#cold-water-swimming

#cold-water-swimming

Warm lights shine from the houses that dot the wintry slopes of Mount Flyen and a cold wind blows as I stand in a swimming costume trying to talk myself into joining my friends in Bergen harbour. Stars are already appearing in the inky mid-afternoon sky. Life-changing moments are easy to spot in retrospect, but at the time they can feel so ordinary. I didn't know then that my wintry swim would lead to a year of adventures.

The new year arrived windy and freezing in Brooklyn, but bone-chilling weather couldn't stop tradition as thousands of people welcomed 2026 at the Coney Island Polar Bear Plunge. After a few years of warm weather, New Year's Day this year was bracing. When the plunge began at 11 a.m., temperatures hovered around 25 degrees Fahrenheit with wind chill in the teens and the Atlantic Ocean was a near-Arctic 39 degrees.

When Dan Richards went for a New Year's Eve swim in 2023, he never could have imagined how drastically his life would change. In a freak accident, he injured his neck when a wave caused him to flip and hit the sand in Langland Bay, Swansea. "I knew instantly that I was paralysed," the 37-year-old said. "I couldn't move anything." Doctors told him he would be bed-bound but, two years later, he uses a wheelchair and can move his arms and fingers.