Not sure the juice is worth the squeeze at 45 Fahrenheit... the real question is when swimming pools will reopen? I’d like to think May 1st.

Oof. My official limit is 50F. Unofficially, I will get in when it is 48F. 48F is pretty miserable. I'm swimming in 51F - 53F right now. That is our normal spring time temp. We never get up to 60F, so we are accustomed to cold water. But 45 is a temp I have not tried to swim in... Though, I will surf in that temp wearing booties, gloves and a 5/4/4 hooded wetsuit.

Right now swimming I'm in a latex + neoprene + lycra cap right now, cheap tri wetsuit, no gloves, no socks. I can last an hour in 51F. I have 20lbs of bioprene.

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Hillary Trout
San Luis Obispo, CA

Your trip is short. Make the most of it.
https://www.slogoing.net/

I've swam upper 50s with same gear as you. I'm sure there were pockets of water in the upper 40s/lower 50s. It was tolerable and didn't think I needed gloves or booties. I think a neoprene cap would have been nice.

Before all the craziness of COVID, I was expecting an early OWS swim season in Chicagoland. Right now, Lake Michigan on Chicago side is at 50. I'm pissed that all the idiots who congregated earlier causing forced closure of the lake front.

Very true. Neoprene swim hat, gloves, booties, Wetsuit. Good to go here in Western Canada. Beware of the eagles though.

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http://www.fitspeek.com the Fraser Valley's fitness, wellness, and endurance sports podcast

Love it. :-)

If I'm acclimatised, I'm good for 16C / 61F without a wettie, just wearing a couple of swim caps and dick-stickers. The ocean doesn't get much colder than that where I live or used to live.

13C / 55F is tolerable, but not pleasant, for maybe a mile at most if I'm not wearing rubber. If I want to enjoy myself, I'd want a wetsuit below about 15C.

I'm not sure how cold before I'd consider the temperature "unswimmable". Obviously it would also depend on wetsuit thickness, hood, booties, gloves (all of which I've never experimented with), ambient temperature, wind, swim distance, etc. And bioprene.

What the.... is that worse than our sharks and elephant seals in California??

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Hillary Trout
San Luis Obispo, CA

Your trip is short. Make the most of it.
https://www.slogoing.net/

If it's lower than 60-65 degrees Fahrenheit, my chances of coming down with a cold amp like crazy, so I try to avoid it. 45 seems so low to me, wouldn't venture unless I've lost a bet, but if you can pull it off, good for you. If you want to raise the temperature, look into a solar pool heater. I evidently need one to swim comfortably, no mystery there, found some that seem OK here https://www.optimainstitute.com/...lar-pool-heater.html, maybe it helps. As with local pools opening, I don't really think that's gonna happen before the 1st of June, honestly. Compare the situation in America to that worldwide and you'll see, the lockdown is probably going to end somewhere between the 15th of May and 1st of June everywhere.

Good point. We have been allowed out all the time, the schools open tomorrow, thus I guess it is ok to go OW. So no pool for me.
One of my friends did 400m in 45F...

I live on a lake in NH that freezes every winter with usually several feet of ice. The ice goes out in mid April. I attach a thermometer to my dock. I find that 50 is my absolute lower limit, with 57 or 58 being the magical number where you can swim in just two swim caps.

I really do not like swimming with booties or gloves because it seems like you cannot feel the water the same way and at least for me it seems to mess with my stroke. I don’t mind the neoprene swim cap. I also use wax earplugs in super cold water, as it seems to help not having really cold water in your ears.

The good news is that typically once we get some nice sunny days the water warms quickly, and you pass through those lower temps faster than you expect.

If you can get your hands on a long surfboard and start paddling around on it that might scratch the itch until it is fifteen degrees warmer.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

Great suggestion. Also a good way to warm up before attempting a cold water swim or as a bail out to finish a workout if the water proves too cold.

I had not thought about it until I read your post but now I am thinking of getting out surfing Lake Eire again. On the surfo meter it is like 1/10 but a good workout.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

We go to Lake Michigan several times a year. Surf, stand up paddle, kayak, swim, etc., when we can. I often use a 9 foot foam surfboard for prone paddling on non surf days when I just don't feel like actually swimming. David K

Another +20deg for me 😂

Anything under 60F in freshwater is too cold for me. If it's salt water, I'll swim as long as it's warmer 50F.

I used to go into my pool in the winter when it was sub-50 degrees F (40-something, not sure exactly as the thermometer stopped reading well at colder temps). That was rough. What made it better was neoprene socks to wear inside the neoprene booties and I also used hand liners for inside my neoprene gloves, though the hand liners don't help quite as much as the neoprene socks. Wetsuit, of course, and neoprene cap. The killer was enduring the pain in my exposed face for the first eight minutes until my face went completely numb.

Now that I'm comfortably into my mid-50s (age), I've become more of a wimp and I pretty much just wait the winter out until March or April depending on the pool temp. One thing is the cold temps are more mentally manageable if there is at least sun shining on you. Doing that cold plunge in the dark takes some htfu that I no longer seem to possess.

Try it and have fun. Worst case you grow some more hair on your chest. ;-)

I've been swimming in 53F water with a hood and booties. I can go over an hour no problem. My last swim I started to feel a little cold towards the end. I probably pushed it to the limit.

I could likely manage down to 50F, but I think sub 50F might be risky. I'm sure I hit sub 50F pockets, but I likely wouldn't try 45F water.

I got in Mirror Lake before when it was 49 degrees, and the wetsuit was no help at all. Basically made it out to the cable, then went right back to shore.

I'll hazard a guess that my lower limit is more like 55-58

65F.

Holy cow, some tough folk on this thread. I am currently swimming in declining bay temps in Melb, Aus - sitting on 17C (~62.5F) at the moment, and am doing it in a wetsuit I am finding the first 100 'challenging'...but after that it's fine.
I reckon I could go about 1-2 degrees cooler before I pray that pools reopen.

Although.... as I was walking into the water yesterday, two young whippersnappers (late teens/early 20's) jumped in & took off without wetsuits. Made me feel a bit soft.

Kits beach yesterday aft and again this morning 7:30am. Web says surf is 49DegF

The afternoon swim was good.
Stoked... so this morning, body was fine but face/forehead - OMG that hurt. Never acclimatized. Mix of heads-up and regular FS. Did about 1K. I was out there with Z on the standup inflatable.


I got two SUP's off craigs and my wetsuit B70 Sprint from triboutique - great service!

All my gear is back on Vancouver Island and they crew don't want me coming back there, deemed a risk point which is totally correct.

PS: I miss my E-tap bikes. Was out on a Sunday ride @ UBC and a dude in a P3 blew past me. I gave it the coals but downhill in aero I wasn't hanging on too long in a city bike with panniers :(

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Does anyone have the Roka cold water wetsuit? Their website says really nothing about what makes it different and indicated for cold water. What are the technical specs that make it better? I am thinking about getting one.

The issue for me in cold water < 50F is not the core which a thicker wetsuit would solve, but the exposed areas (i.e face, neck, feet, hands). I haven't been able to do more than 400 m in 45 F, this is great to acclimatize myself to open water but don't get much accomplished in terms of an actual workout.

I did 25M sections then had to lift my head to let the ache-factor drop. I was in the water for around 20 or so mins.

There is something about working out in ultra cold that is hyper-beneficial. What I feel is:

1. Reduced inflammation, it was like working out in a full body wrap
2. Increased loading of the muscle, without the associated damage/lactic
3. Whole body affect - still feeling it 24 hrs later.
4. All +ve btw. I am sure the Nords and Canadians - we live this but might not know it.

Talked to someone in her bathrobe at the local take-out coffee. Said she just finished swimming at Secret Beach and it was warm. Where the heck is that?

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Training Tweets: https://twitter.com/Jagersport_com
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