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Crisis Icebreaker

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Ready to face the freeze? Join a swim near you, or do your own challenge wherever you are! Icebreaker is the cold-water challenge that helps end homelessness.

Boost your cold-water knowledge

Please read our cold-water tips and safety guidance before participating in the Crisis Icebreaker.

Please read our cold-water tips and safety guidance before participating in the Crisis Icebreaker.

General health and safety advice for cold-water swimming

  • Consult your GP before getting into cold water if you are pregnant, suffer from heart disease or lung conditions, have asthma, or any other medical conditions that might be affected by exposure to cold water.
  • Read the official tips from The Outdoor Swimming Society.
  • Please wear a swim cap during your challenge to help retain body heat. Crisis will provide Crisis branded swim caps to all participants.
  • Fancy dress is optional, but if you do wear fancy dress, please make sure that it does not affect your ability to swim safely.
  • Consider reading the government guidelines on living with COVID.
  • Please do not take part in the Crisis Icebreaker if you have any coronavirus symptoms listed on the NHS website. You could always take part in the Icebreaker at a later date.
  • Before you take part, consult your GP if you have any underlying health conditions that make you more vulnerable to coronavirus. If you are part of the clinically vulnerable or extremely vulnerable category, please follow the government guidance.

Cold-water tips:

  • Acclimatise to the cold; get in gradually and do not jump into cold water.
  • Swim gently at first, allowing time to overcome the shock/shallow breathing reaction to the cold.
  • Warm up gradually after getting out of the water. Use lots of layers, and wear clothes without complicated fastenings
  • Don't have a shower straight away; wrap up after the swim and keep moving to warm up.
  • Dry yourself off (pat, don’t rub), add lots of warm layers, and have a hot drink. Don’t drive until you feel well.
  • Seek help immediately if you feel very cold, nauseous, disorientated, dizzy or faint.

 

Safety advice for DIY Icebreaker

  • How to have a safe swim - read Beyond Swim's top tips
  • Please don't try this alone; make sure someone is with you who will be able to help you if you get into trouble.
  • Take your mobile phone and make sure someone knows where you're going.
  • Be safe and check local advice when choosing where to swim. You are responsible for choosing a safe location, and assessing your own ability.
  • If swimming in open water, go with someone experienced, wear brightly coloured clothes that are easy to see. Bear in mind that boats and other vehicles may be using the same water as you.
  • Read the safety advice from the RNLI website
  • If you are doing your challenge at home and are under 18, you must be under the supervision of an adult.
  • Please check your local conditions, tides and RNLI reports before your challenge to ensure your area is safe for swimming.
     

Useful links:

Open Water Swimming Society


A temperature guide
“After drop”: a guide to warming up
How to acclimatise to cold water
Festive dos and don’ts

RNLI

Know the risks

Prefer to stay warm and dry?

There's lots of other ways you can support Crisis and help end homelessness this winter.

Fundraising for Crisis at Christmas is a brilliant way to bring friends, loved ones and people within your community together. We’ve got plenty of Christmas fundraising ideas to get you started. 

Fundraise this Christmas

 

If you need some inspiration, check out out our A-Z of fundraising ideas to get you started. 

 

Fundraising Ideas

Whether you're a new runner, want to beat a PB or are looking for your next challenge, join Team Crisis and run to end homelessness. 

Join an event

From our Art from Crisis subscription offer, to giving while you shop, to making a donation in your will, there are so many ways you can contribute to ending homelessness.

Explore other ways to give to Crisis

Questions?

While the challenge is to swim a certain distance (one width in case of the lidos), there is no obligation to swim that distance if you can’t manage it. 

We can’t tell the temperature of the water now, as they are all unheated bodies of water and will depend on the weather. Typically temperatures range between 6 and 9 degrees, but as temperatures drop over January, and especially in Scotland, this could be colder. 

We advise preparing for your swim by taking cold showers in the lead up.

Brockwell Lido and Parliament Hill Lido: The width of the pool is 90 feet/27.4 meters. 

Lido Ponty: The National Lido of Wales is 25m long x 10m wide.

Jupiter Artland: This unique, round pool is 9 meters in diameter (and is made up of hand-painted Portuguese tiles!)

Bicester Open Water Swimming Lake: The lake is a 200m body of water.

 

Yes, please read our cold water swim tips and safety advice before attempting any cold water swimming / challenge.

All participants at Brockwell, Parliament Hill, Ponty, Bicester and Jupiter Artland must be aged 18 or over.

If you are doing a DIY challenge and are under 18, you must be under the supervision of an adult

You need to be able to be responsible for your own safety when taking part in an Icebreaker challenge.

Please do not attempt this challenge in open water if you are not a confident swimmer. If you take part in a pre-booked slot at a lido or one of our in-person events, please let the lifeguard know and make sure you enter the pool at the shallow end. Do not try entering the pool without a lifeguard present, and without making them aware.

Our Crisis Icebreaker in-person event will have lifeguards and first aiders present, but you cannot rely on them entirely for your safety. If you do not feel confident enough in your ability, why not try a challenge which would not require swimming, like an icy bath or shower at home.

Please email swim@crisis.org.uk to let us know. Your registration fee for both the DIY challenge and our in-person Icebreaker events are non-refundable.

The DIY event will run until 31 January but if you wish to complete your challenge later on, you may!

Each member of the relay team for our London events will need to register individually and pay their own entry fee. 

You can wear whatever you feel comfortable in as long as it is lightweight, so this could be a swimsuit or fancy dress.

Please make sure that you don't wear anything that will become too heavy or restrictive to swim in when it gets wet.

Bring a towel, warm clothes to change into when you have finished, including thick socks, a warm hat, gloves and a scarf.

Please wear a swim cap during your challenge to retain body heat.

For DIY challenge participants, if you do not have access to food and drink you might want to bring a flask of hot tea/coffee and something to eat with you.

If you're taking part in an event (not DIY), please bring a swim cap with you. Crisis will have a number of swim caps available on the day but these are limited. 

You can choose to receive a free swim cap if you are doing the DIY challenge.

JustGiving will automatically transfer the money you raise to us. 

If you have fundraised 'offline' (collected cash or bank transfers) you can pay it in via BACS. Please email us at swim@crisis.org.uk if you wish to do this, so we can provide details and a reference number. You can also add the money raised offline to your JustGiving page total - find out more here. 

It is Crisis policy not to accept cash so if you have collected in this way, please pay it into a bank account and transfer online, as above. 

Thank you. 

We love to see photos of your Icebreakers, so please share them!

You can add them on Instagram or Twitter using #CrisisIcebreaker, or by emailing them to swim@crisis.org.uk

We're happy to help with all aspect of fundraising! If you would like to order materials, or download digital resources, you can do so here.

Yes, all of our events will have toilets and showers available to participants.

At our in-person Icebreaker events you may bring people along with you, please email us if you would like more than a handful of people to join you so we can check with the Lido’s capacity.

Don’t forget to share what you are doing with your friends and family in case they might want to join in too!

Brockwell Lido has accessible parking and changing facilities.

Bicester Hotel and Spa has 7 accessible parking bays outside the performance centre entrance. Accessible changing rooms and toilets are available.

Parliament Hill Lido has ramps into the building with level access throughout. There are accessible toilets, an accessible shower, and some larger cubicles in the changing rooms. There is also a hoist into the water if required.

Ponty Lido has disabled access to the pool and changing rooms.

Our DIY challenge is a great option as there are a number of ways to feel the freeze such as having an icy cold shower, dipping feet into a bucket of ice or finding a safe place where you can safely access the water.

Please reach out to us at swim@crisis.org.uk if you require extra support to take part in the Crisis Icebreaker. 

Crisis at Christmas

Every year Crisis at Christmas opens its doors to thousands of people experiencing homelessness. You can donate directly to the Crisis at Christmas appeal and help someone start a life beyond homelessness

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