I do suffer with depression so I can use this as a reason to go.

I always got a bit of a high as I said when I was going before and it was very different from going in an indoor pool. I dont think I can use an indoor pool anymore having experienced the sea properly (albeit in a pool)

I went June to October this year and had really hoped to do it throughout the year but it got too dark after work to go, theres no lights down there.

Of course

I saw a programme where a doctor actually 'prescribed' it for one lady who was depressed, which is why I mentioned that.


And if it works for depression then it makes everyone else just feel BETTER.

Takes a bit of discipline to do it though, I would think.

Our Lido is only open May to October, although there are pools on the shore, but as you say, very dark, and not much chance to do it if you work full time.

Whereabouts in the country are you two?

South West coast.

Do you have to pay for your lido?


I know there is one further up the coast at Faversham but you have to pay and it sonly open in the summer but I think its heated a bit.

On the assumption that by South West Coast, they mean e.g. Brixham, Devon, that's got to be 200 miles give or take, so it'd be a bit more than further up the coast!

Im talking about further up the coast from me.

No way.

I went in the sea off the Kerry coast once.

It was midsummer, and the sea - or, to be more accurate, - Atlantic Ocean, was supposedly warmed by the Gulf Stream. Nope!

Absolutely freezing and not something I have had any desire to repeat.

One of my sons had a dip along the coast at Westgate on Boxing day a couple of years ago.

That was to win a ten pound bet though and not for any health benefits. It took him several hours for his legs to change back to pink from blue.

I'm near the coast in the NE. In the winter the lovely man I mentioned rides down to the beach on his bike. He lights a fire on the beach next to the pier wall before he goes for his swim then gets dried next to it and has a cuppa and sandwiches. It's quite a ritual.

NE!!

On the twitter page for our pool, someone posted a little film of a man swimming in freezing fog somewhere up north the other day, Proper swimming he was doing, with head under water and everything.

Did he enjoy it though?

He did, but not enough to want to repeat it outside of the summer months.

yeah probably wouldn't

I think the Faversham one is a heated outdoor pool. At least it was when I went in it about five thousand years ago.

My Lido charges, but you can get an all summer season ticket for forty quid, which isn't bad.

And the old pools in the rocks are free, so I'll have a look.

The old ladies swim in the actual sea off a small beach a bit round the coast. But you have to go at the right time, high tide, and that can make it a bit difficult.

Hell, no! New Year's Day is bad enough as it is, why would I make it worse by getting in the freezing cold sea!

Well done OP for giving it a go though - make sure you come back and update this thread tomorrow after you've thawed out!

We're going to have breakfast beforehand and then take flasks of tea with us.

I dont know what to do about getting changed, we normally dont and just drive home wet and change in the hallway, but driving home in freezing weather in wet swim stuff, I dont know

Hypothermic sort of ill, it's really fortunate that several of them had gone together, I think if one had been on their own they would have got into serious trouble. One of my friends who'd gone (and tried to persuade me to go with them - no chance!) when they returned to school said they had never felt so bad, they'd been up all night screaming in pain and so had many of the others. It was such a stupid foolish thing to do, especially as that part of the river was notoriously deep and dangerous. You couldn't even lower yourself in gradually to adjust as the river is below high rocks both sides, the only way in is to jump. I lost my dog's frisbee in a much shallower river back in the summer, I waded in to fetch it as it wasn't far , and even then the water was unbearably freezing cold and I was in pain when I got out , I can only imagine what it would have been like to be completely submerged in it in the depths of January.

I hurt just reading this!

Only if it's suddenly 25C and sunny

I'm going to watch them in saundersfoot

Over 1500 entered last year !

http://www.itv.com/news/wales/2016-0...ears-day-swim/

Yeah but surely that only happens if you fully immerse very suddenly i.e you gasp from the cold, take in water and drown.

Most people will be prancing in the shallows.

Edited.

Dear god, I can now report back on my travails this morning.

I didnt think I was going to do it, I was still in bed at 9.30 and really tired and low and didnt want to go anywhere, just back to sleep. However OH was being hyper about it, so I just got my swimming stuff on and went.

I cant really explain the coldness of the water without using expletives. I queued up on the wall letting other people go first because even in warm weather it takes me ages to get in, I hang on to the ladder for ages, however today there was no chance to do that because otherwise you block up the ladder for people wanting (and needing) to get out so I had to get in quicker than I normally do.

I then hung on to the side of the ladder wondering what on earth was going on with my head and realised after that I was hyperventilating, I just couldnt control my breathing, I heard this also happening to someone else and the advice to her was to try to breath out (your body keeps gasping). I then got lightheaded and I thought I was going to be sick with all these people around me.

OH got in and seemed ok but he was in a wet suit. I was trying to kick my legs out to warm them out but it was stinging too much so I just clung onto the ladder rather than swimming but I was fully submerged.

And to answer a query above, no most people werent paddling in the shallows, unfortunately the way the pool is, its not comfortable to walk in from the beach, too rocky and slippery. A few people do but most people go in via the ladders.

There were plenty of people jumping in, I just dont know how they did it.

Anyway, my breath calmed down and I decided that I'd done my bit so got out. I thought my legs were going to give way walking back to our stuff. And because it was so busy we had to park up on the cliff and our bodies were stinging walking back in the air.

Someone said that the Telegraph is going to be there today. There were lots of people taking pictures, mainly people on the promenade all dressed up properly for winter.

However, Im thinking about doing it again tomorrow!

This was in the Telegraph yesterday about the pool and the benefits of cold water swimming

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/wellbeing...ge-sea-should/