After several weeks of wild weather, the sun smiled on 10 hardy swimmers who took part in a midwinter swim at Palm Beach.
The event, which had originally been planned as part of Plastic-free July, had been stymied by successive weekends of wind and rain. But it eventually got under way on the morning of Saturday 17 August when the brave swimmers were accompanied by another 10 people who pitched in for a beach clean.
Swim organiser Anna Dawson said participants discussed Dutch extreme athlete Wim Hof who is an advocate of cold-water immersion and holds a series of strange records for feats of endurance such as climbing Everest and Kilimanjaro in shorts, swimming under ice and running a barefoot half-marathon over ice and snow.
Our own intrepid mid-winter bathers managed between five and 10 minutes in the water and then warmed up afterwards with tea, coffee and pastries.•
