For most of my young life I had a poor relationship with water. There are many reasons for this (queue the memory of my dad holding me underwater to “help me” like it more), but the main one is that I am typically a cold person. I like being warm better than I like being cold, and well, water tends to be cold. Especially when it flows from underground springs. Growing up in Mexico as a small skinny boy I dreaded going to the waterparks. In the state of Morelos there are waterparks everywhere and the water was always cold. We went quite a bit. It’s what my family did for fun. And I hated it. 

This relationship, however, started to improve when I was a teenager. After enough trips to the beach, and enough Arkansas summers spent at the lake (and a lack of my dad’s methods of encouragement), I realized water isn’t so bad. In college I even started working at a summer camp as a lifeguard! All of this revolved around warm water, though. Or at least, if the water was somehow cold, the sun was still shining and the setting was warm. Cold water was still my enemy, but in 2019 I finally faced that enemy head on. 

Visiting the Nauthólsvík bath

In 2019 I took a trip through Europe doing Workaway, and my last one was in Iceland. I had been to Iceland before, and I knew that there are many hot baths throughout the country. I am a big fan of them, so one afternoon when I was done with my work I sought out a hot bath that I had never been to before. I borrowed my host family’s bike and I rode about 20 minutes away from the city center and eventually made it to the Nauthólsvík bath. 

The Nauthólsvík bath is an outdoor hot bath right on the beach of a cove. The hot bath is surrounded by a complex that includes locker rooms, showers, a concession stand, and a sauna. The hot bath itself consists of a shallow pool made of concrete. It’s only about knee deep and also quite narrow. Yet the locals cram themselves in there, and they sit for hours as they catch up with their friends. It’s a very social practice. 

Part of the social practice is the showering ritual. This means that you have to get fully naked and shower with soap in all your nooks and crannies and then rinse off before you walk out. It’s for hygiene, and more often than not they will have someone making sure that you do this. Every hot bath I have been to has lorckerrooms with showers. Most of the time these showers will have warm water, but sometimes, if it hasn’t been used for a while the water will come out cold. When I got in to shower the coolness made me jump back. This has been the typical reaction that my body has to the cold.

When I got out of the locker rooms I looked for a spot in the hot bath to squeeze into, and I slowly lowered my body into the warm water. The hot bath faces a man made beach that runs into a cove. To the left of the beach was a wave breaker with an Icelandic flag on it. In the cove there were sail boats passing by and there were children who were playing in the shore of the water.

While enjoying myself sitting in the warm pool I noticed that there were people going over this little hill to the left of the pool and disappearing on the other side. Then after a bit they would return and their skin would be totally red, as if they had been slapped all over their body. What the heck were they doing? 

I was so intrigued. After some time of observing though, I realized these people were wearing swimming caps and they were returning dripping wet. I concluded that they were swimming in the cove of the Icelandic sea in front of me. For some reason, the occasion was such that I decided I should try it. I was feeling good, the sun was shining, my body was warm. How bad could it be?

The Inciting Incident

Full of confidence, I made my way over the little hill, down the hill, and to the edge of the water. I stood there for a bit observing what others were doing as they went in. A few people around me were entering the water and there seemed to be no special technique to it. That meant that I didn’t need any special preparation, which meant that there was nothing keeping me from going in. I stepped into the beach just enough for the water to cover my ankles and I was suddenly aware of the commitment I was about to make.

The water was absolutely freezing. I found out later that the temperature was about 8º Celsius (for all of you Americans that means it’s dang cold). I stood there a little while as if to see if my feet would somehow get used to the cold, but that didn’t happen. I decided to keep going. I walked in until the water was just below my privates, which, I had learned from previous experiences, is usually the make or break point. The water at this point felt like it was squeezing my legs, but I decided I wasn’t going to back out. 

There was no use easing into it. I took a full plunge forward until only my neck and head were above the water. I remember feeling the cold flowing up my neck and feeling like it was squeezing my head. The sensation was like that of a cramp. Scared that I might be actually having a cramp in my head in the middle of a freezing body of water, I immediately turned around and swam towards the shore. 

When I got out I was gasping. I had no towel, I was cold, and in pain, and I was embarrassed. Once more I felt defeated by cold water. I was once more a small skinny boy who was happier on the shore than he was swimming over the deep water. Panting on the shore feeling the sun warm me up I felt slightly suspicious of the local people. They probably had done this since they were kids. They probably have endured enough North Atlantic winters to be affected by a little swim in the cold water. Heck, this is probably warm for them! Somehow I was convinced that they were used to this sort of thing, and I just didn’t have what they had to be able to endure it. 

Slowly, I walked back over the hill, and slid my cold body back into the hot bath. Though I was relieved to be engulfed by the hot water in the concrete pool I definitely felt defeated. I looked around and I saw a couple that I had seen go to the water earlier and I asked them how they had done it. They responded that there was nothing special. They simply go in, swim 500 meters and then come back. They did this once a week. Their nonchalant attitude reinforced what I had suspected. That this was just something cultural. Icelandic people are born with it, and a Mexican boy living in the southern USA was not equipped to do it.

The Invitation I could not refuse

Just then a man sitting next to me asked me if I had tried to swim already. The deep sound of his voice surprised me. I turned around to see a burly man with long red hair and a red beard. He looked pretty much exactly like Stoick from How to Train Your Dragon, but his voice and his demeanor was gentle. I told him that I had tried, but that I had felt my neck tense up. I told him that it felt like a cramp and that I didn’t know what was happening with my body. He listened and nodded. Then he said “I feel the same thing, too.” 

The man proceeded to tell me his life story. He used to be a fisherman, but there had been an accident involving a cage elevator on a boat that injured him and rendered him unable to lift anything heavy. He took up swimming as a way to stay active. He told me that he feels the same sensation every time he goes in. Apparently it is worse in the winter, when the water gets colder. But then he said “Today is my day to swim 250 meters. In 15 minutes I will go in. I invite you to come.” I will never forget those last five words. The way he had listened to me, and the way he talked, made it impossible to say no to his invitation. Though I was nervous about going back in the cold water I nodded my head and told him I would go.

250 Meters to Victory

The 15 minutes passed and the man stood out of the hot bath and motioned me to follow him. Once more we made our way over the little hill and we walked to the edge of the water. As we walked into the water he explained that we would go around a small wave barrier and come out on the other side. This would be about 250 meters. The man did not hesitate and just kept going in until he was in a full swim. I followed along.

Next thing I knew I was also doing a breaststroke and the cramp and squeeze sensation returned to my neck and head. This time, though, it didn’t scare me. I had a friend with me! For about 50 meters the man and I just talked as we swam slowly. “I’m not a fast swimmer,” he explained. “You are lighter than me, so you are probably faster. You can swim as fast as you want.” For a bit we chatted, but eventually I did leave him. I kept swimming. I could feel my hands go absolutely numb. The cold got to me, for sure, but I also felt alive in a way that I had never felt before. 

I got to the shore and waited for my friend. I stood there and let my body feel the cold. When he walked out he greeted me and we talked about the swim as we walked back to the hot bath. After another hour or so of hanging out and talking I had to leave. I thanked him and I got out of the hot pool. Once more I went to the shower rooms to rinse off. Suddenly the cool water didn’t bother me so much. I changed into my clothes and hopped on my bicycle to head back home. 

My Changed Perspective

A few days later I was on a road trip with a few friends I had met on Couch Surf. We were exploring the West Fjords of Iceland and along the way we stopped at a natural hot bath. The pool was carved out of volcanic rock right next to a cove. This time it was me who invited the guys to get in the ocean with me. The cold water was still painful to my skin, but somehow it was manageable. This time I was the last one to get out of the water and back into the hot pool.

Ever since that event, every time I have the chance to jump into some really cold water I don’t shy away from it. Maybe it’s because of the association that I have with that memory. I now think back to that very gentle invitation to face a fear where I succeeded at it. I’m sure there is some association with success and victory that comes with it. But maybe there is something more subtle. 

Maybe it is more the fact that someone was willing to stand in the face of fear with me, and follow through with it. I wish I could remember his name. This man helped me change my perspective. It turns out, I do have what it takes to swim in freezing waters. It turns out doing something scary isn’t so bad when you have someone next to you. And, it turns out, I actually kinda like cold water.