The tradition of a Christmas Day dip in The Serpentine lake in Hyde Park has been ongoing for over 140 years, but this year the official event was cancelled due to the frozen surface.
The lack of an official event however didn’t stop forty hardy souls breaking the thin ice and taking a dip in the almost sub-zero temperatures on Christmas Day. The participants were from all age groups and many really seemed to be enjoying themselves, with some even swimming in the parts of the lake which weren’t iced over.
Whether you have to be brave, eccentric or just certifiable we’ll let you decide, but unless the waters are absolutely solid next year (which seems unlikely), there’ll almost certainly be some people who want to work up an appetite in this rather unusual way.
This year the Serpentine club is raising money for member Neil Tasker, who was left disabled after falling down stairs 18 months ago.
There’s a video of this years Serpentine Christmas Swim on the Yahoo web site.
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[...] Much of the walk goes down past The Serpentine, a large lake right in the middle of the park, which we have reported on many times including for the Christmas & New Year dip. [...]