While most people are shuffling to the kitchen in their pyjamas in search of a morning cup of coffee, Leasha MacLennan is pulling on her bathing suit. She walks the two minutes from her Black Creek, B.C., home to the Oyster River, a glacial cut of water that travels from inland Vancouver Island to the Strait of Georgia.
On particularly frosty mornings, Leasha will carry a rope and axe with her. The rope is to have something to hold onto in the water, and the axe is to cut a hole in the river’s ice. Once she’s chopped away a human-sized hole, she takes a deep breath and plunges in.
This has been Leasha’s daily routine for the last 1,303 days.
Photo courtesy Leasha MacLennan
The hobby was inspired by a friend who visited Leasha and was wowed by her property’s proximity to the river. “My friend said to me, ‘If I lived here, I would take advantage of this every day.’ And it just kind of popped in my head,” says Leasha. “I kicked myself because I’d lived there for six years, and I feel like I took it for granted.”
The next morning, Leasha pulled on her bathing suit, walked down to the river, and jumped in. This was mid-summer, but the water was still freezing. She continued the routine the next day and the day after that. “Eventually, it got easier and easier. And then it was September, and then October, and my thinking had switched to I wonder if anything will stop me from doing this every day,” she says.
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Once winter hit, Leasha came up with some rules for herself. Rules that would give her an out if the water was moving too quickly or it seemed too cold. But one of the rules was that she couldn’t make any decisions from bed. She could only opt out if she walked down to the river in her bathing suit.
Soon, Leasha’s daughter, husband, and dog were all coming to cheer her on. Both her daughter and husband have tried plunging with her. She’s also roped in the occasional friend. But she says she has to be careful not to get competitive.
“I’ve had to learn to humble myself,” she says. “I started swimming with some people that haven’t done it nearly as long as I have, but they can do stuff that I can’t, like walk in barefoot. I knew one girl who could float around on her back and stay in there for half an hour. She’s like a polar bear.”
Photo courtesy Leasha MacLennan
Leasha changes the length of time she stays in based on the temperature of the water and how she’s feeling. She’s also careful about the places she chooses to plunge, especially if she’s going through the ice. “I never ever stand on ice that I don’t know exactly what’s underneath me,” she says.
On weekends, when Leasha isn’t running Black Creek Barber, a barbershop she operates out of her home, she goes in search of new places to cold plunge. She’s plunged in Whistler and Calgary, as well as off-the-beaten-track waterfalls on Vancouver Island. The coldest plunge she’s ever done was in minus six degrees Celsius water. That was at a place called Island Sauna down the road from her. It uses refrigerated tubs to get the water below zero.
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Post plunge, Leasha wraps herself in a dry robe, an oversized, weatherproof jacket that looks like a wind breaker on the outside and a blanket on the inside. If she’s still chilled, she’ll warm up in a bath.
Since starting the cold plunges over three and a half years ago, Leasha says they’ve made a huge improvement on the seasonal depression she’d feel during the winter. “If I’m grumpy, I will go in the water and I come out feeling super happy afterwards,” she says. She adds that the cold water also helps soothe any aches or pains she’s feeling.
Photo courtesy Leasha MacLennan
Leasha is careful not to let cold plunging take over her life. She still plans to go for daily plunges, but she’s not chasing any records or aiming for a certain number. It’s a hobby. One that’s taught her a lot about herself.
“I’m more disciplined than I give myself credit for,” she says. “It’s amazing to think this all came from one singular thought. Those little singular thoughts can actually change the direction of your life.”
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