You don’t need to travel to find extreme environments, says Simon Griffiths

Winter swimming may feel familiar, accessible and fun, but cold water is an extreme environment wherever you encounter it. Simon Griffiths explains why we should never let familiarity breed complacency – and how understanding the risks can help us enjoy winter swimming safely.

One of the biggest changes we’ve seen in the 15 years of running Outdoor Swimmer is the growth in popularity of outdoor winter swimming. A niche activity for eccentrics has become mainstream.

For many people, winter swimming has been lifechanging, in a positive way. It brings fun, excitement, adventure and connection into the darkest months of the year. It’s also a great leveller. Traditionally revered swimming abilities of speed or endurance count for little during short winter plunges. In my swimming group, we often split into sub-groups in the summer, depending on how far or fast we want to swim. In the winter, we all come together. And it’s all shrieks, smiles and laughter.

But the fun people are having with winter swimming disguises that cold water is an extreme environment. Just because it’s our local lake, beach or lido doesn’t make it less extreme. You don’t have to follow Lewis Pugh to the Arctic or a highaltitude lake on Everest to be in a dangerous location.

I’m sure Outdoor Swimmer readers here are already familiar with the risks of cold water including cold water shock, swim failure, non-freezing cold injury, hypothermia and afterdrop. But not everyone is, and I suspect that not everyone takes them as seriously as they should do. Also, the fact that so many people now swim outdoors in winter can breed complacency.

I’ll give an example from my own experience.

When I started cold water swimming, I was pleasantly surprised to see how quickly I got used to getting into cold water. The cold water shock response diminishes significantly after just a few exposures. The trouble is, this can fool you into thinking you can cope with the cold better than you previously thought – at least, it fooled me. This led me to start testing how long I could stay in the water.

Luckily, apart from a couple of prolonged post-swim shivering spells, nothing bad happened. And I soon learned that you get all the fun and benefits of winter swimming from a short dip, and avoid the more unpleasant side of afterdrop. But I have seen people flirting dangerously with hypothermia. It’s not something I recommend.

I don’t want to spoil anyone’s winter swimming fun. But we do need to remind ourselves that those idyllic spots where we lounged in the water for hours in the summer are potentially lethal in the winter.

Winter swimming is an extreme activity in a dangerous environment disguised as something fun and accessible. What’s more, some beaches and lakes have poor phone connection and limited vehicle access. If something did go wrong, you might not be able to get help.

If you understand the risks and how to manage them, winter swimming is fun, rewarding and safe. But the consequences if something goes wrong are severe. Please therefore always give yourself a large margin for error, have an emergency plan so you know what to do if things do go wrong, and don’t mistake a familiar environment for a safe one.