This talk about Yaktraks and extreme weather reminds me. New Year's Eve we were in the low double digits on temp. Lets say...uhh..13. I live on a lake and for some bizarre reason only half of it is frozen, although it is usually solid by December.
So, around 5 PM NYE, I find the neighbor kid by the lake in a swimsuit and towel with a bunch of friends. He says he's going in. (He is about 16 - insane in kind of an amusing way, football team, plays hockey with his arm in a cast, rides his bike off the dock into the lake attached by a string the reels it in and repeats, etc). He was asking if he could go in off my dock. I told him I did not want to wreck his fun, but I didn't think it was an awesome idea. As soon as I saw him with the swimsuit, the first thing I did was grab a rope on my way to the dock . I told him if he really insisted on going in, he should do it by the beach, where he could walk in, and to have his friends ready with the rope and a blanket.
He left my area and I doubt he even went through with it...I started to think, have I gotten that old, am I just a fun wrecking worry wart? I know those Polar Bear Swimmers go in every Jan 1, but isn't salt water a bit warmer in general? I just recall a recent occurrance in the Catskills where 2 out of 3 young men didn't make it when their fishing boat tipped over, even though they were strong swimmers a few hundred yards from shore.
Any other anecdotes or thoughts about super cold weather OWS? thx
So, around 5 PM NYE, I find the neighbor kid by the lake in a swimsuit and towel with a bunch of friends. He says he's going in. (He is about 16 - insane in kind of an amusing way, football team, plays hockey with his arm in a cast, rides his bike off the dock into the lake attached by a string the reels it in and repeats, etc). He was asking if he could go in off my dock. I told him I did not want to wreck his fun, but I didn't think it was an awesome idea. As soon as I saw him with the swimsuit, the first thing I did was grab a rope on my way to the dock . I told him if he really insisted on going in, he should do it by the beach, where he could walk in, and to have his friends ready with the rope and a blanket.
He left my area and I doubt he even went through with it...I started to think, have I gotten that old, am I just a fun wrecking worry wart? I know those Polar Bear Swimmers go in every Jan 1, but isn't salt water a bit warmer in general? I just recall a recent occurrance in the Catskills where 2 out of 3 young men didn't make it when their fishing boat tipped over, even though they were strong swimmers a few hundred yards from shore.
Any other anecdotes or thoughts about super cold weather OWS? thx