PHiSH tales

PHiSH, the annual, invite-only cold-water swimming event, ended on a high with swimmers wanting more. Ella Foote reports.

It is January, grey cloud hangs over a crowd of people and a steel-lined pool. Air temperature is hovering around 4 degrees Celsius, the water the same. The stark 1930s concrete design of the pool area makes it feel even colder.

Yet, despite this, I am warm – glowing even. I have massive smile on my face, watching the ever-popular Almost Synchro team in a mix of bright green swimsuits, with bright yellow and orange hats. They are performing to Walking on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves. It occurs to me how obscure this moment is but all who smile, whoop and clap in return are collectively with me. I am at PHiSH – the Parliament Hill Ice Swim Hootenanny. It is the tenth and final year of this special event.

“It is basically and pool party loosely masquerading as a swim gala,” says Jeremy Irvine, who originally set up the event in 2014 with his pal John Donald. I remember the first event well. I had only known John and Jeremy about a year when I found myself pulled into an unused community room at Parliament Hill Lido to discuss the event idea with a handful of lido locals. Much of the success of the event is down to both John and Jeremy, an almost comedy duo, nothing alike in their approach. Jeremy would humbly say it is down to the volunteers, many who have been to every PHiSH event since its inception.

“There isn’t one thing that makes our event special,” says Jeremy. “It is a combination of races, the team at the lido who keep us safe and the swimmers who come year after year.”

The event has always been exclusive, operating on an invite-only system, which has been criticised some years but makes it more appealing, a bit silly and, more importantly, safer. In 2014 the swimmers were a mix of people Jeremy and John had met while swimming at other events, friends of friends. “We wanted to invite all sorts of swimmers, but keep numbers down and keep risk low,” says Jeremy.

“We were very dependent on the team and lifeguards at the lido to allow the event to happen each year and they wanted the right crowd who would respect the water and temperatures.” This unique system has seen the event grow from around 100 swimmers to 310 this year. Keeping the event small has meant that they have avoided any issues or emergencies.

The first event had the basics: two distance races for individuals ran in heats, a set of relay swims and an endurance event. You could get a t-shirt and swim hat while friends and family supported by cooking bacon baps, putting up changing gazebos and putting times into spreadsheets. In January 2015, John came up with a simple shed-like sauna that was thrown up overnight and became a popular fixture at the lido.

In 2018, Jeremy built a temporary hot tub, which is more like a pool you might find in someone’s back garden. It meant swimmers had two places to warm up after their race, but equally became a great viewing spot and created a sort-of swimmer soup steaming behind the main event.

This year’s event had many swimmers returning like they have done every year for the past decade, but there were also swimmers who had returned after a break from the event, myself included. It was joyful to see how much had changed and yet nothing had changed much at all.

Of course, what makes PHiSH special is the swimmers. Seeing people from all corners of the UK and in some cases, across the world, turn up and perform in those temperatures is still impressive.

“There is something magical about racing,” says Jeremy. “People of all ages and abilities
have raced at PHiSH and they have all been equally cheered and congratulated no matter which place they finish.”

PHiSH still offered the individual races but over the years has added new and varying challenges, like Dread the Tread, a two-person relay where one swims while the other treads water. Relay teams flock to the pool like, well, swimmers, with silly names and inventive attire. There is still a competitive element and the endurance swim is mesmerising as ever with swimmers completing ten lengths of the 61m pool plus whatever the temperature of the pool is, so this year 14 lengths. I took part in the 244m individual race and discovered I am almost a minute slower than I was ten years ago!

“It has been a blast, a real-deal secret cold swimming event,” says Jeremy. “We have hosted the loveliest people from the world of ice swimming. Lasting memories have been made!”