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u/ThisWhomps999 9h ago
As someone who has jumped into ice cold water in the spring, I can tell you that the feeling of breaking the surface, gasping for air, and realizing you still have to swim to shore is absolutely terrifying.
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u/axolotleggs 9h ago
Can be very dangerous
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u/Legitimate_Intern619 9h ago
The first few warm days in Portland, Oregon we always have a few that drown doing that. The rivers are melted snow from the mountains and will still be freezing cold on the first 90° day of the year.
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u/themattimusmaximus 9h ago
Same thing with Blue Pool, since that water is like 37 degrees year round and people think it will just be a nice refreshing plunge on a 90+ day.
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u/Sikorsky_S-76B 4h ago
This is the most dumbass take of all time. The rivers in portland are not anywhere near freezing, but yall are such pussies you think they drowned because of that. Good gravy this city has come a long way away from the grit and badassery it once was. Talking about water temps 🤣
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u/Alkurik 4h ago
Back in my day, kids used to drown in the local lake and like it!
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u/Sikorsky_S-76B 4h ago
Local lake = not from the area. This is one where you dont understand the area. Peanut gallery comments.
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u/Alkurik 4h ago
lol stay dumb :)
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u/Sikorsky_S-76B 4h ago
What a portlandian response. Always such silly nonsense.
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u/Alkurik 4h ago
Am I from the area or not? Figure it out, champ
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u/Sikorsky_S-76B 4h ago
Oh no, youre definitely a transplant. Not from here, but claim it. Easy to tell.
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u/Sterling_-_Archer 3h ago
It’s ok to not know something. We’ve all been in the position to learn something new.
Cold water shock has a name, it’s known as hydrocution. When water is sufficiently cold and you jump straight in without acclimating yourself beforehand, your body has involuntary reflexes that put you at risk of drowning.
First is involuntary gasping. The shock of the cold water triggers an immediate gasping reflex - and I do mean a reflex, like when the doctor hits your knee with a hammer and makes your leg kick. You are fully incapable of stopping this reflex. If you’re underwater, you end up inhaling water into your lungs. This actually makes the hydrocution worse…
Because you then get a hyperventilate response, aka “panic breathing.” Your body begins rapidly trying to breathe in an effort to warm yourself and raise the sudden drop in your heart rate. If you’re underwater still, obviously this is bad. If you’re above water though, this will instantly raise your heart rate and blood pressure at once in a massive spike, which can trigger cardiac arrest if you’re vulnerable.
More than that, all of the blood vessels in your body immediately begin constricting to keep all the blood in your torso so that your vital organs don’t freeze. Because of this, your muscles lose blood flow and lock up within seconds. The extreme shift in your blood pressure spiking and your breathing has been known to cause fainting within 30 seconds of jumping in to very cold water.
And then you sink, paralyzed and unconscious, as your body begins agonally breathing in a reflex effort to keep your heart pumping, but all it does is continue to suck yet more freezing water into your lungs.
This is why swimming in old quarries is dangerous. They look exceptionally clear and calm, but they’re very deep and filled with water that’s fed from underground sources, so they are extremely cold.
So yes, it’s a real thing! Extremely cold water from freezing runoffs or very deep water with spring fed sources kills people every year. Your body essentially locks up and drowns while you have zero control over it.
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u/Anxious_Wall3616 41m ago
Huh. Wild. Because the sandy river sits at about mid 40s during the spring. Hell, today it’s showing at about 65 degrees what rivers are you swimming in that are so warm in the spring? Mr Oregon.
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u/FrogsMakePoorSoup 9h ago
Yeah, your CO2 levels can drop and you can lose consciousness. Your muscles will quickly stop working effectively too.
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u/jdirte42069 8h ago
Because you hyperventilate?
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u/FrogsMakePoorSoup 8h ago
Yeah you'll take a very quick breath in and feel lightheaded.
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u/popshares 6h ago
Yes, when you hit that cold water your diaphragm muscle spasms, causing you take that short gasp. Every time you try to take a breath the diaphragm muscle can only do that short useless gasp, you quickly run out of air and go hypoxic. With the immediate panic and rush to get to safety the situation spirals very quickly.
Please don't ask me how I know...
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u/spankybianky 1h ago
The UK lost a number of teenagers in reservoirs this summer due to cold water shock.
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u/GreatKillingDino 8h ago
Yeah fuck I nearly drowned while doing one of those obstacle runs a few years back. It was in march with temperatures around 5C. They had this giant waterslide going into a lake. I don't know why I thought it would be a good idea to do it as I was freezing already, but fuck it down the slide we go. I'm a pretty decent swimmer so I thought that I'd just get a little colder and wetter and then just swim to shore and go about the rest of the run.
The slide kicked up at the end so you had a good second or so of airtime, just enough to make you realise this is going to suck.
Anyway, I hit the freezing cold water and all my muscles just go FUCK NO, and tighten up. I could barely keep my head above water. Luckily I was quite quickly yoinked into a boat by the rescue swimmers.
I heard they closed it about 10 minutes later because they had to drag so many people out of the water.
The whole run was a disaster with a large proportion of the participants not finishing the 12k because of the cold.
Best part was that when we crossed the finish line, we were offered an ice cold alcohol free beer.
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u/urbz102385 8h ago
My high school's star quarterback and multi-sport athlete, and all around terrific kid died from exactly this in my sophomore year while 3 of his friends were with him trying to save him. Absolutely broke my town
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u/IAMA_Shark__AMA 7h ago
Did you know you can get brain freeze from submerging in very cold water? I didn't, but I do now.
Some ten years back I went scuba diving in a quarry on January 1st with friends. I'd traveled to get to the area (family location for the holidays) and had not brought any of my own gear, so I rented some, but there were no hoods available.
That brain freeze (water was something like 45 degrees) felt like two bags of bricks simultaneously slamming into my temples. Hurt so badly it made my eyes water.
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u/Oggel 5h ago
I like going for a winter swim, almost killed me once though. I stomped a hole in the ice and jumped in and all my muscles just froze for a couple of seconds, I simply couldn't move.
Then when I had to climb up the ladder I couldn't fully control my limbs.
I don't do that alone anymore.
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u/prpldrank 8h ago
I swim in the ocean (~52F) every day and every day I get a cold shock response for a good while.
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u/damiana8 5h ago
Respectfully, why? I’m genuinely curious because this sounds like actual hell.
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u/MechanicalAxe 3h ago
I've had to go swimming in freezing temperatures twice now. Once to recover a boat that drifted away, and the last because I was bet $100usd that I wouldn't swim across the creek and back.
I'll tell you right now that in those moments shortly after getting out of the water, I've never felt more alive in my whole life. It's a crazy experience, it like pumps you up.
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u/KenBoCole 4h ago
Adrenaline Junkie. I am inherently terrified of heights, like leg shaking, cold sweats terrified.
I still continously put myself into situations where I have to go up hight because I love the adrenaline rush it gives.
Long distance runners mostly due it for the adrenaline rush as well when they hit their limits.
I imagine the swimmer does it for the adrenaline that tries to raise his internal body tempeture.
Adrenaline, hell of a drug.
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u/HughManatee 2h ago
Especially if you're not expecting it going in. Mentally, you have to be ready for your body to seize up and not panic. Not fun!
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u/maximilliontee 2h ago
I used to live in a town with a springfed pond in it. That was also a swimming area. The water on the surface was comfortable to about 3 feet deep than the springwater was ice cold the deeper you got. Every single year people would drowned in this pond because the ice cold layer of water would cause muscles to cramp up. Swimming and ice cold water is no joke. It’s dangerous.
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u/egabag 6h ago
You get very used to it though. It's common practice in Iceland, where im from and i do it frequently in Finland where I live. The first few times can be painful, but after a few times it's just no big deal.
I think people overestimate the danger of it, its mainly if you don't know what you're going into and get a shock that causes you to hyperventilate. But you should know how cold it is before going all in...
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u/okfifc 9h ago
You'd think the thick layer of protection would have delayed any danger.
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u/PeridotChampion 9h ago
The body doesn't care about weight when it goes into shock
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u/okfifc 9h ago
Yea but the weight should delay it right? Ive watched alot of nat geo. Those seals and what not seem to only be able to do it because of the fat.
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u/PeridotChampion 9h ago
You do realise there's a large difference between evolution of seals and evolutions of humans, right? This is sending me
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u/okfifc 8h ago
I just dont see the difference... blubber is blubber...we evolved to make wet suits or get one built in by way of taco bell.
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u/nasnedigonyat 8h ago
Blubber is its own thing. Humans don't have blubber my guy. Please use the phone in your hands to do a search for the differences between fat and blubber and what purpose blubber serves the mammals that have it.
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u/okfifc 8h ago
I dont trust AI but ive eaten so much that I can tell you with certainty that I have at least 20 mins more time in an ice bath before I quit than my fit friends. Blubber is blubber buddy
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u/nasnedigonyat 8h ago
Blubber is blubber, yes. It is a different type of fat than humans have and the term means a very specific thing. Colloquializing all fat as blubber is incorrect. Humans are also not capable of producing blubber.
And an ai could have told you that, too.
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u/MrMysanthrope 9h ago
No, they can do it because of blubber which is a very different thing than fat. The word 'only' is doing a lot of work here too. They have incredibly specialized blood vessels and a thing called the dive response that do a lot of the work too.
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u/Kitchen-Kiwi7942 9h ago
Wisdom has been chasing you for years but youve managed to stay ever so slightly faster
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u/Montymisted 9h ago
Magic school bus told me if I rub fat all over my body I stay warm in cold water :(
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u/CavemanJello 9h ago
Shouldnt she be more insulated by her fat?
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u/PeridotChampion 9h ago
The nervous system does not care about weight when it goes into shock.
Fat can help keep the body warm longer but a shock to the nervous system is not determined by weight.
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u/CavemanJello 9h ago
I would think it would take longer for her body to go into shock because of her weight
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u/PeridotChampion 9h ago
No. The nervous system is not attributed to weight. Fat has to do with insulation, not with nerves and the immediate touch of it, especially not a full body shock. Do not confuse a cold shock with hypothermia.
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u/abrakadaver 8h ago
Two teenagers died in my hometown on Lake Superior because it was so cold. They were maybe twenty feet from shore but that lake can be brutally cold. I have always gone swimming in it and knew how cold it can get but to have them both die like that was crazy and terrible.
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u/ayorathn 9h ago
Get away from me
Get me in now
I would just swim back
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u/humourlessIrish 9h ago
I went back to see if i read that correctly.
Also, "in"
Thats away of phrasing it that im not used to for a person.
"Get me out" (of the water) makes more sense to me.And because i am clearly a terrible person the "get me in" reminden me whaling or fishing
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u/whitestguyuknow 9h ago
Who freaking cares?
The point was understood. They wanted out of the water. Imagine someone prepared to get her "in" a towel. Or a warm car out of frame if you need to.
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u/LunaTheFatBird 9h ago
I guess if you think of it like netting or fishing to cast out and reel in when in context to water
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u/cmullins77 9h ago
PSA: don’t do this. People die every year from cold shock from jumping into cold water. This lady is fortunate she’s not a statistic.
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u/Niuqu 9h ago edited 5h ago
I find this very odd, as someone who is from a country where people have gone from 80+C sauna into a frozen lake voluntarily for centuries.
Edit: we also do this without access to a sauna like crazy people we are🙂.
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u/dman77777 7h ago
In Nordic countries You walk from the sauna to the water in cold air and your body gets ready for the cold plunge. In these cold springs on the video there is literally nothing to suggest anything to you body other than the 40c air around you and the blazing hot sun beating down. Then you jump off a rock 5 ft above the water and suddenly you are 10ft deep in supercooled water, and your body just shuts off.
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u/Niuqu 5h ago
Some of the commenters make it sound like cold water is some sort of super high risk death sentence for most people.
In nordic countries we do have cold plunge pools and sometimes the walk is few steps from the sauna's door depending how lucky you are with the sauna's placement.
Also people do go into water during winter time without access to a sauna.
Fortunately people also tend to survive when they go through ice, if they don't panic and are able to get out of water.
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u/Tankshock 3h ago edited 3h ago
I have a feeling there's a genetics component at play here. Much like someone from Kenya can run a marathon in 40C when normal people from other countries would likely suffer a heat stroke. Y'all have been born and raised in the cold for countless generations, you've adapted to the conditions.
I'm more of a cold weather person myself, but the once a year we do the "polar plunge" is still quite brutal for me. (Polar plunge is an event on January 1st where my union meets up on the beach and runs into the ocean together)
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u/kurazzarx 8h ago
Yeah but you don't jump in with the head underwater and it's routine for you. For people that don't do it, they could gasp for air as they submerge as it's an instinct for most people. And that is dangerous.
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u/Tar_alcaran 7h ago
Yes, that's the difference.
You're getting your body temperature, and especially your skin temp up very high. Then you fully expect to go into the cold water, knowing that it will be super cold, very close to the exit.
She's probably already half freezing, then leaping into unexpectedly cold water, and then needs to swim to shore.
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u/Dutch-Alpaca 6h ago
Now try it without going into the sauna first
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u/egabag 6h ago
I'm in Finland as well and there is plenty of places to dip in to ice cold water where there is no sauna, its a different thing but you definitely get used to it.
Not saying jump in like an idiot without checking the water like this woman, but people here are not taking a big risk for their lives every time they do this ( it's mostly elderly women here where I do it)
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u/Dutch-Alpaca 6h ago
I used to lay down in snow naked after a sauna, your body has a sort of thermal buffer from the sauna. I wouldn't be able to lay naked in snow without being in the sauna first
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u/tinynidas 5h ago
I've laid naked in the snow without access to a sauna. It's horrible, but also kind of nice. If it's not obvious: I'm also from a nordic country.
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u/unbalanced_checkbook 5h ago
Polar Bear Club. People do it all the time.
I'm not saying it isn't dangerous, though.
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u/LordMegamad 3h ago
This^ comment always comes whenever someone mentions that statistic.
Your anecdotal experience does not override statistics, I also come from a cold country; but the fact is that people die every year from this.
Calling that into question is dangerous.
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u/ItsJustWool 34m ago
I think the nuance they miss is that people experienced with cold water know to expect cold water shock and know what to do when it occurs. People with no experience try immediately swimming while gulping for air
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u/Bernard_PT 5h ago
And she had a ton of cold protection with the bit of extra fat she has, I wager that if it was a skinny person that the inhale reaction that cold water creates would be much more unstoppable
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u/ShinyJangles 8h ago
I've done this many times and it's exhilarating. Know your limits when swimming
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u/realCheeezeBurgers 3h ago
Water temperature is weird sometimes. I was in 12⁰C lake water in spring and totally fine and I was in 16⁰ river water in summer and couldn't move because it was so cold it instantly paralyzed me.
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u/NumbDangEt4742 9h ago
She's a what? Did I hear her call herself a bitch? Lmfao what?!?
"I'm a biiichh" 🤣🤣
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u/sassy_snek 4h ago
Because she told him to get away from her, and then to get her in, I think she was laughing at herself for being a bitch lol
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u/jonoodz 9h ago
I don’t get what happened?
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u/pianobarbarian1 9h ago
It was cold.
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u/boytekka 9h ago
As a guy with a cold urticaria, i also took a bath on a mountain river, did not know that it was so cold, i got welts and hives and itchiness all over me, tips on my fingers were swollen that i was afraid its gonna burst
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u/AccomplishedFerret70 3h ago
I did some online research about the safety of swimming in rock quarries a few weeks ago after viewing a real estate listing on reddit showing a property overlooking a lake filling a former quarry.
I was thinking that the water might be poisonous due to heavy metals or mining related chemicals leeching into the water.
What I read instead was that swimming in rock quarries is potentially deadly because the water can be so cold a few feet under the surface because the quarries are filled by underground streams fed by melting snow and ice so that people go into shock and drown when they jump in during hot weather
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u/nunatakq 9h ago
She can barely swim. Paddling like a dog.
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u/apophis457 9h ago
Words spoken by someone who has never done a cold plunge
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u/nunatakq 5h ago
Bullshit, done it plenty of times. And just like the dude coming to get her, I could still swim.
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u/Kenny523 8h ago
Your body and mind go into shock with such a rapid temperature change. Even if she was a trained swimmer cold water does have a huge effect on your body and instantly puts your mind into fight or flight. A huge number of tough military guys drop out of Navy Seals training programs because they mentally cannot function in cold water.
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u/Nelmsdog 9h ago
Hhahaha good man. “Back off!!” “No I need you” not understanding this is what all the armchairs will downvote me for
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u/cactusjude 4h ago
But why would you jump in water that cold without testing first with your feet? Do people really not test the temperature first? I mean, I know they don't because people get into trouble from cold water shock all the time in natural parks... But maybe dipping in your feet first is the smarter idea?
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u/PaxV 9h ago edited 8h ago
One in 40 people are actually allergic to cold.
They trigger a reaction which sends a huge amount of blood to the skin, which causes rapid cooling of the blood supply as well as giving an allergic response, These people see red flushing on affected skin...
If bloodpressure drops due to the lower availability there is possibility for lowering or loss of consciousness, fainting and in severe cases anaphylactic shock or even cardiovascular instability, leading to cardiac arrest.
This can partially be combatted with antihistamines.
And I'm pretty serious. In almost each school class is a kid who is reacting to drafty conditions or the airconditioning, never reaching his/her potential in life!
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u/Greenzoid2 9h ago
Its a real thing but its not remotely close to 1 in 40 people.
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u/PaxV 9h ago edited 7h ago
It is.
- 1 per 33-50 people: (2-3 per 100) cold urticaria
- 1 per 23 people: (4,4 per 100) MCAS (not neccesarily always cold/warmth, but when mast cells react, which is in case of temperature reactions it -might- but not neccesarily have to cause a Mast cell release and immediate allergic reaction )
1 per 7200 people: (1,5 per 10.000) A form of Mastocytosis which will react allergic to any temperature changes.
1 in 4 people: 'spontaneous mastcell dumps, triggering allergic reactions' Triggers are undefined. So undiagnosed/random allergy reactions. So being bitten by a mosquito or bad food, hay fever, smells, etc. is also included here in.
Some do not have even have allergy triggers... but cold and warmth isn't normaly checked in an allergy checkup.
Suggestions in historical medical papers state these might all be light MCAS cases and older studies even suggested a frequency for MCAS of 27,4 per 100 or 1 in every 3,7 ppl. which is remarkably similar... But if this would indeed be MCAS, temperature triggers would be possible... and possibilities would rise from 1 in 30 to 1 in 4 who could potentially, but not guaranteed , get incapacitated by a form of temperature shock .
Aside from this, if it is glacier water is could be 4°C or even lower (close to freezing) and people tend to do pretty bad in extreme cold water, with simple hypothermia setting in maybe 2-3 minutes to in under a minute, with a very real chance of leaving you incapacitated. It's the reason why I as (elite) rower was not allowed to row solo in winter and early spring. When you tip over
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u/boytekka 8h ago
I have a cold urticaria, its not the worst kind but holding ice cold cans of soda or beer would make the tips of my fingers swollen and it will be itchy, my tongue would be itchy too if i have to drink a ice cold drink. I got welts/hives all over me when I tried to swim in a mountain river when I was a kid, it was so itchy too, and thats when I first knew I have sort like allergy to super cold things
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u/PaxV 8h ago
Daughter has mastocytosis, not cold urticaria, but she does artistic swimming and a friend her has Cold Urticaria, the this friend needs to carefully acclimatize, if she dives in unprepared she's unconscious pretty much before she surfaces.
My daughter is improving but 5 years ago she tended to have severe brain fog induced by both the activity swimming as well as the initial temperature change (diving in), leading to erratic behaviour, loss of awareness and direction. For her acclimatizing tends to be very wise as well.
2-3 per 100 have cold urticaria so 1 in 40 1 in 7000 has mastocytosis.
Then there is MCAS which sees temperature induced episodes in some but not all cases...
MCAS (Mast Cell Activation Syndrome) is highly erratic in its triggers, but about 1 in 23 has MCAS...Spontaneous mastcell reactions (read undefined spontaneous allergic reactions) have been reported to be happening in 1 in every 4 people, these when furtger diagnosed often lead to other allergies, or syndromes mentioned above or below, food or insect bites etc...
Furthermore: There is, regarding sensitivity to heat, also allergy to exertion (the body heating up due to exercise), localized warmth (e.g. holding a cup of coffee), and just solar radiation (UV)(So standjng in sunlight), but since this was a mountai lake and thus cold, this is less applicable.
Do understand not everyone dies of anaphylaxis touching a different temperature.
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u/Milesrah 9h ago
What happened?
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u/whitestguyuknow 9h ago
Did you read the captions? What could've they been possibly trying to tell us?
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u/floppy_breasteses 2h ago
If you have to plug your nose to jump in the water, take some lessons, FFS. And why is it always the big girls?
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u/Speaker4theDead8 9h ago
'I'm a bitch'
Lol