*Ice* Swimming

[underpants]

A winter swimmer jumps into icy water amid snowfall at a park in Shenyang, Liaoning province December 27, 2008. A cold front is expected to bring strong wind and snow to northern China and rain to the south in the next two days, the National Meteorological Center (NMC) announced here on Saturday, Xinhua News Agency reported. REUTERS/Stringer
(CHINA).


An ice swimmer from the traditional club 'Berliner Seehunde' (Berlin seals) takes a dip in the cold waters of lake Oranke in the eastern Berlin district of Alt-Hohenschoenhausen January 1, 2009. A small group of ice swimmers met on Thursday to welcome in the year 2009 by having their traditional New Year's swimming session.
REUTERS/Tobias Schwarz (GERMANY)


Russian men enjoy swimming in an ice hole on a lake after relaxing in sauna just outside St. Petersburg, Russia, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2009. The temperature in St. Petersburg is -13 C (9 F).
(AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)


Members of an ice swimming club take a dip in the frozen lake Orankesee in Berlin during the annual carnival swimming meeting January 10, 2009. Some 150 members of ice swimming clubs all over Germany met for their annual ice swimming session on Saturday.
REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch (GERMANY)


Part of 2,700 swimmers take part in the New Year's Day Winter Swimming Gala to celebrate the coming of 2009 at a beach in Hong Kong January 1, 2009.
REUTERS/Bobby Yip (CHINA)

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[LaraMN]

1. No.

Just...No.

[redqueen]

2. Thank you.

:)

[underpants]

4. Another steamy Russian

[redqueen]

6. That is thoughtful of you... thanks...

not quite as erm... interesting as the first one... but it's the thought that counts. :)

[Arkansas Granny]

3. There is no way in hell that I would willingly enter water that cold.

[surrealAmerican]

5. I guess the hardest part would be getting out.

Just how do you climb over the ice and slush when you're all slippery, and ice is forming on your skin?

[struggle4progress]

15. Nope. Getting out feels great! You start to feel all warm and toasty

in comparison, because swimming in icy water drains body heat a lot faster than standing in frosty air

[MineralMan]

7. That Rooshun guy gots no underpants!

I'm gonna tell!

[Aristus]

8. I was Polar Bear Swim champ when I was a kid.

About the only thing involving swimming I was ever any good at. :scared: B-)

[kwassa]

9. I've done this in New Jersey.

out in the Deleware Watergap area is an old house built by Russian immigrants with a wood-burning sauna outside. Next to the sauna, out in the snow, was an old claw-foot tub full of very icy water.
We'd get nice and overheated in the sauna, run nekkid outside and jump in the tub.

The screams were involuntary.

Fun, but strange fun.

Then we'd go inside to an unheated room outside the sauna, and steam would just radiate from our skins. Very cleansing. Then, back to the sauna.

[underpants]

13. Special Olympics does this in the US on Jan.1 as a fund raising thing

They say it is quite good fun.

[Rambis]

10. Makes you feel alive

right before the heart attack:) I did a version of this many years ago in MN. Sauna then roll in the snow then back in and it feels great. I also jumped in a lake the day after ice out. It felt like my lungs collapsed. I had a nasty upper respiratory infection and after an hour of coughing up I felt 1000 times better. Does wonders for a hangover too.

[geardaddy]

11. I did that too "up Nort"

when I was a teenager.

Were you hanging out with Finns?

[Rambis]

12. Oh yeah you betcha

The Essala's and their Missouri Senate Lutheran children (hell raisers) We were 16-17 years old at the time. We thought everyone was gone for the season but the 16 year old neighbours daughter watched us the whole week and they never called the cops? All good fun-

[struggle4progress]

16. Not sucha good hobby for them what is unfit, cardiovascular-like

[krispos42]

14. +9ºF?

Luxury.

It's -9 right now...up from -26.

:-)

[flvegan]

17. I've, uh...actually done this.

Not the group thing, or the frozen lake thing, but something like it.

My buddy had an aboveground pool, and sometime in January while there were several inches of snow on the ground we thought it would be cool to brush off and roll back the cover, then jump in. We stayed in for maybe 10 seconds and then ran like hell for the basement wood stove.

Stupid, yes, but not as stupid as repeating the above 5 or 6 times.

I was 11, shut up.

[dawgmom]

18. There's something wrong with these people

That's just crazy. ;)

When I was a teenager, I took lifeguard training at a local lake. We had to get there at 6:00 in the morning, and let me tell you, in late May in Indiana, the water is COLD that early in the morning. Our wake-up every morning was to go off the high dive into the water -- they wanted us to be accustomed to the shock of hitting cold water. I never got used to it, and hated and dreaded it every day. I can't imagine doing something like this just for the "fun" of it.

[XemaSab]

19. At the south pole they have a 300 Club

Involving a VERY hot sauna and some VERY cold outside air.

Hey, it's isolated down there, and you have to make your own fun. :shrug:

[graywarrior]

20. How they get married in "Southie" Boston, MA

[Flaxbee]

21. crazy fuckers. We had a few Russian friends over to visit us in NY

a few years back and it snowed heavily one night. Alex stripped to his shorts and went outside to shovel for about an hour - he was in heaven. The neighbors were aghast (this was in Scarsdale; we were all staying at a friend's house and wife of friend had a fit when Alex went out in his boxers). :D

[eyepaddle]

22. I did that in McMurdo Sound when I worked in Antarctica.

Of coursem the water is very saline, so it is brutally cold, but we did from inside heated huts--jumping in was horribly shocking, jumping out incredibly sublime. You feel the warmth flowing over your skin--it was awesome.

Oh, I was pretty well dressed, but here I am last March.