Most people will wait until summer to swim outdoors. But there’s a dedicated community of Northeast Ohioans who enjoy winter dips in icy water.
On a recent, partly sunny day in Bentleyville, with an air temperature of 28 degrees Fahrenheit and water temperature near freezing, about a dozen people in their bathing suits walked in their bare feet across the snow and waded into the Chagrin River at the base of a series of waterfalls.
Claire Hilbers of Chagrin Falls was among them.
"Whoo!" she sighed as she rose from the clear, cold water and headed for her swim robe. "I think [that was] about two minutes, yeah. That was it for today."
It was her first dip of the day, but not her first ever. Hilbers is serious about cold water immersions. She competes in ice swimming races. She swam in the International Ice Swimming Association's (IISA) 6th World Championships in Molveno, Italy in January.
"It was an experience of a lifetime," said Hilbers. "You know, just the whole thing of flying overseas, people from all over the world there."
Hilbers and the others gathered on this Sunday afternoon are part of the "Polar Bear Plunge - Cold Water Adaptation" group on Facebook.
It was founded by Josh Sherman of Eastlake 14 years ago. Sherman said he began polar plunging as an extension of a spiritual practice.
"There's a point, there’s this magic moment when you transform from, like, your body's panicking to the deep calm. You have to work through the freakout for a little bit. Because it’s such a preposterous thing to do."Nathan Rutz
"In the Indian yoga tradition they talk about holy dips, repeating a mantra in the river. So, I started that in the summer," said Sherman. "And it eventually gets chillier, chillier, chillier. Then it became a point where I had to decide ‘Am I going to stop or am I going to keep going?’ And I decided to keep going."
There’s a camaraderie among the plungers and great encouragement for first-timers like Carmita Suarez of Parma.
"I just, you know, curious, just, you know, if I can do it," said Suarez.
Suarez is a native of Ecuador. Her friend, Patricia Bussert, is from Venezuela. Ice swimming is out of reach in these tropical countries.
But Bussert has become a fan of the Sunday polar plunges. She's been taking part in them for five years. She said she sold Suarez on the health benefits of cold plunges. Bussert said standing in the icy river helped cure her plantar fasciitis, an inflammation of the plantar fascia of the foot.
"She was complaining about having a lot of lower back pain, and I say just come to the water and just try it," said Bussert.
Doctors say ice water immersion can ease sore muscles and reduce inflammation. Cold water enthusiasts also say there is a psychological benefit to polar plunges.
Nathan Rutz of Cleveland was sitting on the snowy ground, pulling on his socks. He said his five-minute dips bring about a sense of well-being.
"There's a point, there’s this magic moment when you transform from, like, your body's panicking to the deep calm. You have to work through the freakout for a little bit. Because it’s such a preposterous thing to do," he said.
The “freakout” Rutz is referring to is the cold shock response. There’s an involuntary gasp for air, followed by rapid, irregular breathing.
Ice swimmer Claire Hilbers said at competitions, swimmers have to quickly absorb the shock of the cold air and water on their skin. She said they have 10 seconds to disrobe and get into the water. Once she begins swimming, another set of challenges emerges.
"My hands and feet go immediately numb," she said. "And then the longer you're in, the arms and legs go numb, so you're just kind of swimming but not feeling your stroke."
This loss of muscular control is called incapacitation. It’s another step in the development of hypothermia.
Hilbers and her fellow plungers take regular dips to adapt.
But Dr. Chris Bazzoli, an emergency physician with Cleveland Clinic, said those who enter cold water unintentionally by falling through ice or off a fishing boat are at high risk of becoming fatally overwhelmed.
"If you’re diving in and submerged, now you're underwater in very cold water, and your body forces you to take a breath of, a gulp, of very cold water. And now we're quickly into drowning. It's not the cold that's going to kill us. It's just drowning," he said.
Bazzoli said the common advice given to cold water boaters and fishermen is the "1-10-1" rule.
"You have a minute or two to control your breathing. You've got about 10, 15 minutes of purposeful movement. And then about an hour to survive. And that first one to two minutes is really important, controlling your breathing and controlling your panic so that you don't drown right off the bat."
Bazzoli stressed this was a rough estimate. He said survival times will vary based on factors like body fat, heart health, water temperature and wave action.
The National Center for Cold Water Safety warns against putting too much stock in the "1-10-1" rule, calling it "misleading" and "inaccurate." On its website, it said it can mislead boaters into forgoing protective thermal gear like wetsuits and dry suits because they believe that if they fall overboard, they can easily swim back to their boats. The center flatly states, "with very few exceptions, sudden immersion in cold water is immediately life-threatening for anyone not wearing thermal protection.”
At the Sunday cold water adaptation plunge in the Chagrin River, participants kept an eye on one another. Polar Bear Plunge Facebook group founder Josh Sherman said he watches everyone take their dips first, before he gets into the water, as a safety precaution.
Ram Barkai, a long-distance ice swimmer from South Africa who founded the International Ice Swimming Association, said there’s a robust safety infrastructure in place at its swim meets to keep swimmers from suffering hypothermia.
"We won't let people to get to that place," he said by phone from his home in Cape Town.
Despite its risks and discomforts, Barkai said ice swimming is transformative.
"When people come out from the ice, they feel physically and mentally alive," he said.
He called it “the magic of the ice.”
"Most people, it's not for everyone, but the vast majority of people that come to ice swimming will do it for a while," said Barkai. "Very, very few will come and say, this is absolutely madness, I never want to do this again."
The International Ice Swimming Association World Championships are held during odd-numbered years. American interest in them is growing. In 2019, just four U.S. swimmers took part. This year, Claire Hilbers was among 49 Americans competing. She wants to do it again.
"I like the cold plunging and then finding out there was ice swimming competitions kind of put together my passion of swimming for fitness, the cold plunging and then, yeah, I’m a competitive person. I like competing so it all kind of came together," she said of her journey. "Yeah, definitely something I want to continue. It spoke to me."
Hilbers’ longest race at the world championships in Italy was the 100-meter freestyle, which she finished in about 1:40 in 35-degree water. She says she was inspired by other swimmers, and she wants to train for longer distances, perhaps a 250-meter race. She's looking forward to the IISA's U.S. Open next January in the Washington, D.C. area.
In one year, she has gone from an ice water polar bear plunger to a world-caliber ice swimming competitor.
Ram Barkai would say it’s the magic of the ice at work.
