Cold water swimming sessions return to Woburn Lido

Woburn Lido is running cold-water swimming sessions again, after they proved to be a success last winter.

The Lido, on Crawley Road, usually operates from May to September but in December it started to take bookings for cold water sessions.

The 45-minute sessions offered by the Lido are available to over 18s on Saturdays and Sundays, and on selected weekdays.

The Lido first ran cold-water swimming sessions last winter. They proved enormously popular in a session fragmented due to the introduction of Covid restrictions.

Users welcomed a safer place to swim with winter weather making lake and river swimming challenging.

Ignoring the obvious benefits of exercise, there are acknowledged additional health benefits from cold-water swimming, it is also a great recreational activity!

The current season has started encouragingly and the Lido is expecting a very busy Christmas and New Year period - it will be open on most days during that period.

To book a session please visit www.woburnlido.weebly.com.

Enhancements of the Lido’s facility take place whenever possible. Most recently investment has been emphasised in safety enhancements, such as the acquisition of the Pool Extraction

Board. This purchase was supported by fundraising by one of the Lido's volunteers.

In the summer, Jess Wills, undertook a mammoth swim in Lake Coniston dedicating funds raised by this to the purchase of equipment to benefit the Lido.

The swim involved swimming end to end of Lake Coniston and back, it was 9,338 metres and took 4 hours 44 minutes to complete.

Jess’s fundraising has enabled the purchase of a dry robe for lifeguard use and a significant contribution towards the purchase of the Pool Extraction Board.

Additional purchases by the Lido include a defibrillator and a new Torpedo Buoy.

The trustees and eight volunteer staff also recently completed first aid training, so that they now hold basic first aid training.

Murray Heining, a Lido trustee, said “Whilst, we hope that incidents at the Lido will seldom happen, we are keen to ensure that we are ready to do everything reasonably possible if an

incident does occur.”