Graeme Fife used to swim in the men’s pond on Hampstead Heath all year round. He says the trick is acclimatisation
Re your article on cold water swimming (Cold water immersion therapy: do the benefits outweigh the risks?, 30 September), I swam in the men’s pond on Hampstead Heath for 10 years all year round. And, whatever opinions physicians and others pronounce, I think the benefits of daily immersion to mental and physical health are irrefutable.
The fact is, I felt better, my circulation improved and the experience itself – sometimes almost an out-of-body one – was wonderful. Moreover, swimming when there was a thin sheet of ice on the water produced a lovely sizzling sound as the thin ice sheet waved and nearly buckled. I stayed in the water for up to 20 minutes and it thrilled me bodily as well as testing me psychologically, for it is, no doubt, a mental challenge.
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