https://youtu.be/_HGB-ZlkvO0

Faced with closed swimming pools and looking for something new to do many people have been dipping their toes in the sea in greater and greater numbers and approving of what open water swimming has to offer.  

During lockdown the rates of cold water swimming have rocketed. 

In this film we hear from Dr Heather Massey, a swimmer and a researcher at the Extreme Environments Laboratory at the University of Portsmouth about what happens to our bodies when we swim in cold water.  She has 15 years of experience in research in Extreme Environments, with a special interest in the physiological effects of cold water immersion, sea survival and cold water swimming.

We also talk to swimmers the Bathing Belles at Strangford Lough and Paul Currie at Helens Bay.