Video: A Puget Sound plunge, practicing for something colder

It wasn’t a “polar bear swim” that sent an international group of visitors into the water off Alki Beach – it was a warmup, so to speak, for something more hardcore than even your average polar bear usually faces. In a story broadcast tonight, our friends at KING 5 covered a visit by swimmers getting ready for next summer’s “Meeting of the Sun,” a 50-plus-mile relay swim across the Bering Strait between Russia and the U.S. (here’s a map on the event’s official website). Check out extended video coverage we found on that site – albeit, in Russian:

Our water is tropical compared to what a group of 30 swimmers is expected to face next July/August – average temperature, freezing!

6 Replies to "Video: A Puget Sound plunge, practicing for something colder"

  • Jtk November 24, 2011 (11:28 pm)

    Why would anyone do this? I’m actually curious about a reason for it?

    • WSB November 24, 2011 (11:35 pm)

      It’s explained in the KING story … seems to be a nod to history (the long-ago connection between the contingents) and a sort of scientific/braggadocio “we humans are stronger than we think we are” …

  • debbie November 25, 2011 (6:09 am)

    People do this because it’s fun. I swim in the Polar Bear swim every year. It feels good.

    Why do people run marathons? do anything that challenges the body ? same thing.

  • Rick November 25, 2011 (7:44 am)

    Heck, why do I even get up in the morning?

  • Jtk November 25, 2011 (8:05 am)

    Thanks WSB. I couldn’t view the video and was honestly curious.

  • TM November 27, 2011 (12:01 pm)

    Kruto! Udachi vsem.

Sorry, comment time is over.