Admin January 31, 2012, 12:41 am h.
Writing about an event that took place over 1 month ago isn’t easy but in the case of this winter swimming competition it stuck in the mind (& the fingertips!).
A mild winter, but more importantly for the Labe river very little precipitation meaning less water and therefore a slow rate of flow. 15m/minute is the cut off point in Czech winter swimming and if the flow rate exceeds this then it is deemed unsafe to swim upstream and therefore the contest will be downstream only. The informationn that filtered through on the day was that this was the first time in the 40 year history of the contest that it had been held in still water conditions. Nobody knoew what to expect and this made for an interesting event.
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Admin January 11, 2012, 11:48 pm h.
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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Admin January 10, 2012, 2:42 pm h.
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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Admin December 26, 2011, 11:00 am h.
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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Admin December 20, 2011, 11:27 pm h.
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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Admin December 7, 2011, 1:59 pm h.
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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Admin December 4, 2011, 2:43 pm h.
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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Admin November 27, 2011, 9:08 am h.
Sometimes in sport puzzling things happen. Cricket is a good example where a match can be decided by “the duckworth-lewis method” if rain interrupts play. To a lesser extent in football a team leading by 2 goals in the second leg of a cup competition may resort to extreme defensive tactics to preserve their lead. A more abstract yet common example would be snooker where players avoid easy pots opting for ”safety” in a long term strategy.
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Admin November 25, 2011, 11:21 pm h.
From January 20th – 22nd Jurmala in Latvia will host the world winter swimming championships.
A beautiful location on the baltic sea coast and just a short distance from Riga international airport it is sure to be a bone chillingly exciting 3 days with a variety of disciplines on offer from just a dip in the pool to a 450m endurance swim for those participants that have the relevant ice water experience to attemp such a swim. It will be cold, with water temperature probably just above freezing.
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Admin November 19, 2011, 10:26 am h.
More in depth articles and media to follow concerning this Alaska trip but for now here is a short piece from US news channel KTVA.
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