The Cold Embrace

Awash with physical and mental health benefits, cold-water swimming is making big waves in the wellness industry. Veterans acclimatise themselves to the near-freezing temperatures over years. Men’s Health chose the fast lane. Come on in, the water is lovely…

- David Morton

Immersing yourself in water just the right side of ice triggers an involuntary physiological and psychological reaction. When you submerge yourself to neck level, it triggers the body’s cold shock response, instantly causing you to hyperventilate. Which, combined with the physical sensations of being in an unquestionably hostile environment, can result in genuine terror. Your breath escapes you, try as you might find it. Your skin scalds in the burning cold, and your limbs become distant friends who can’t quite hear what you’re saying to them.

“Most people who drown in cold water do so because they panic,” says Jeremy Laming, founder of Selkie Swim Co, an open-water apparel brand and my cold water swimming mentor. “It takes a while to go hypothermic: 30 minutes, give or take. But if you panic and breathe in water when you first go in…”

I’m receiving this pep talk on the jetty of a water sports club on Queenford Lakes, just outside Oxford, in early December. I’m here for my first acclimatization swim because, in the dank darkness of the second weekend of January, I’ll be off to south-west Scotland in search of the temperature standard of the true winter swimmer – sub-5ºC. Wetsuits aren’t worn by cold-water zealots. I’ll be swimming in “skins”: just a pair of swimming trunks, maybe a hat and goggles. Laming will be leading the trip, along with Katia Vastiau, a Selkie ambassador, photographer, open water evangelist and former national swimmer for Belgium. Today, both will be with me in the water, which the digital thermometer states are at 6.5ºC.

“Walking in is the safest way to enter cold water. Diving in is risky, especially for beginners. So stride, but don’t stop,” advises Laming. “Splash your body, then get your chest under. We’ll aim for five minutes and see how you get on.”