Louis Pugh, one of the cold water greats, swimming in Antarctica!
So several people have asked me about the weather tomorrow as it is supposed to be 30C and possible thunderstorms… are we going to cancel? When would we cancel a swim?
Of course the number one priority is safety, and we will cancel if it is unsafe.
Having said that, in 11 years of Saturday morning swims we’ve never cancelled a swim.
Ok… I’ll cancel it if it gets this cold!
I’ve had a few Saturday mornings when I get of bed and look out the window and say “nobody is going to show up, it’s (raining, windy, cold, foggy, etc)… but I should show up just in case… and it ends up with a ton of people and we get a nice swim in anyway! We’ve swum in the rain a few times… but fortunately we were wet already anyway! Swimming in the fog is really cool too… I believe only once, in 11 years, did we cut a swim short because of lightning. Forecasts are a crap shoot, and all we need is an hour or so, and we almost always get it!
To be honest, it is the water temperature and the waves that are bigger factors in how long we swim. Again, I don’t think we’ve ever not swum because of water temp… just had shorter swims. Even when the water is “stupid cold” or there are big waves we usually get a bit of a swim in, we just cut it a bit shorter. We still err on the side of safety… and we’ll show you how to swim safely in these types of conditions.
So the long and short of it is… “this is open water swimming… and you get what you get!”
I’ll see you on the beach tomorrow at 8:00!
PS. we are always happy to have more spotters out in kayaks and on paddleboards! So bring your spouse and a kayak or paddleboard if you have either! haha. (I know Mike and Dylan are away tomorrow, so the more the merrier!)
Cheers,
Rob
How cold could it be? (Lake Ontario, Kent kids, Feb 2007)