Annual Swim in Cold Water

[bazooka]

I don't care what they say. It is not healthy. You can get hypothermia.

Those people are nuts. I am a scuba diver, and the coldest water I have been in is 53 degrees.

Naked Germans Jump in Ice-Cold Lake for Good Health
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Dec 25, 7:11 AM (ET)

BERLIN (Reuters) - About 30 Germans wearing nothing more than red Santa Claus caps leapt into a Berlin lake for their annual Christmas Day swim on Saturday, a dip in the ice-cold water they believe is good for their health.

The naked men and women, between the ages of 25 and 73, spent up to about five minutes in Berlin's Oranke lake, where temperatures were 34 F.

Several complained there was no ice on the lake as in past years.

"It's still pretty cold in here," swimmer Andreas Beyer told Reuters. Members of the club known as the "Berlin seals" train year-round for the cold water Christmas swim and they believe the dips help them avoid illnesses.

The tradition dates back to at least 1980. The swimmers -- outnumbered by media photographers drawn to the annual event -- built up their courage for the dip by singing Christmas carols and sipping mulled wine.

[yoda313]

Hello,

They do that in the Detroit River at Belle Isle once a year in January too. NUTS!

Kevin

[handyguy]

I can only imagine what their privates looked like after being in that cold water....

There was a lady who swam 1.2 miles in the artic once. She was pretty fat, said she needed that as insulation.

[bazooka]

I can only imagine what their privates looked like after being in that cold water....

There was a lady who swam 1.2 miles in the artic once. She was pretty fat, said she needed that as insulation.

From the thermocline no doubt

[hech54]

I think there is a Polar Bear Club in Pittsburgh too.

[rallynavvie]

I did a Polar Bear swim every year I was on the swim team. I don't see what the big deal is. For ours we had a toasty-warm ice-fishing house on the lake and cut a huge hole in the ice (probably 20 foot square) a little at a time. You come out of the shack and jump into the water for a little while and then go back in the shack to warm up. There is a danger of hypothermia, more so when you exit the water though. We did it in 6 feet of water with a sandy bottom so it was like swimming in an ice cold pool. Over half the folks present are trained lifeguards and not everyone is in the water. If something were to happen, which it never did, it would not have been from lack of caution.

[888888]

I never understood the concept either. Once, I sat in a cedar sauna for a while, then took a cold shower. The temperature change made me nauseous. What's the point?

[Capmaster]

I never understood the concept either. Once, I sat in a cedar sauna for a while, then took a cold shower. The temperature change made me nauseous. What's the point?

Then you weren't in the sauna long enough ...or it wasn't nearly hot enough.

You have to stay in until you can't stand it ....usually well over 200F is a good temp. Then jump in the water. You won't even feel the temp difference right away .....then it's gradual. If you don't heat up long enough you'll feel what you felt.

As kids we spent every summer at our family lake just outside Duluth, MN. My mom's family is all 1st gen immigrant Finns, and there is not a shower or a bathtub to be found there. They dive in a snowbank when the lake is frozen over.

We all took a sauna every night (women first ...then the men) ...night time for privacy

[bazooka]

They dive in a snowbank when the lake is frozen over.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

[Capmaster]

They dive in a snowbank when the lake is frozen over.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

If you're hot enough, your skin merely tingles when you hit the snow. Same for cold water. It's very pleasant and soothing. And after a good sauna where you repeat the heating/immersing three or four times, you'll sleep like the dead when you go to bed. The best insomnia cure there is

And for the majority who pronounce the word "SAW-na" ...that's wrong. It's correctly pronounced "SOU-na"

[JSB]

I can only imagine what their privates looked like after being in that cold water....

Turtle....

[Capmaster]

I can only imagine what their privates looked like after being in that cold water....

Turtle....

"Startled" turtle

[888888]

I never understood the concept either. Once, I sat in a cedar sauna for a while, then took a cold shower. The temperature change made me nauseous. What's the point?

Then you weren't in the sauna long enough ...or it wasn't nearly hot enough.

Actually, I might have been in there too long. I felt like I couldn't take it for a long time before I left.

[BJ_M]

even canadian dogs think it is stupid

[Capmaster]

I never understood the concept either. Once, I sat in a cedar sauna for a while, then took a cold shower. The temperature change made me nauseous. What's the point?

Then you weren't in the sauna long enough ...or it wasn't nearly hot enough.

Actually, I might have been in there too long. I felt like I couldn't take it for a long time before I left.

Maybe you were feeling the beginnings of a mild heat stroke then. You can overdo it too

Good thing you got out when you did.

[888888]

I never understood the concept either. Once, I sat in a cedar sauna for a while, then took a cold shower. The temperature change made me nauseous. What's the point?

Then you weren't in the sauna long enough ...or it wasn't nearly hot enough.

Actually, I might have been in there too long. I felt like I couldn't take it for a long time before I left.

Maybe you were feeling the beginnings of a mild heat stroke then. You can overdo it too

Good thing you got out when you did.

I wonder if my brain damaged was?

[Capmaster]

I never understood the concept either. Once, I sat in a cedar sauna for a while, then took a cold shower. The temperature change made me nauseous. What's the point?

Then you weren't in the sauna long enough ...or it wasn't nearly hot enough.

Actually, I might have been in there too long. I felt like I couldn't take it for a long time before I left.

Maybe you were feeling the beginnings of a mild heat stroke then. You can overdo it too

Good thing you got out when you did.

I wonder if my brain damaged was?

Well ...you're here now, right? Join the club

[rallynavvie]

I never understood the concept either. Once, I sat in a cedar sauna for a while, then took a cold shower. The temperature change made me nauseous. What's the point?

Yeah, see that's an interesting question to bring up. Why skydive out of a perfectly good airplane? Why snowboard when skis will get you down the hill just as quick? Why even get drunk? People do all sorts of silly things for fun

Cap if you were up near Duh-loot than why weren't you taking it out to the Big Lake? Run in past the freeze near shore and then run the hell out

[Capmaster]

I never understood the concept either. Once, I sat in a cedar sauna for a while, then took a cold shower. The temperature change made me nauseous. What's the point?

Yeah, see that's an interesting question to bring up. Why skydive out of a perfectly good airplane? Why snowboard when skis will get you down the hill just as quick? Why even get drunk? People do all sorts of silly things for fun

Cap if you were up near Duh-loot than why weren't you taking it out to the Big Lake? Run in past the freeze near shore and then run the hell out

The sauna was 17 miles from the shore of L. Superior ....by the time I had reached the shore I'd have been a startled turtle statue The lake's out a ways off Miller Trunk highway near 194 and 2. That lake is fairly small and it freezes all the way over, about 18 inches thick.

The only time I've been there in the winter was on our honeymoon in December. I'll still never get used to running and diving, stark naked, into a snow drift when it's 5 below outside

[bazooka]

I'll still never get used to running and diving, stark naked, into a snow drift when it's 5 below outside

I do not blame you sir.

I am not ever going to try it.