The mid-winter swim was one of if not the most amazing experience of my life, I only wish that more people had the same experience that I had. The swim for most people is a personal challenge, battling the elements, surviving the cold, facing a fear, and although the entire day is filled with fun and excitement I rarely heard anything positive come from actually being in the water. For me the mid-winter swim was an opportunity to reunite myself with an old friend - the ocean. My connection to water is incredibly deep seated and is probably the thing I miss the most from back home in reality. The feeling of pure freedom I get from diving underwater to catch an Abalone dinner or lining myself up for the wave of the day while my mates cheer from the channel is unparalleled. Arriving at Mawson to see seals, penguins and orcas moving through the water around our station truly made me feel at home but as we started losing ocean to the sea ice I feel I may have lost a part of myself with it. It had been such a long time since I was last in the ocean, swimming, surfing, diving. They're right about what they say, absence truly does make the heart grow fonder. I'm not sure I will ever love anything more than being in the water, and having the opportunity to go for a swim while I winter at Mawson station is something worth celebrating in itself.
As for the cold.
Some see the cold as pain, the cold is misunderstood, mislabelled as the opposite to survival. It is true that you can have too much of a good thing, no one wants to see their friends become hypothermic but the likelihood of something terrible happening is so low thanks to all the equipment during and planning before the swim. Having spent my entire life working and living in Southern Victoria, the cold and the wet is just a part of life for six - eight months a year. And it seems spending my spare time in a wetsuit paddling through swells pushed on by the mighty Southern Ocean prepared me for the cold plunge far greater than others. Through generations of incidents and overexposures to cold we have been taught to maintain a hyper awareness for cold and to avoid it at all costs... Why bother coming to Antarctica if you're not prepared to get a little cold I say. I think that some people even became too frightened to give being cold the chance to show them the benefits before they actually experienced it. The overly complicated flowchart presented in the PMU briefings was enough to send a message of fear into those who were yet to experience the icy cold water. I see the cold as relief for the body, like an ice pack not only for your muscles and joints but for the soul as well. Truly an outer body experience. If you are one of the lucky few like me who can acknowledge the statistics and read the literature without allowing it to create fear, you will without a doubt experience something truly amazing just as I did.
The next part was written to try replicate the experience for those who have not had the chance to experience it themselves. Please use the link below to help create the experience before commencing reading.
https://open.spotify.com/track/3Yrj0ZqIUxTIvuXxfm2nR6?si=gQfPmpF4TpqtkDvS2Lc2Gg
A deep breath in, a deep breath out. Let go of the ladder and roll backwards. The water starts to freeze and encases your body. Like a blanket it wraps itself tight around you, a perfect fit. The water is so cold it is almost oily to touch. Relax, deep breaths, you can feel the softness of the water below you pushing back against your hands. All of your muscles start to free themselves from tension and your mind begins to untangle your stress. You tilt your head back allowing the water to flow up to your ears, you let go of your thoughts and immerse yourself in the environment. Feel that connection to the water again. You're floating, suspended in the ocean, you feel like you've returned home, a feeling of belonging, a feeling of support. Remember, deep breath in, deep breath out. To say that you missed the feeling would be a lie, you have completely forgotten this feeling. It's been too long since your last moments in the water. Endorphins build up through your soul again like charge to a battery. You feel alive again. No clothes to block your connection with the Earth. Too much time spent walking on a rock, draped in heavy clothes, dragging heavy boots, lifting heavy things, eating heavy foods. The weight of life is lifted from you and carried by the water. By now you're so relaxed you can't remember feeling cold. Any anxiousness you had is now gone, any fatigue you were carrying has been defeated. All of a sudden you feel the rope around your waist being tugged on by the FTO. Time is now up, and you will not get the chance to swim again until Australia day. One last dive under the water for good measure. One deep breath in before you push your head deep under the water. You feel the cold push hard around your head as you begin to fully submerge yourself. You are under the water at last… Silence.
