The day I found my cold-water edge.

How cold is too cold to swim? I’ll tell you a story about arriving at my limit and finding my edge. 

I swam at least once a week throughout the summer, the autumn and into the winter. Each time temperatures gently dipping. Every week I would arrive at the beach a little anxious, a little excited.

I found my edge on a beautiful morning in December. I met my friends on our usual beach. There was no breeze and a big gentle sun hung above a glorious  flat dark-blue sea. I got changed on the beach as normal, put on my swimming hat, goggles and snapped on my tow float. We skated over the rolling pebbles to meet the sea. I usually walk in slowly, I like to take my time, whilst chatting to fellow swimmers as we manoeuvre ourselves in and submerge. The water reached my ankles and instead of me thinking ‘Blimey, that’s cold!’, my head said ‘Blimey, that’s icy!’ 

Icy is different. Icy hurts.

My friends maintained progress into the sea, and I froze (literally) at mid-calf.  I left the water and walked back up the beach.

There it was. 

My limit. 

My edge. 

I had found it.

A line of cold I was unable to cross.  

Another small wave of swimmy friends were now ready to make their way down to the water’s edge. I declared the end, and they invited me to walk down, back into the water with them. I did, to my knees. Again, they gently entered the water, exclaimed the cold – as is traditional – and got in. I was incredulous! It was just too cold. How were they doing it? This was another failed attempt before I decided that I would very much like to swim, so I swore and cursed – to my very best abilities – and encouraged myself into the water. I swam. 

I have swum in much colder water and haven’t met my edge since – oh I’m sure I will! Of course I’ve been to the sea a few times and declared a no swim because of the conditions, and there have been plenty of times when I’ve been invited for a swim and haven’t gone because I didn’t feel like it, couldn’t face it or didn’t want to take my socks off.

My lesson. You might one day decide the water is just too cold and call a halt to your swims. I ask you not to write it off. It might just be you, on that date, at that time. There are so many reasons as to why sometimes the cold water is just too cold (and I’m not just talking temperature).

• The air temperature, wind or lack of sun
• What you’ve had to eat or drink
• Your emotional, mental or hormonal state.
• A lack of sleep
• Your physical state, could you be coming down with something?
• Your body warmth prior to the swim

Perhaps I shouldn’t have swum that day. There might have been a good reason my body wasn’t happy entering that icy sea, or maybe I did just need to talk myself in. 

Keep safe, try not to swim alone, prepare, listen to your body and know your limits and your water.

Outdoor Swim Society has the best advice. Here’s some reading on cold water.