by oldmansurfer » Tue Jan 14, 2025 10:30 pm
If there's no wind and the session quick then the suffering is minimal, of course water temperature will make a difference too. There is danger of hypothermia but less so with an attached flotation device. Crazy guy but I might have done something like that when I was younger. When I went to school in Colorado, my first exposure to cold temperatures and snow, I ran out in the snow the first time it didn't melt immediately and built a snowman in my shorts and t-shirt and bare feet. It was something I always wanted to do and never thought about the gear required. My friends in the dorm laughed at me and locked the dorm door so I couldn't go inside but I had no intention of going inside. I built my snowman with my Hawaii weather clothing. By the time I was putting the nose on I could feel my feet starting to tingle but that was it and my friends were begging me to come back in but I had to finish it and put the nose on. No frost bite or discomfort other than tingling in my feet. I guess I was really fit and that helped but there was no wind and the air temperature didn't matter as I was generating heat moving around. I imagine though some people, maybe my current self, would die just getting in the water.
So what is worse.... dying or regretting it for the rest of my life? Obviously I chose not regretting it.