When shock is not a surprise
A cold plunge offers a good photo opportunity. Teams of people throwing themselves into icy waters in the middle of winter will do that. My favorites are ones where toes are just feet from the surface, just before that frigid impact. You see people smiling. You see people looking like maybe they’re in the wrong place. When it comes to that moment, I’ve wondered: What are they thinking?
It’s not a bad question, so I asked Mark Pooler. “It’s always colder than you remember it being,” he said.
There are many plunges to remember for Pooler. Feb. 24, a Saturday, will be the 19th annual plunge at Sloper Pond, in Southington. Pooler, chief executive of the Southington-Cheshire Community YMCAs, has been involved from the start.
“No matter how well you prepare it’s always colder than you remember,” he told me. You might think that on a warmer, break-fromwinter day you’d get a break, but you’d be surprised. “If it’s a warm day the shock is worse,” Pooler said.
When is a shock not a surprise? There is a kind of contradiction going on when it comes to a cold plunge — also called a polar plunge — or an ice bucket challenge, or even when they toss icy Gatorade on the coach after he wins the Super Bowl. You know what’s going to come; you volunteered for it. But even though you know it’s going to come it still comes as a shock. Even the Super Bowl coach knows it’s coming — but tends to look super shocked.
You may find that no matter how hard you try to be brave you remain a dip-your-toes-in-thewater type, which does not qualify as plunging. Watching while intrepid teams toss bodies asunder is thus a marvel for those who when it comes to freezing waters want to get out so fast there’s no point getting in.
Plunges can be found all over. One on Super Bowl Sunday, a first for SoundWaters, took place at Stamford’s Cove Island Park and had plungers taking on the Long Island Sound. In Southington, home of the brave, the Sloper Pond the plungers are plunging into are the same waters where children will be learning to swim six months down the road.
That’s the point. Organized by the SouthingtonCheshire Community YMCAs, the Sloper Plunge raises money to send kids to summer camp. They are Camp Sloper, Camp Quinnipiac in Cheshire and Naciwonki Summer Adventures. It’s called a good cause, and people are willing to plunge for it. The first year 15 people raised $5,000. Last year 200 plungers raised $115,000 to provide 300 camp sessions for more than 150 young people.
Along with Pooler, Jackie Nadeau has been pond plunging since the beginning. Having grown up in town, Nadeau has first-hand experience with the benefits of going to camp. “I guess what I’m thinking is it’s worth it,” she replied, when I asked her about that moment between leaving terra firma and submersion.
There’s an idea that this might be good for you. I remember seeing a television ad that had people, I was going to call them crazy people, running out of a sauna and into an ice bath. You don’t have to see yourself doing such things to find it impressive. But is it healthy?
The question came up recently on Ask the Doctors, a newspaper feature in which doctors Eve Glazier and Elizabeth Ko of UCLA Health take your questions. Someone from Maryland was wondering whether a dip in the ocean to welcome the new year was a good idea.
It was interesting to learn that catapulting yourself into icy depths – a phrase I use with admiration — “falls into a treatment category known as whole-body cryotherapy.” The doctors provide a list of benefits cited by proponents, including pain relief, better sleep and boosted metabolism. “Data definitely support the idea that cold exposure can confer health benefits,” say the doctors, but add that “research into the practice is mixed” and that skeptics have studies to talk about as well. Your own doctor’s advice is worth seeking if you’re mulling a cold plunge.
If you plunge ahead, don’t be shocked when the moment of icy impact comes as a surprise.
Or is that supposed to be the other way around?