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 Near-freezing Temperatures Over Years. We Spoke To Ryan Stramrood, Who – Among Various Other Frosty Challenges – Has Swum From Robben Island To Blouberg 100 Times.

- Jazz Kuschke

Immersing yourself in water just the right side of ice triggers involuntary physiological and psychological reactions. 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 sensation of being in an unquestionably hostile environment, can result in genuine terror. Your breath escapes you, try as you might to 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 of panic,” says Jeremy Laming, an international 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…”

Chills And Thrills

“Panic comes into it for sure. Swimming in cold water is not only exhilarating – it can also be extremely challenging,” agrees cold-water swimmer Ryan Stramrood.

Stramrood has not only crossed from Robben Island to the African mainland 100 times (so far), but has also swum solo across the notorious English Channel; swum the first official “Ice Mile” in -1°C water in Antarctica, with a team of South Africans; completed the world’s first swim around Cape Horn, the southernmost tip of South America; and – again, with some extreme friends – was the first South African male to swim from Europe to Africa across the Straits of Gibraltar.

Impressive feats under any conditions; but even more so when you consider that coldwater zealots like Stramrood don’t do wetsuits – he swam all of his epic swims in just a pair of tight swimming skins, a cap, and goggles.