Open Water Swimming

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TheScribbler 13 Nov 10:50am, 13 Nov 2024 6,399 posts	0 TheScribbler The sea dip and sauna at King Edward’s Bay yesterday was fab. The set up is really simple, with plastic boxes to drop your clothes in. The sauna is in a tent with a couple of benches and seats six people. They provide oils and salt scrub to use if you like and you can dip and sauna as often as you like within your 1 hour time slot. The waves were surprisingly vigorous yesterday, so it was a definite dip and jumping, rather than any kind of floating and swimming. The sauna was toasty warm in between too. I dipped four times and felt amazing all day.
RichHL 13 Nov 12:20pm, 13 Nov 2024 23,385 posts	0 RichHL Even I might have been tempted by that.
LindsD 13 Nov 1:23pm, 13 Nov 2024 70,972 posts	0 LindsD Lovely. We have sauna and dip at one of our lakes but I've never done it.
Elsie Too 13 Nov 2:02pm, 13 Nov 2024 5,441 posts	0 Elsie Too I always thought that getting hot quickly after a cold swim was dangerous. What is the method that makes dip and sauna a good thing to do? Is it really short time in the cold so that you don't get cold through to the bone?
TheScribbler 13 Nov 2:29pm, 13 Nov 2024 6,401 posts	0 TheScribbler There’s probably enough of a gradual temperature change between running out of the sea up the beach to the tent. Also the sauna isn’t fully sealed, so not super hot. Water and air temperature was about 10C. I don’t know the exact science about hot/cold exposure, but I’ve seen things about people going from snow to sauna. I know you’re supposed to try and warm up from the inside out if you’ve beeN in cold water for a while, not get into a red hot shower. Maybe it depends on the type of heat? I’ll be off down a Google rabbit hole to find out now!!
LindsD 13 Nov 4:45pm, 13 Nov 2024 70,976 posts	0 LindsD Sauna is on lakeside. Good point. Dunno
Red Squirrel 13 Nov 5:22pm, 13 Nov 2024 24,679 posts	0 Red Squirrel I used to work at an open water lake and the majority of our casualties throughout the year were people who had gone from lake to sauna, stayed in the heat for ages and then passed out or felt dizzy when they left the sauna. To be fair, we didn’t have too many casualties generally - people were pretty good at learning from other people’s mistakes and reading the manager’s emails.
Red Squirrel 13 Nov 5:23pm, 13 Nov 2024 24,680 posts	0 Red Squirrel That little tent looks perfect. The sauna at the lake got very hot. I never went in there, even after cold water training. I used to stand in the inner entrance occasionally if I was really cold.
LazyDaisy 13 Nov 5:26pm, 13 Nov 2024 40,983 posts	0 LazyDaisy Interesting - a friend and I were discussing this this morning at the Lido. The water temperature is down to 9.2* now. This year the on-site sauna is also operating, and my friend, who lived in Sweden for a few years, is very keen to swim and sauna next time we go. I'm not a big fan of saunas anyway - I hate being too hot - and I said I wasn't sure if this cold/hot thing is necessarily good for everyone. I'll be interested to hear what you discover, @TheScribbler .
tulip 13 Nov 6:12pm, 13 Nov 2024 664 posts	0 tulip in The Netherlands we have large sauna parks where you spend a whole day doing nothing but going from sauna to cold water dip, rest, eat, drink, and do the same again. I think the difference is the cold dip comes after the sauna, not the other way around; and it's a cold dip rather than a swim of several minutes. Cold dip helps to cool down, after that you rest or swim / float in pools of around 30-34 degrees, until all is back to normal, and then you can go again. The saunas have different temperatures ranging between 70-100 degrees, and usually there are a number of steam rooms as well - but I do much better with dry heat. I love it and can easily do about 5-6 rounds in one day: sauna followed by cold dip. I am not sure I would go into a sauna after a cold water swim. Or for a proper swim after sauna. I would stick to a dippy swim, or a swimmy dip, or something, being in the water for maybe one or two minutes but no longer than that.