Sport & Fitness

Steeling myself to test the frigid 8C water of Tooting Bec Lido at 8am on a frosty winter morning I’m feeling the need for some serious encouragement. To be frank, even shedding my towel needs stern words from our photographer. But then I see the 86-year-old man lowering himself fearlessly into the water next to me and powering across the pool. An all-year regular at Tooting Bec Lido for more than 30 years, retired doctor Ray Anderson (Dr Andy to his friends) is a walking billboard for outdoor, (very) cold-water swimming.
Feature continues

‘It starts the day with a bang,’ he says. ‘It’s a way of life for me now. Mind you, I spend the rest of the day trying to get warm.’ Dr Andy isn’t alone in talking up this extreme sport. Waiting for my own Arctic dip I am accosted by South London Swimming Club members Sue Rentol, David Dunham and Fazlur Arhman, who tell me variously: ‘It’s a buzz, once you start you can’t stop’; ‘I’m never, ever sorry I’ve been’; and ‘My friends say I’ll die of pneumonia, but I enjoy every minute of it.’ All well and good for people with a ‘leftfield’ personality, as SLSC press officer Jonathan Buckley puts it, but what about the rest of us? Is it better than doing a few lengths in an indoor heated pool?

Finbar Martin, hospital consultant and club president, believes that indoor is better for fitness in the winter because you can swim distances further than those achieved outside, which only average between two widths to four lengths before becoming too painful – and dangerous. However there is anecdotal evidence that immersing yourself in cold water has health benefits.‘There’s a sense from people who regularly swim in cold water in the winter that they have a freshness and a buzz about them,’ says Martin.

As well as being second to none as a morning wake-up call, Martin is convinced that swimming in near-freezing water speeds up immunological response, something backed up by the SLSC members we met who’ve all stayed clear of cold and flu for years. Buckley, who’s done his own research, reckons it helps cheer people up if they’re a bit down or stressed: ‘You find the longer someone swims in the cold, they’re probably going through a bit of a tough time!’ And women swimmers claim that it keeps their breasts pert.

Health issues aside, when else can you swim in an empty art deco pool at dawn, listening to the birds and seeing leaves dangling in the water like chandeliers? Not to mention enjoying the comradeship of wide-eyed, bushy-tailed mad folk who take to the water every morning both here at Tooting and the Serpentine in Hyde Park. ‘I could go inside where there’s warm water, but there’s just not the same atmosphere,’ says Dr Andy.

Hanging out for half an hour, I already felt part of this intrepid crew, which includes quite a few cross-Channel swimmers. After a quick chat about the downsides – notably cutting yourself on sharp ice, frosty water sticking to skin like Velcro, cold easterly winds and branches falling on the head – it’s my turn. I slowly lower myself in and swim just one shivery width. In spite of all of my gasps and expletives, it is exhilarating – and nowhere near as painful as my nightmares had suggested.

There are now more lido swimming enthusiasts than ever before. In fact, Tooting Bec Lido is so buoyant, with 1,030 members, that it’s hosting the UK’s first World Winter Swimming Championship this week. There are more than 500 entrants from 22 countries taking part, including WWSC inventors Finland, China and the Ukraine. Margie Sullivan, the club’s vice-president, is a little concerned about the temperature though.

‘The average for the first week in February, for the last God-knows-how-many years, has been 3C to 4C. That’s why I chose it as the date for the Championship – because it’s the coldest week. But it’s 8C at the moment! We might have to throw some ice in.’

Cold facts
Calories burned Seven (that’s for one minute of swimming).
Benefits May improve your body’s immune system. Improves your circulation. Good for de-stressing.
Where to swim The Serpentine, Hyde Park, W2 (serpentine swimmingclub.com) Hyde Park Corner tube. Annual membership £20.
Tooting Bec Lido, Tooting Bec Rd, SW16 (07985 141532/slsc.org.uk) Tooting Bec tube. Annual SLSC membership £20 plus £85 for a season ticket. The World Winter Swimming Championship is at Tooting Bec Lido February 8-10.
Related websites www.wwsc2008.com; www.outdoorswimmingsociety.com; visit www.slsc.org.uk for other outdoor winter swimming sites