https://community.usms.org/swimming/f/open-water-training-and-technique/24592/cold-water-swimming-problemswhen i swim in the lakes or ocean with water temperatures below 55F, with a wetsuit, my feet and toes are so cold they hurt the whole swim. anything you can do, with the exception of booties which are not legal and don&#39;t do a whole lot anyway?en-USTelligent Community 12https://community.usms.org/thread/263683?ContentTypeID=1Sat, 10 May 2008 12:46:04 GMT3187ac58-ba85-4314-b79a-c45cd885e09a:d742cff7-072e-4d47-95cc-962c291d7f3fViveBeneWhy not contact &quot;grumpy tuna,&quot; who seems to be a race director (organizer?) for Alaska and knows lots of cool things? I&#39;d be concerned about chilled blood returning to the heart. Presumably a wetsuit helps. when i swim in the lakes or ocean with water temperatures below 55F, with a wetsuit, my feet and toes are so cold they hurt the whole swim. anything you can do, with the exception of booties which are not legal and don&#39;t do a whole lot anyway? Here is a neat site, GoMoos, on Maine&#39;s ocean waters, including an index for telling when whales will calve (it&#39;s based on data gathered in various places, such as Portugal). I&#39;ve never known Maine waters to be anything less than frigid, but apparently they sometimes are, and this can be predicted a year in advance, from a different index turning positive or negative. <a href="http://www.gomoos.org/environmentalprediction/step1.html">www.gomoos.org/.../step1.html</a><div style="clear:both;"></div>https://community.usms.org/thread/263677?ContentTypeID=1Fri, 09 May 2008 11:14:22 GMT3187ac58-ba85-4314-b79a-c45cd885e09a:6ab4bd77-509b-4713-a9a0-8704a17e1a7cMuppetMy vote on that would be to stay on the shore or go to a pool. Cold water OW swimming is a great example of Survival of the Fittest. We humans were obviously not meant to swim in cold water. If we need to add 40/50lbs (as I saw a future Catalina Channel swimmer is doing) to be safe temp-wise in the water, that is a clear sign that staying out is the smarter choice. We don&#39;t see any eskimoes swimming in Alaska. I swam OW on my own up in Maine last summer in just a speedo and had similar pain/numbness issues for most of my 1+ mile swim as well. I didn&#39;t have a thermometer, but I imagine the temp was in the upper 50s. Going forward, I&#39;m going to try to get a reading and stay out of the water if it is too cold for me. Find a temp you can handle, and my recommendation is to stay out if the temp is too cold for you.<div style="clear:both;"></div>