Some words from the other end of the age/fitness spectrum:

Things change with age: I used to think 65 deg was a normal temperature for swimming, I recall enjoying a dip in the North Sea, around 55 at the time. These days - 50 years later - I consider 75 barely survivable and won’t voluntarily go in the pool until it’s at least 80!

Conditioning the body to tolerate cold - and other things - is good, so is conditioning the mind. The ability to control panic comes with practice and it’s one of the greatest survival skills. I wonder why Nature invented panic anyway - I think it is a hang-over from the herd days when rushing around would confuse a predator; not much help for your own survival.

Swimming is a good skill but it’s not something I would trust my life to, so I set out to learn how to float. I was so successful that one day I fell asleep and was woken by screams from my horrified family. Just floating is a great survival skill. No unnecessary energy, minimum peripheral circulation to keep core temperature up, and so forth.

The trick is to find a stable position that requires no activity to maintain. It is probably different for others, but I float best on my back with my hands behind my head, my knees bent and relaxed - it took some experimenting to discover that. If I straighten up I float upright and my mouth goes under in fresh water. I recommend anyone who enjoys - or works on - the water to practice this; the knowledge that you can float for hours, perhaps even lose consciousness and still survive is a huge plus. Ear plugs are a plus . . .

Of course, with a pdf things are different. Again, practice can save your life. I tried it with a pdf years ago; relaxed and promptly found myself in a stable floating position, but face-down! That pdf was a used one and it went into the garbage pdq! There are some seriously useless and dangerous pdf's out there, and a pdf that suits one person may not suit another. The certification on the label isn't worth spit so test it after you buy it and exchange it if you suspect it might kill you in an emergency.

Caution is another survival skill. I used to haunt the lakeshore looking for the first break in the ice so I could launch a kayak into it. I even kept an old calender so I could check off the Winter months that I had paddled in - never managed to check off February. I used to push small floes aside until one day I ran the bows up onto one instead. Bows up and out of the water is not a stable position and mature reflection suggests that was not a smart move with water temperature close to freezing and nobody else within a mile or two. Lakes tend to have low populations in February around here at least; that was part of the charm. So I moderated my paddling habits, waiting for the end of Spring thaw instead of the beginning. Those were the days . . .

Enough! Paddle safely and make sure you come back!