E20 - Ice swimming, is it as crazy as it sounds?

The New Zealand Ice swimming pool championships occured from 9 - 13 July 2024. Duncan & Jim were there (and did some swimming) and got to speak to a number of swimmers there.

We talked about our swoms, why we do cold swimming and asked others why they swim in cold water.

An interesting group of people and interesting answers.

If you want to know why people do it, or if you are curious and want to learn more then this episode is for you.

Transcript

0:00

Well, welcome to another Clevdix podcast. We're going to do things a little bit differently this time. So Duncan and I have just come back from the New Zealand or even Oceania ice swimming pool championships. And we just wanted to talk a little bit about how crazy swimming in really cold water is and why people do it. So we've got a couple of snippets from people. So you're going to hear from quite a few people that we talked to when we were down at the ice swimming pool championships and we'll get a little bit of our views and hopefully you enjoy it. So to start off with my mate Duncan here, the cleverest Clevdix that we've got around, now decided to swim as long and as hard and as cold as he possibly could down at the ice swimming pool championships. It's true. Is that correct? So how far did you go or do you need somebody else to tell you about that? So I managed to get through 2,250 meters. Water temperature that morning was 2.1 and as I understand, swim still to be ratified by the way, that will go through international ice swimming ratification process. You've got to show videos and observers and blah, blah, blah, blah. But as I understand it, temperature for mass was 2.6 degrees and it was hard, dude. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I'll tell you what it was hard just watching you, dude. Yeah, he started off, man, he was like this rocket ship going and well, that's what we could see was going through his mind anyway. So I did have about 4 personal invitations for swim lessons and technique assistants after that swim. So I obviously looked like shit, dude. Yeah, it was interesting. It was interesting. Well, I tell you what, you could tell that he was working hard and yeah, it was pretty intense. So all of us down there had been in the water but not for quite as long as Duncan managed. So I suppose the question that asked lots of other people and to you, it's a bit crazy this ice swimming. Yeah, little bits. I think no more crazy than your skydiving days or I don't know racing motorbikes and I'm to track whatever the case might be. It probably looks more risky than what it actually is. But yeah, I guess just a little bit of a, I mean, for example, my wife doesn't understand. She's like, I don't know what the hell you're doing. That's just super crazy. I don't even think she knows that I sort of swam a little record there. She's not interested at all. But, um, so I did a swim with, with Rambarkai, who's the founder of International Art Swimming Association back in, I checked the dates other day, 2013. And there was done in Fraserburg in South Africa. And that was my little, there was a 500 meter swim in the back of some farmer dude's land and some brown looking water. It's not kept mountains in the background. And there was just something that's like addictive about it, right? It's, I'm not a sort of techie guy like, like, you're away. But there's something about it, endorphins, energy release. Something about pushing your body to the max and that recovery process that just makes you feel like super alive. And, you know, it's addictive. So yeah, you want to go back. So straight afterwards, you're like, hell no, I'm never going to go back and do that stupid thing again. But give it a week or two and you're really considering what the next swim looks like. And yeah, emigrated to New Zealand in 2018 and had a chat with Roger Solz, we had that stage saying, oh, what's happening? Where's some cold water on the island? And before we know it, or before we knew it, we had ice swimming New Zealand and we had a couple of national events. This is, I think, the fourth national event that we've had. You're the treasurer, so you'll know the dates better than me. But yeah, pretty, pretty cool to see the uptake with all of the people. Some super crazies out there. We've met some amazing people at both sort of in inverted commas, normal people. And then other guys, you know, Mary Fisher as an example who I met for the first time last week, who's a blind swimmer swimming in the ice. I mean, you know, if you think what I've done is crazy, what she's done is crazy Tom's team, right? So cool, cool people. There's some cool people. Okay, so what we've got is a couple of short little snippets from some people that we meet down there. Hopefully you'll enjoy it. Here we go. I think we'll start up with Karen. Super cool. All right. So can you tell me your name and where you from? My name is Karim Rostami and I'm from Auckland. But your name Karim, you're not originally from New Zealand, is that correct? No, I'm originally from Kabul, Afghanistan, but I call New Zealand home in the last 24 years. Oh, that's that's wonderful. So ice swimming is a bit crazy, don't you think? Absolutely. I think you got to be, it's one of those things is just kind of like it's next level. It's hard to put them on words. It's hard to explain. You got to be inside to feel it. It's one of those things. I don't think the word can describe it. Cool. But why do you do it? That's a good question. Everybody got up. They're wise in their life and everybody got their own targets in life. My why is why not? And my why is always says that there's is I want to spy out of people because I'm not a six foot four and a super duper and build up anything. I'm a foot four nothing and with a disability and I come out here, freeze my things off, aim to for that target is one target and only target the spotted people to look at it and to say if this guy can do it, I can do better than him. All I want to do that. Well, I think that you're inspiring. Swimming in this is hard enough without a disability. So wonderful good work, Karim. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks very much. Right. So what's your name and where you from? Hi, I'm Peter Bradley. I'm from a place called Galaghanbone in Central West New South Wales, Australia. All the way from Australia to Swimming New Zealand. Awesome. Yeah, and I'm Ben Clivell. I'm from Australia as well. And I'm from a little town called Broken Hill, which is about 14 or 14 hours west of Sydney. That's awesome. So isn't ice swimming a bit crazy? How come you guys have come all the way from Australia to come and swim in really cold water in New Zealand? Well, there's not many places that get this cold as what the water is here today, but it's the community, the competition and that's what keeps us coming back. Yeah, and I got into ice swimming through Peter, my friend here and she's an accomplished ice swimmer in her own right. And I like the cold water, but Peter just said to me, do you want to take it to the next level and go ice? And I said, yeah, okay, so that was going to be my next question is the way you do it. So you really like cold water? I look like I do and I like it for my own mental health reasons. I like it because it allows my brain to slow down, which is something that I suffer with. My brain's on the go the whole time. And when I get in the cold water, it's the one time during the day when I can see clearly. My brain is clear and the ice water, I guess is the next level of that. That's awesome. And yourself, Peter? Yeah, I think it's the rush that I get afterwards and being able to train and have something to work towards and a goal is a really important part of my life. And the ice swimming enables that and the ice swimming community really, I guess, empowers that. That's awesome. Thanks very much. Thanks, Peter. Thank you. I'm here with Jackson. So Jackson, tell me a little bit who you are and where you're from. My name is Jackson Arledge. I'm currently living in Wellington. I have a fairly decent pool swimming background when I was a teenager. But yeah, now we're here swimming in the ice. Well, that's awesome. So tell me, you're done here at the ice swimming champs. Isn't ice swimming crazy? Isn't it a bit stupid? A little bit, but it's very controlled. It's very safe. We've got lots of support people looking after us. And it's a great different challenge. Yeah, I really enjoy it. And why is it that you decided to do some of this really cold swimming? Because Alicia is a crazy person in Twisted Ebron's arm in Wellington that she could come last year for the first time and caught the bug and some come back. That's awesome. Thanks, Jackson. Yeah, yeah, I'm kind of a pure precious sucker too. What's your name and where are you from? I'm Waping Tube and I'm from Malaysia originally, but I live in New Zealand now in Christchurch. And that's my home now. And yeah, wonderful. So this ice swimming is quite, quite out there and a bit crazy, don't you think? Yes, it is. Everyone's been telling me, oh, you're doing ice swimming. You must be crazy. Everyone's like, oh my goodness, that's next level of craziness. Because you don't get ice swimming in Malaysia, I don't think? No, no, Malaysia is like a tropical country. And so, yeah, I think I might be the only Malaysian that's doing ice swimming at the moment. There is, there is another Malaysian member on the Isah website, but he's a warm member. So he hasn't had any experience in the cold water yet. So you've got Malaysian records all over, haven't you? Yeah. Yeah, just participate and you've got Malaysian records. I like that. That's great. So tell me why is it that you do? Because this is not your first time you keep coming back in, coming back in, coming back in. Yeah, it's like a full punishment. Because I, yeah, I just want that challenge and pushing myself and like, because when someone said, because I like trying new things, that's it. And like, and then someone was saying, Oh, open water swimming. And then I tried that and it was terrible because I need to be rescued. Someone had to take me out of the water. Because I said, okay, I'll do the fit and able 500 meter open water swim. And then I'm like, hidden first time in the open water. Can't see the bottom panic. And I'm like, do doggy pedal in it. I can't do it. And then I put my hand up. Take me out of the water. And then it took me about maybe a year and a half to get comfortable open water swimming. And then this group of friends said, I swim with the contemporary open water swimmers, the causes. They were introducing like ice swimming as well. And then they were talking about the ice now. And I'm like, should I try that? Give it a go. And then I thought, okay, we'll just do one year, a little bit at a time. And see how I go. That's good. So you've got a really good community of swimmers that the contemporary open water swimmers. Yes, yes. So I swim with a group of people. There's a group chat. We call ourselves the sunrise swimmers. And we swim before work on the weekdays, like Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, sometimes Friday. And then Saturday afternoon. And yeah, and then sometimes I swim with Lake Ruay. There's another group that swims in Christchurch as well. And we just swims on Sunday or Saturday here. I have a very quick question wrapping. You're a dentist, right? Yes, I'm a dentist. What is worse, am I small or too thick? I think too thick. Yeah, yeah. That's also waping. Thank you so much for talking to us. Yes, thank you. So Jim, your first experience with ice swimming was you came down to Lake Linden probably three years ago to assist us as a safety officer. You were working on an IRB looking at David Hasselhoff just with articles coming down on your ears and on your mustache. And I think we twisted your arm and sort of chucked you in. You did 20, 30 meters with no swim cap, no goggles. And since then, you've done two by one kilometers in the past, the latest of which was last week, in Alex in the pool, one kilometer in just over two degrees Celsius. Now it's much more to us you, Mr Clevardick. Why? Well, that's interesting. I've been thinking about it. I like to tell lots of people that I'm a sucker for peer pressure and that I do things because everyone torments me into doing it. But when I really get down to it, I'm a very social swimmer. I really enjoy swimming with people and the cold water swimmers are some of the best people around. I had such a fantastic time. Every time I go away to one of these ice swimming events. But I also get complete buzz out of doing the swim. While I might find like many people getting in the water is pretty hard. After about 10 minutes, it feels absolutely wonderful. And then as you sort of come through and get through the recovery, it also feels wonderful. I think one of the other reasons I do it is I really like challenging myself. I think that there's a bit of a, it's very easy to get very comfortable in this modern day and age. If you go back probably even a hundred years ago, our ancestors just weren't able just to be warm all the time and well fed all the time. And I think that just pushing yourself out and looking for areas where you can challenge yourself certainly helps me mentally. I feel like a bit of a better person if I think I've done something that's challenging. So there's definitely that part of it as well. So basically what you're saying is all the guys you work with are a bunch of horses. Yeah. How about the guys you work with? Yeah, definitely a bunch of horses. Other than those guys that still run and do all kinds of other crazy things. But I think in general society is just got too comfortable and I think that it's not good for our mental health and it's not good for our physical health. So that's amazing. I move my teeth definitely good for you. I just feel so much better when I've just even if it's cut in the grass or do something like it doesn't have to be like full on running or swimming or something like this movement is really cool. So yeah, that's kind of my way. So tell me in the kilometre, so you get in and it's obviously a bit of a shock to your system, right? You sort of take a couple of big breaths. If you're like me that first length or two is quite sort of quite tough, you know, you struggling to adjust your breathing's quite shallow. And then you find a bit of a rhythm. You hinted at it a little bit earlier. After that initial sort of panic top snow, you sort of feel really good. What happens after that? So I was very conscious of that I hadn't swam in water that cold before. And one of the other swimmers, Sue, she was really good in that she pulled the pin on her swim at the right time. She's clever. She's clever. So what I did was I sort of set myself in an initial target of half a kilometre. And after that, as I approached the end of the pool finishing every every 50, I mentally gave myself permission to stop. And then as I as I touched the wall, I gave, I said, I can do another 50. And that's the way that I dealt with it. I just kept on considering should I stop. And then I felt, you know, how did I feel? And I felt like you did a little bit of a self-analysis and made sure you were still in good shape and fit to continue. Which I think is quite important when you can stop. Yeah, I was able to think, you know, so I'm very aware that when people get really cold, you know, your ability to think really reduces. So I was trying to sort of check that out and trying to keep my counting of length going, et cetera, et cetera. So that's how I kept on going. Okay. So for me as well, what worked quite nicely, we had Aussie Joy. And we will get Joy onto this podcast at some point in time and talk about the amazing strong experiences that she offers on Kepel Island in Australia, separate chat. But long story short, she was the sort of safety on-deck person when a big ass yellow, sorry, orange, flora orange jacket. And I felt massive comfort in watching her walk up and down the pool right next to me, just watching my strokes, looking at my eyes towards the end of my swim. She was asking me a couple of questions, you know, what is your first born, what is name blah blah blah. So I was quite comfortable that I could just continue and I was in good hands, you know. All right. So tell me what's your name and where you from? I'm Bethany Rodgers. I'm originally from the UK, but I've been living in Queenstown for more than a decade now. Oh, that's awesome. So, this ice swimming is a bit crazy, isn't it? What do you think? Yeah, it's mad, but I love it. I guess you love it, but why do you do it? What got you into this? I started out swimming without a wetsuit in Lake Rockative, in Queenstown just because I was too stingy to buy one. I thought they were quite expensive. And then when I learned it was a sport from my friend Rachel, I was like, actually, this is quite cool. There's other people who always swim without wetsuits. And yeah, I got training from there. Did the open water at St. Bathons last year? Really enjoyed it. So I thought I'd come back and try the pool version. Oh, cool. How far did you go in the open water? I did a thousand last year. I did my first one, K. That's awesome. And now you're at the pool champs and it's butterfly coming up, I understand. It is, yes. 100 meters fly this afternoon. 100 meters fly in really cold water. You got to be crazy. Definitely. Yeah, I'm quite excited, but really know this. Oh, that's awesome. Thanks for talking to us, Bethany. Appreciate it. Thank you. Good to talk to you. Right. What's your name and where are you from? I'm Cameron Stanley, and I live in Queensbury, which is near Wanaka. That's awesome. So you've just done a 500 meter ice swim. Isn't that a bit crazy? Yeah, I'm questioning my own sanity at the moment, probably, especially in 2.1 degrees, but it's pretty awesome to get to the end of it. Yeah, you did an awesome swim there. So tell me why did you do it? I sort of initially got roped into this competition by Belinda Donaldson, who heard about it, and then convinced Laura Quilter to do it, who then convinced me to do it to have someone else to do it with. And then once I sort of just made the decision to enter, I was like, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it properly. So I did a bit of training and sort of like the idea of the challenge, and yeah, here I am. That's awesome. You're going to do it again? Yeah, I could be back. We'll see. We'll see how it goes. Yeah, it's more the training that puts me off. I like being here. It's great atmosphere, great people, and yeah, really cool thing to be a part of. How was your recovery? Better than expected today, a little bit of shivering, but actually better than the 250. I think in the 250, I went out of it too hard. I got a really tight chest. I tried to push, I get really bad brain threes, and I tried to push through them, keep swimming freestyle, and I got really dizzy and sore on the head. Whereas today I took it a bit easier, relaxed and sort of a bit more, did some backstroke, and yeah, it was a lot better actually. Sorry. Yeah, awesome. Thanks for that, Cameron. Really appreciate it. Right, hi. Tell me what's your name? Where are you from? My name's Madeline Hobo. I'm 16, and I'm from the Nackie. From the Nackie? Awesome. And you're down here at the ice swimming championships, isn't that a bit crazy? Yeah, definitely, but I think it's full of good vibes, and we're all having a go, so it's really cool to be here. Cool. And you know, you're probably one of the younger people here, so why are you doing this? I've always had a bit of an aptitude for cold water swimming, and I love to do swimming outdoors, so it's cool to be in an outdoor pool and do the training and the lakes and stuff, and I'm just, yeah, it's a good challenge, I guess. Yeah, there's a couple of other young people around as well, so you're having a good bit of competition with the others? Oh, yeah, definitely. The Alexandra locals are really giving me a run for my money. So you're quite competitive with the best of times, are you? Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, it depends. Oh, yeah. And in the longer freestyle races, they definitely wanted a champion, though, so yeah, focusing on those. That's awesome. Okay, well, thanks so much for talking to us, Madeleine. Thank you. Okay, so tell me your name and where you're from? Brent Bothel, I'm from Blenheim and Lovely Marbra. That's wonderful. Now, the ice swimming is a bit crazy, don't you think? Yes, well, it's not crazy to me. You mention it to the staff at the supermarket when you go, you know, pick up a bit of shopping, and they all think you're completely mad, but for us as a group of people, it's not. You know, we love it. We love it. That's great. And why is it that you got into, well, why do you do the swimming? Well, to explain it quickly that it's a bit of a long story, I've always been around water, but about six years ago, a friend of mine who's done a few eye men's, he started cold showers. I was on holiday in Australia back to visit some friends because I live there. And he said, I've started cold showers. I'll challenge you to see who can do cold showers for the longest. So he lasted three months, and then I've got a message, I've had a hot shower. Okay, that means you'll find, and I thought, well, what do I do? And I means challenge me to this. I'm an amputee, I've got weak legs, but I can probably beat him at this. I went a whole year so I could send one text message to him to say, I did a year. And then I thought, maybe I can do two, and it went from there. That's amazing. So you are quite inspirational. As you said, you're an amputee. Yep. And you're sitting there competing with a whole bunch of able-bodied swimmers. Yep. Yep. You are inspirational. I've got to say, how does it feel just being part of the record? To be the first New Zealand amputee ice swimmer, compared to it was a special thing, first, first, a special, and then this event being a sudden hemisphere competition, I get to be the first amputee to compete at this level, and a number of events is pretty special to me. Yeah, it's really good. Brent, you're an inspiration to all of us. Oh. Thanks so much for talking to us. Oh, no, thank you, and thanks for all you do here, and thanks to everyone that helps out, it's a really special thing for me to be involved with. Awesome. Thank you. Yes, so that was Brent, what a legend. He won a clever Dix Award for, it was the Swimmers Choice Award for Perseverance and Humility. So Brent, again, did, I've learned a little bit about myself, but I've learned so much about, sort of, just people in general from you. Did you, you definitely inspired me and had Swarthman? He's way tougher than you, Jim. Wow, that's fine, because almost everybody there was tougher than me. Yeah, so we had a really great time. I just wanted to have a shout out, because a lot of people think it's all about the Swimmers, but what we had was just a wonderful community. We had a lot of supporters who, you know, every swimmer when they came out, especially if they'd done a longer swim, they had a buddy just to make sure that they could get dressed and get warmed. But we had people just volunteering and putting their hands up, and if they weren't doing that, they were manning the stopwatches and helping marshaling and just holding towels and coats for people in the doors, helping people get dressed. Yeah, putting underpants on all sorts of stuff. And we had a number of people just really focused on safety. You mentioned joy, but we also had lean, and you were in and a couple of people who were just there to make sure that we were safe. And the last bit was we had an amazing team in the medical tent. We had Aunty Meg. We had Aunty Meg and Bri, Bri was just, she was tough as Duncan comes along after his swim and she takes a look at all the clothes that he's put there and she threw them almost in the bin and said those are just not acceptable. What's this cotton shit? What's this cotton stuff? Just strip him down and put him naked in that bed, we'll put, we'll put stuff around him. And then we had the doctors, Dagmar and Karin as well. So, you know, we were super well looked after. People were filling water bottles, hot water bottles for us. Yeah, I think they fell on the coffees and soups. So, that's why I think all of the swimmers there were able to push their limits because they knew that there was sufficient people around there to get their backs. And people like Joey also knew when to tell people to stop swimming when they were getting a bit too close to their limits. So, I just had a big shout out to everybody who was there. Nobody needed to be coerced to do things that everyone just helped out. It was a, it was a really great event. And linked to that, there was a, I mean, obviously, it's a tiny little event and every cent helps. And there was a couple of guys, a couple of sponsors that did really go out of their way to assist us. Swim T3, as per normal, is always helping us out. I think again, Zogs did all of our caps for us, the silicone caps as a sponsorship. Zogs, for me, any time I dropped them along and asked them to help, they are involved. And they just happened to have the best goggles in the world as well. The Alex Pool & Nature Centre, as a whole, is an amazing centre. The staff there literally bent over backwards to make more of it. Yeah, just jumping in. I tell you what, there was, we just got made. Yeah. So, welcome. Sort of, one day we muttered, where's the coffee? The next thing, the next day, there's a coffee cutout. Damn, yeah. Damn, Jim, yeah. Coffee cut, which was amazing. Point Chef Cafe, which is owned by Karim, one of the swimmers, assisted with, with quite a lot of bits and pieces as well. If you're in Auckland, popping to Point Chef Cafe, I can vouch for it. It's really really awesome. Malford Pizza, go the way a couple of vouchers, one's royal, gave us some equipment to help the event happen. So, big gazebo's, prizes, they were really involved in all those bits and pieces. Toasty life, I don't know if you know them, you all know them, Jim, but if the listeners don't know them, they are super thick, chunky, I guess, winter top jackets that you could wear in the snow and ask from the events, after an ocean swim, etc. They are amazing. Look, they're mapped. I got one of their pennies. It was so hot. I couldn't keep it on. Legions, legends, legends. And then I guess, again, a president of us, New Zealand Roger, gives up massive amounts of his time. Thank you, Roger, you're a legend. When I'm big and old, I want to be like, you're accepting for the eyebrows, and I want the eyebrows, but you've got bigger eyebrows. So, you're a legend, you give away time and more time and more time. And then you still kick us in from 2.1 kilometres, which is just ridiculous. And then, yeah, I guess, Jim, what's next is the guys are putting together a team for World Champs. Yeah, after Malfino in Italy, in January 2025. So, the Kiwis will be representing over there. Hopefully, some of the Aussies are going to put a bit of a team together. They were there last time. Yeah, I think the Aussies were pretty sucked up. So, there's at least, I don't know, three, four, five of them that would have qualified at our event. So, yeah. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Yeah, man. So, I guess the last thing, Jim, is if anybody is interested in ice swimming, there's a really great community in New Zealand that are supportive for newbies and will always put safety first. And I reckon the best place to contact them is at iceswimmingnz at gmail.com, or alternatively drop us a note on our Instagram accounts or on this podcast and get involved. And if you're listening to this outside of New Zealand, you can just go to the international iceswimming.com website that's ice surf. They've got, you can find links to all of the countries that get involved and you'll be able to get some local contacts if that's what interests you. Yeah, and hopefully the next time we do a podcast, I'll be able to film our fingertips. I'm still getting there. I'm not quite there yet. Why would it bother still a little bit numbers well? Okay, see you guys in the water. Cheers everybody.