Cold water club forms in Creswick

A CLUNES man is inviting everyone to take the plunge into polar bear swimming as part of a recently-formed social group.

After five years of practicing polar bear swimming, which involves entering uncomfortably cold water, Paul Payne is hosting regular meetups at Creswick’s Calembeen Lake and looking for others to join him.

Called the Calembeen Polar Bear Club, the group is set to meet bi-weekly.

Mr Payne has been practicing polar bear swimming for more than 20 years and said it’s a great therapeutic practice for him.

“It’s good for the central nervous system and cardiovascular system, but it’s really great for my emotional and mental health. I feel great for the whole day afterwards,” he said.

“In getting people in the water, it’s lead by example. I was the first one in. You just have to get right in and go for it.”

“I lived in the United States for 20 years and polar bear swimming was everywhere there. I came back in 2016 and moved up here and found all the waterholes really quickly.

“In Creswick, there’s a group of people here that like to swim in the mornings. It’s become quite social so I wanted to formalise this sort of thing.”

Federation University’s discipline lead for exercise and sports science Dr Scott Talpey said although there are proven physical benefits for polar bear swimming, there “is no overwhelming evidence” for psychological improvements.

“There probably isn’t that much benefit to it,” he said. “Cold water is really used for therapeutic purposes for athletes to recover from exercise.

“I know people like to do it for psychological purposes and from that standpoint, it can help them learn to cope with things that make them uncomfortable.

“Most of the evidence supporting getting into cold water though is around recovering from hard training and competitions.

“In the winters, the lakes around here would be cold enough for this though not as cold as elsewhere where it’s more commonly practiced.”

The Calembeen Polar Bear Club meets every Wednesday at 9am and Sunday at 7am.