Saturday 10th January 2026. Field Head farm

Headed to Staffordshire this weekend so I wasn't able to swim at the Flash as usual so I found a NOWCA venue close to where we were staying.

I was not expecting it to be frozen!

I arrived and one of the staff was on a paddleboard using his oar to break the ice so we could dip.

The air temperature was -1.5 and the water temperature was 0.9 degrees!

My first ever icy swim and wow it did not disappoint at all. Once i regulated my breathing I basically swam in a small circle a few times, and my hands were moving shards of ice as I manoeuvred through. There were also some huge sheets of ice roughly 3 inches thick!!

it was like an icy fun and floats you get at the local baths 🤣

Only swam 50m as the ice stopped me! But it was a lot of fun and I can't wait for the Flash to ice over and do it again. Or maybe I should just go on a mission to find icy lakes.

Will be hard to get to my 3000m goal this month as I have only managed 400m in the last two weeks! Will do my very best though 💪

A highlight from the swim was the 4 very friendly and tame white ducks who kept trying to hitch a ride on my tow float 🤣

The staff, Anna and Mike were also very friendly and welcoming and so were the other swimmers ❤️