13th January Kenwood Ladies Pond 9.30

MG

"Only a pond, but large enough to contain the human body and pure enough to reflect the sky"
Forster, A Room with a View

I'm writing this from a cafe where I'm still trying to come down from a euphoric high - Kenwood Ladies Pond, Hampstead Heath, Winter swim - DONE! 4 degrees, 5 minutes, and each minute a joy. I'd been introduced to a lady who swims here through the Winter, JS,  and arranged to meet her at Highgate Tube at 9.30. I'd been feeling nervous about this swim - it's been a month since I was last in, the 3 degrees the pond was last week is colder than anything I've done before - but equally I knew that if JS swam and I didn't I'd regret it to my dying day. And when I see the beautiful ponds and the four or five bobbing heads there is no question or moment of doubt. JS introduces me to the lifeguards ("she swims in the sea!" at which they look suitably impressed) and then we're changing amongst a gaggle of breathless, glowing women. I feel like someone who's been living abroad for years and suddenly I'm surrounded by people speaking my language. I pull on my boots (thank god for the boots) and follow JS to the ladder in. She's in and away, and, turning only to make a terrified grimace at the lifeguards, I lower myself in and am away before I can question it. AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING. It's cold of course, a slow, burning cold, but no stabbing pains or breathlessness, completely manageable (aided hugely by the boots and my discombobulating hat). I swim out and from ladder to ladder (not too far away as I'm worried I might cramp up or lose the feeling in my hands and be unable to get out) and out, and then repeat this twice more, even managing an underwater moment in the green, gentle water. I've often swum here in the suumer, but summer or winter, every time I come I just cannot belive how lucky and privilged we are to have this amazing "facility" 20 minutes from Oxford Circus.

I emerge glowing and euphoric and change far more leisurely and calmly than I can on the beach - I must say, a warm changing room and not the howling wind and total exposure of the beach, does make a huge differene. SW thinks that this is one of our biggest challenges. But when I think how cold I was after the much warmer conditions of the Sharrah Pool and then one of our Autumn swims when KH had to go to bed with two hot water bottles - cold really does seem to be relative, and a lot to do with your state of mind.

It's a fantastic, indescribably good, way to start the day and I feel quite ridiculously pleased with myself as JS and I re-combobulate over coffee and croissants at Kenwood House (lush) and talk swimming like two jackdaws. On the Northern line home, the sad and solemn grey faces are the shade to my sunshine. I've got a feeling that's not my last Hampstead swim this winter.....

Sunday 9th January 2011, Brighton and 2010 Review

*

Being house-bound due to the snow, ill health (I thought winter swimmers did not get colds??) and duties around Christmas all conspired to keep me from swimming.  After over a month out of the water it was a relief to be able to splash about again - even if I dont think I swam more than 20 metres.

The sea was not too rough, the sun was out, the wind was low and the sky was a beautiful deep blue.  It would have been mad not to swim. I decided to sandwich the swim between a run and a cycle - hoping that overheating while running would keep me from feeling the effects of the water and cycling after would prevent me from seizing up. And it worked. I was so hot that the sea felt like a giant post sauna plunge pool. I could dive under the waves and splash about (and even swim a few metres) and apart from my hands which felt like they were doing time in an acid bath, I felt absolutely fine. And I did not even have my gloves and booties (bad planning, not masochism).

It was all over a bit fast - I did not want to get too cold as I still had the cycle ride to go - and I was dry and drinking tea within minutes but it was a great feeling to swim again. I must not let it get so long between swims again.

* I forgot my camera and the support team camera battery ran out before it could take a single shot. Instead, when I got home I took a picture of the sea glimpse we get from our temporary place in Brighton - it really is just a glimpse, bottom right of picture in case you missed it!

... and then went back to the beach at night and took some long exposure shots in the dark from where I had swum earlier... now I am looking forward to warmer summer waters and the chance to swim at night...

SW

And in other news... West Bay, 1.00

It goes entirely against our Health and Safety guidelines, but today, refusing to be beaten by circumstances and, even worse, the rest of the team, I decide I can't go on another moment without swimming - I have to swim alone. It's a beautiful, flawless day and there's only one way I know to make the most of a warm, clear January day a few miles from the sea… I choose 1 o'clock as the time most likely to get an empty beach (strange that in September and October I loved having a few people on the beach to impress – now, the sight of people looking on fills me with dread) and motor down singing the old hymn "…there's no discouragement/shall make him once relent/his first avowed intent/to be a pilgrim" to the Mascot. But it's not to be. We've been spoiled by deserted beaches through December and lulled into a sense of privacy… this first lovely day of 2011, a million, billion people have poked their noses out of their burrows and shuffled, blinking on to the beach. The car park is packed and the sands full of walkers and children swarming all over OUR BEACH. On top of that, the sea is brown and swollen, muddy waves crashing and swilling on to the beach. Circumstances, yet again, have beaten me. Damn it! If only we had a private beach. Or a little tarn. Or a lovely stretch of river….

Beaten, but not defeated (I'm swimming this month even if it kills me) I content myself with many, many happy swimming memories of 2010, my best ever swimming year... some of the best, incredible evening swims in May,

Blissful Lake District swims on holiday with JJ… Rumplestone's Jump,

    

Wild Cat Island,

The stream above Wastwater

As well as the gorgeous swims featured on the blog...  the early Autumn days

delicious snacks

the snow swim, Dartmoor and the Sharrah Pool... and all the hysterical, joyous, everyday swims, each one totally and utterly perfect. Happy days.

27th December 2010. Norfolk. Snettisham 11.00am

After a very disappointing December when work and illness have kept me out of the water. Only S.W.'s and M.G.'s posts have been keeping my swimming hopes alive. My closest encounter with the water during this time has been taking the passenger ferry from West Lynn to Kings Lynn. However dramatic this has been,(in the middle of the river in a blizzard and the boat crunching into the ice flowing out to sea, incidental the first time in my life I have seen ice in the River Great Ouse) It is not swimming so I commit myself on Christmas eve to a post Christmas dip in the Wash by inviting some old friends to witness the insanity thus leaving myself no opportunity to back out.
As I walk over the top the wind cuts right through me straight off the sea but seeing the waiting trio I  brazen it out. Dropping my stuff I start stripping off as we chat about Christmas, food , booze and presents. Today is the first trial of my new wetsuit socks and gloves and to mark the occasion I top this dashing ensemble off with my floral swimming cap. I walk calmly into the water and within a few steps it is deep enough to swim.  For the first minute the socks and gloves seem to be making this incredibly easy no tingling hands! Toasty feet! However as soon as I start to kick the socks half slide off my feet and are flapping around like extra useless flippers. I am actually swimming though not just flapping around trying to keep my arms moving which is an improvement from last time. I can't actually give any real description of the water. It was cold. That seems totally inadequate but I can only really describe it's effects by how long it took for me to start stiffening up which was roughly five minutes.
 Only when I got out of the water did I make the transition from black and white to technicolour. Skin on fire, check. No feeling in feet, check. My wonderful friends await holding out the towel and proceed to hand me clothing in the appropriate order. There are quite a lot of people around today but they completely ignore us as if we are just a cold water mirage?
Fully clothed in record time I take the requisite sea shots I know they look as if they are almost in black and white but it really was that grey. Luckily for you faithful readers M.G. and S.W. are still filling the blog with beautiful swimming porn type photography. Back to the car for medicinal hot sweet tea and then off to the pub and open fires and rather stronger medicinal drinks.

This dip has restored my confidence however and I am  determined to make it into January. See you all on the other side. Happy New Year !

Sunday 12th December, Cogden

3.45 Cogden

MG

And Lo, it came to pass – another beautiful Sunday, clear blue skies and much warmer. I suggest a walk by the sea to My Brother from Abroad (abroad in a place where they have saunas attached to their bathrooms as standard!) and put my swimming costume on under my clothes, just in case. With SW away and suspiciously quiet, and JJ bed bound with flu, I’ve got an obligation to represent the team, but I’m careful not to promise anything.

We walk the Mascot along the reed beds behind the beach and halfway round I spot a familiar curly greypelt advancing joyfully towards us – Percy and KH. We launch into discussion, treating MBFA to the interactive-blog experience (listening to us rambling about water temperature and recent experience). I hadn’t rung KH as I knew she’d ring me if she felt like a swim, but of course on seeing me she is instantly drawn by the lure the sea has over us. Last year she swam in December, long after I had been invalided out, but the snow and the cold snap have, quite understandably, broken her. I remind her it’s not a competition (which are hollow words as it quite obviously is a competition, but between unspecific competitors – the sea? The winter? The Prancers? The rest of the world?) but as we part MBFA bets me that by the time we pass again (we are going clockwise, KH anti-clockwise) KH will have given in to temptation and decided to join. Half an hour later I see her in the distance testing out the water temperature. But without her stuff and with a long walk back to the car she decides against and tears herself away with a visible wrench. It’s a painful parting as I know she’s thinking she will regret it, but let’s remind ourselves that she swam at the end of November, 3 months after normal people had stopped. And I hope she will reappear with flasks and hot water bottles to guide us through the dreaded dawn if 2011.

With KH’s figure receding in the distance, I tear off my clothes and advance, MBFA gallantly manning the mobile phone, smoking a fag, taking photos, reassuring the Mascot. Again, I’m ridiculously brave and apart from the burning in my arms and pounding of my heart, it isn’t too painful. Actually I think the boots (as well as the perfect conditions) help with this as they protect me from the first agonizing step when the nerve endings in my toes send a frantic SOS to my brain. By the time the water has lapped around my shins, I’m in too deep to give up. I manage a pretty respectable swim, in and out for three separate dips and even achieving a thought about the beauty of the setting sun in the mirror of the water and the pleasure of having MBFA here with me. Normally it’s imposible to think of anything except how much longer you can be in before your organs will start to shut down. I submerge – delicious brain freeze – and re-emerge feeling fantastic and glowing scarlet.

Walking back to the car I get a bit babbly and giggly and breathless, but never feel unbearably cold, just pleasantly chilled. And there is something extremely satisfying about going indeed. to a Carol Service that evening knowing I have SWUM IN THE SEA. Joyful and Triumphant indeed.

Sunday 4th December, various

Poole Harbour, 9.30 am
SW

Friends rented a cottage in Purbeck for the weekend and I was lucky enough to join them for a few days. We stayed on  Goathorn Peninsular which is just behind Studland in Poole Harbour. It is an isolated spit of land covered in pines and heath with water on 3 sides, ending in a jetty. Heaven.

The snow may have gone overnight but its still icy underfoot and I think/fear that the harbour will be full of meltwater. Brrr. Despite registering almost zero bravery, the location, weather and water are all so unbelievably beautiful that I really have no option but to swim.  

Watching over me I have four temporary lifeguards on land and oystercatchers, curlews and a kingfisher in the water. It does feel a bit chilly but I am in such awe of my surroundings that I wade straight in and dive under. Delicious brain freeze. Oddly not very salty water (brackish here). Milky to murky under the surface but mill-pond still. There was the confusing remains of a mist combining with the water on the horizon to give a single expanse of grey-blue.

A brief swim, a re-entry dive then a hot cup of tea. The sun comes out as I do allowing me to stand and bask for a while before having to get dressed. This place is amazing and I make a vow to come back here for a long swim when the water is warmer.

Burton Bradstock, 3.00

MG

…and phew, in a moment of panic, I spoke far too soon! After waking up to blue skies and getting boiling hot walking the dogs, I resolve to swim by any means necessary – it's too good a chance to miss, and I know it'll be worth it, even if just to make our next swim more manageable. I consider exerting some pressure on KH, but I know that being bullied into submerging in icy water doesn't exactly add to the pleasure. So by a series of cajoling, threatening and empty promises I manage to persuade my unwilling non-support support team to accompany me to the beach and act as lifeguard, and ironically, repel any would be life-savers who think I'm drowning or committing suicide (always my fear). We motor down to Burton Bradstock where as usual on a Sunday, the café is stuffed with people eating fish and chips and staring out to sea and the cliff is studded with people walking their dogs and staring out to sea. But having someone with me makes the audience seem less of an issue (even though my companion warns me that she is going to pretend not to know me, taking a leaf out of JJ's Reluctant Lifeguard's book). The only issue is the grey, freezing waves. My resolve weakens as I watch the surprisingly big waves breaking. But luckily I have talked myself into a corner, so I cast off my clothes, pull on my wetsuit boots and plunge. The boots actually give me an air of authority – I look less like someone who has "gone on holiday by mistake" and more like a serious, well prepared Winter Swimmer. And once in the water they make a huge difference – not discombobulating, and toasty toes.

As always on my own, I'm incredibly brave by necessity and fall in, swim around, out and in again with minimal fuss. It isn't the longest or nicest (murky) swim but I go under and do some backstroke before emerging, glowing and laughing. Most excitingly of all, as I pull off my boots (which is incredibly difficult as SW has warned me – I nearly dislocate my fingers) a slurp of water sloshes out and STEAMS on contact with the cold air. I almost pass out as the smugness levels rocket.

Once dressed in my 15,000 layers (and not feeling even vaguely cold) we head back along the beach. My non-support support team is showing signs of being proud and impressed, and is extremely complementary on my zero-prancing getting in approach. I'm just basking in the glow and thinking that perhaps it's time to drop the "non-support" part of her title, when two fishermen break into a round of applause as I pass. They then negate this by saying "nice to see someone stupider than us!".

Saturday 4th December, The Heroes Subdued

MG

This is the only sort of swimming I'm doing at the moment;

It's so annoying. Due to frozen lanes, confusing schedules of double households, other engagements on perfect swimming days, we've had NO SWIMMING throughout the glorious cold snap, much to my rage and frustration. As our lanes froze, as KH and I (independently) fell flat on the ice, as I used a chopping board to clear the snow from my car and as The Mascottinni switched her allegiance to tobogganing mascot, very helpfully galloping full tilt beside the toboggan as we careered down hillsides, we have been unable to collide, much to my rage and frustration. I knew this would happen as soon as I got my wetsuit boots. And as SW texted last night to alert me to the rain streaming from the sky, washing away all traces of snow and signalling the onset of the kind of winter we are accustomed to, I teeter on the brink of depression about our whole endeavor. Lack of swimming makes the next swim in falling temperatures so much harder…But of course we are not giving up, never giving up, and though another Snow Swim seems unlikely for a while, we'll just grab swims when we can. 

Let's hope that the Norfolk outpost may do better…

snowed in

Well, we did say bring it on... annoyingly despite all this glorious snow, there was no swimming to be had this morning as the lane was impassable. Fingers crossed for tomorrow...