I. PKO Cold-Water Swimmers’ Baptism — Prague-Braník, 7 January 2018

Updated 15 January 2018 with a Czech Radio Plus report.

Newcomers and longstanding I. PKO members gathered for this year’s cold-water swimmers’ baptism on the traditional first Sunday of the new year, at the less traditional but convenient afternoon time of 15:30. Attendance was excellent: 48 new and fairly new members were baptised as cold-water swimmers for the first time. An uncounted number of experienced members came to support them and renew their own baptism, many for the umpteenth time. The media took an interest too: Czech Radio reporter Tereza Šťastná came to the changing rooms and later the riverbank to ask some of those present a few questions.

Perhaps the most memorable words into the microphone came from our oldest participant and I. PKO member, 88-year-old Boženka Černá, who has swum in winter for 41 years: “I believe in the power and beneficial effects of cold water. When I finish a swim and get out, I feel sixteen again.”

I. PKO swimmers’ baptism, Prague-Braník, 7 January 2018. Photo: Petr Tetek

Shortly after 15:30, a large crowd of swimmers, family, friends and passing spectators gathered on the bank. As usual, our club chairman Tomáš Prokop performed the baptisms. The cup of Vltava water flashed back and forth in his hand as the traditional Czech exchange — “Zlom vaz!” (“Break a leg!”) and the reply “Vem tě ďas!” (“The devil take you!”) — rang out more than seventy times. With a little prompting, even newcomer Brendan Massam managed it. He had joined us all the way from America and was not yet entirely at home in Czech.

The water was a pleasant, but still respectable for cold-water swimmers, 5.6°C, with air at 5.0°C. In a sense, we were getting into the water to warm up :-) Nothing prevented each newly baptised swimmer from taking a dip in the Vltava according to their wishes and fitness — some just symbolically, others for several hundred metres and a proper training swim.

I. PKO swimmers’ baptism, Prague-Braník, 7 January 2018. Photo: Michal Kohoutek

This year’s baptism was a great success, even without the picturesque backdrop of snow or frost. Real winter is only just beginning, so there should still be a chance to swim in a white landscape.