From Mexico to Estonian winter

This blog post was written by Omar, a Engineering PhD student at TalTech.

Winter swimming is quite popular in Estonia. I am a Study in Estonia Ambassador Omar from Mexico. When I was invited to go to Noblessner port for a winter swim, I couldn’t refuse! And here is my experience.

When I first heard about winter swimming, I thought that “people wear special neoprene suits when swimming in cold water”. That makes sense, doesn’t it? However, I was wrong. Winter swimming or ice swimming means that you are voluntarily stepping into cold water at 0 degrees Celsius and swim there for a few seconds (or minutes if you are an experienced swimmer).

Yes! You read correctly, you step into the ice-cold water of your own free will!

First of all, I am an inexperienced winter swimmer, so I got a quick introduction beforehand about the dos and don’ts of winter swimming. The instructor explained, what to expect when I am in the freezing water and what are some of the benefits of winter swimming. For example, regular winter swimmers tend to have less stress and fatigue, they feel more energetic and are generally in a better mood. 

That’s me during the talk, that day it was -3 degreesThat’s me during the introduction.

One of the things the instructor Märt said, was “you might naturally enter in a state of shock during winter swimming as your body tries to warm up”. I personally felt reluctant and even laughed at it in my mind. I thought: “How bad can jumping into the cold water be?” Also, since I am an experienced swimmer, jumping seemed natural to me. So, I asked if I could jump into the water, and the answer was a resounding NO. In addition, I was asked to keep my hair dry and wear a warm hat at all times. I was reluctant again, but I just decided to follow the rules. And I am so glad I did!

After Märt had finished the introduction, I changed my clothes and walked confidently to the pier in my usual swimming suit. Two ladders led into the water. They stood less than 4 meters apart and I was committed to swim from one ladder to another. In my mind I was unstoppable, so I just posed for the picture and started climbing down into the freezing water.

Smiling and confident

Smiling and confident me.

Let`s do this!

Then…, I stepped into the ice-cold water. First, I felt that my toes start to get cold. However, I was determined and I continued to climb down, until my entire body was in the water. Of course, I left out my head, as I was wearing a warm hat. Once I was inside, my mind went blank - it was completely empty in the blink of an eye. Anyway, I knew I had two options - climb up the ladder in front of me or to swim to the next ladder. I decided to go for the second option and swim to the ladder 4 meters away from me.

At this point I was moving intuitively

At this point I was swimming intuitively.

After the most mysterious swim I've ever done, I came out of the cold water and started warming up again. At that moment, my body was in a state of shock!  Everything was in slow motion, the instructor told me something (or didn't say, I don't remember). Someone in the background told me “well done!” But the truth is that I was absorbed in my own thoughts and focused only on feeling my body. On my way back to the locker room I thought “What just happened? “ 

 After the swim, I didn’t know what was going on :D

After the experience, I didn’t know what was going on :D

The next step was to warm up again in the sauna. I was delighted with the experience, so after about 10 minutes in sauna, I decided to jump into the cold water once again. This time, however, I did not swim to the ladder 4 meters away, but went for a shorter swim. After that I was done and ready to go home :D

What I liked most about winter swimming was how I felt later in the evening. I felt relaxed and energized at the same time. My mind was clear, and I was able to concentrate and understand a topic I had been struggling with in my research last week.

To sum up my experience, winter swimming is an endurance sport for the body and mind. It definitely helped me to get rid of some stress and muscle soreness. If you like meditation or mindfulness, then winter swimming is a good practice to focus on “now”.

Finally, would I do it again? Yes, definitely! I look forward to my next swim. Thank you Triinu from Study in Estonia for the invitation!  

In addition, I would like to give some suggestions to all the first-time winter swimmers: 

  • Follow the expert’s advice: keep your head warm, avoid getting your head wet and don’t jump into the water!
  • Imagine a simple goal in your mind. It helps you focus. For me, the goal was to swim from one ladder to another. You can also focus on breathing in and out slowly 5 times before going in the water.
  • Try to focus on your breathing while in the water.
  • And last but not least, just surrender to the fact that it's cold!

Written by Study in Estonia Student Ambassador Omar.

Acknowledge of funding entinty: Omar’s PhD is founded by the European Project Guided Waves for Structural Health Monitoring (GW4SHM) (H2020-MSCA-ITN-2019-860104).