Fall Swimming

I have mentioned this before but we have been going fall swimming lately. We being my host mother and I and occasionally our neighbor will also come along. Since I have swimming training on most of the days that the sauna is open, I am only able to go swimming in the ocean with the sauna on Saturdays and Sundays. And every week the water gets colder. Today it was 10 degrees, Celsius.

Going swimming in winter in an ice hole is a very old finnish tradition. It probably started when the first sauna was invented and that was a long time ago. Now, it isn't a hole in the ice yet, but it is certainly on it's way! The water is getting colder and colder every week. Right now it is still "Fall swimming" but I can't wait for it to be winter swimming with ice.

Now, you may ask, why on earth would anybody ever, ever want to go swimming in a hole in the ice, in the middle of the winter. Well, yes when you are all warm and then you get into a bathing suit and then the walk out onto the pier where the stair cases into the literally freezing water and then getting in and then swimming around.

It is quite....cold.

And when you are walking into the water from one of the staircases on the pier and the water feels like knives and well, It isn't actually very enjoyable to do that part.

So why?

Well, after you get out of the water and then sprint back up the pier to the sauna that is an average of 75 degrees (Celsius) You are still cold for several minutes and then as you gradually get warmer from the sauna, you start to feel really really good.  And after you have been in the sauna until the point where it is feeling like too much, you go out into the air that feels really cold before, and then it feels so nice after the sauna. And you are steaming which looks very cool. Overall the entire process is quite fun.

For that reason and the reason that you can say that you have done it.


I plan to have some pictures up concerning this in the future.