Sometimes inspiration comes from the smallest things and thats why I am writing this post to compliment a seemingly random piece of amateur video footage. Watch the clip and you will see me escorting my friend Ondrej into the 5c Vltava river in Prague, Czech Republic last Sunday. Ondrej is blind, thats why I helped him. He hasn’t been swimming since some time last year but decided to come for the traditional January christening of winter swimmers. It took courage for him to get into the water. As you will see he only swam for a short time but it proves again that there are no barriers to getting in to open water, even in the winter!
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Speaking from experience Lake Bled, nestled underneath the Julian alps at an altitude of 475m is a fantastic location for winter swimming. The area will of course be carpeted in snow during the winter months but the lake doesn’t freeze over and the surface temperature remains at around 4c. This is due to the slightly thermal springs that supply the lake with its water. so there is the prospect of beautiful winter scenery and nice winter water.
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Reading some of the stories from Jack London and listening to the knowledge of the people of the north, getting wet is to be avoided at all costs so the concept of making a swim however short in the waters of the Norton sound at Nome is a somewhat strange proposition and  a complete paradox for the local people.
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Two weeks ago I promised new content only for technical problems to put a temporary stop to that. Well, thats the neccessary evil that is computers. However, just 10 years ago this kind of communication was in its infancy. These days winter swimmers are able to communicate with each other from many places around the world. Three days ago, here in the Czech Republic we swam down the Dyje river to Austria while some other winters wimmers from Prague navigated an amazing 5.1km in 2 hours down the Vltava river.
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Usually held a week later, this year the contest had been moved back after the the early onset of winter in 2010 led to the contest being cancelled for technoical reasons – namely unsafe/unworkable ice conditions. No danger of that this year with air temperatures so faronly negative through the night. However, the wind was blowing and the water temperature was officially recorded at 3.7c although it was reported as low as 3.2c in a place.
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I suppose by now most of you know that the author of this blog is me, Jack Bright. The last few months have been pretty busy and I have lots of articles, photos and videos pending, especially from my recent trip to Alaska in preparation for next years relay swim across the Bering Strait.
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