for his daily plunge in the Mohawk River, even when the thermometer hit −23 °F (−31 °C), earning him the nickname "the human polar bear".
[23] The club organizes an annual polar plunge on New Year's Day as well as regular swims in the Atlantic Ocean every Sunday from November to April.
In Taiyuan, where air temperature often goes below −10 °C (14 °F) in winter, hundreds of men and women ice swim each day in the Fen River.
[28][failed verification] Winter swimming is not dangerous for healthy persons, but should be avoided by individuals with heart or respiratory diseases, high blood pressure and arrhythmia, as well as children and the elderly.
[citation needed] Through conditioning, experienced winter swimmers have a greater resistance to effects of the cold shock response.
According to Tucker and Dugas, it takes more than approximately 30 minutes even in 0 °C (32 °F) water until the body temperature drops low enough for hypothermia to occur.
The experienced winter swimmer Lewis Gordon Pugh swam near the North Pole in −1.7 °C (28.9 °F) water and suffered a frostbite injury in his fingers.
When compared to a control group on the profile of mood states rating scale, winter swimmers experience less stress and fatigue and more vigor.
The incidence of infectious diseases affecting the upper respiratory tract is 40% lower among winter swimmers when compared to a control group.
Short term exposure of the whole body to cold water produces oxidative stress, which makes winter swimmers develop improved antioxidative protection.
