The Sound in Winter - Cold Water Swimming

Written By: Gregory Wolfe

This is a post for anyone curious about swimming in cold water, especially swimming open water through the winter in Seattle. I’m not going to touch much on swimming safety in this post, so I’ll just preface everything here with: Please swim safely. Swim with buddies, be visible and remember to bring warm clothing to wear after you swim.

The winter swims that I’ve done have all been in Puget Sound, either at Alki, Golden Gardens or Richmond Beach. I swam with a wetsuit, goggles and a silicone cap. Of the swimmers I went with, some were skin-swimming, some were bundled up like me. Water temperatures were between 54 degrees and 49 degrees, if I recall correctly. So those swims are the basis of the impressions I’ll relate here.

Cold water swimming is a lot like swimming in warmer water. Most of the things I think about are the same. I think about my swimming form. I think about work. I think about the sand and the fish. All the normal stuff. But on top of that, there’s this time limit that I’m always aware of – the core temperature time limit.

In warmer water, I can swim for as long as I have the heart to stay in, or until I need a drink, or until I need to go to work. In cold water, after a certain point I’m not generating enough heat to keep my body temperature up. If I’ve eaten something beforehand I can stay out longer. If I’m eating during the swim, I can stay out even longer, but there will still be a moment when I feel my chest and belly starting to chill. Then I know that I either have to start working a lot harder or I have to get out. It’s one extra thing that hovers in my head while I’m swimming, constantly checking myself and saying, “I’m still fine…still fine…still fine.”

The goal is to stay lucid, to get out of the water with all brain cells in working order and go get coffee. I don’t think it’s hard to make that happen, but I do think that when things start going wrong, they get worse quickly. That’s why I’m always checking in with myself. 

I was surprised how quickly it got easier to stay in the water. Very pleasantly surprised. Each time I went out, even though the water was getting colder every week, it took less time to get into a swimming groove and I could stay out longer. My hands stopped freezing into “the claw” after a couple weeks, and when I concentrated, I could keep my lips closed underwater. The two things that didn’t get easier were getting into the water and warming myself up after getting out. The first minute was always a bitter minute, and after getting out of the water, it always took me a while to warm up again. I don’t think there’s much to do about getting in. It will always be a character builder, and the faster I was in the water, the better I felt. But a little bit of planning can make warming up afterward a lot more pleasant. 

After swimming, my hands would be stiff and cold, the skin on my arms and stomach would be cool to the touch. I’d put on a sweatshirt, jacket, pants and gloves. The best advice I can give on post-cold-water-swim clothing is: make sure it’s easy to put on. If you’re trying to put on a tight pullover sweater, it might take five minutes to work your hands through the sleeves because your fingers are numb and keep getting stuck in the fabric. Zip-up sweaters are great. Hats or hoods are awesome. Have something warm to drink near at hand, too. Swimming at Alki, we could walk to the coffee shop across the street. When you’re warming up, remember that you’ve been using up your most available energy while you swam. At the same time, you’ve been cooling your body temperature. So give your body something to work with while it’s trying to warm up, a little warmth, a little energy.

Also, I’m pretty sure driving right after cold water swimming is a lot like driving drunk, so maybe hop out of the water and start warming up twenty minutes or so before you have to go anywhere. It’s a really good excuse for sitting around and drinking coffee with people you like. 

As a final note, I did find swimming in the Sound to be some of the most interesting swimming I’ve done. There’s the current that you get to fight in one direction and race with in the other direction. The waves are larger and more regular than lake waves. The water was much clearer in the Sound in winter than, say, Lake Washington water.

Lots of thanks to Randy, Guila, Laura, Leonore and Sam for getting me in the water.