{"id":564274,"date":"2026-08-10T02:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T02:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/564274\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T02:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T02:10:09","slug":"two-hawkes-bay-ice-swimmers-named-frozen-ferns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/564274\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Hawke\u2019s Bay ice swimmers named Frozen Ferns"},"content":{"rendered":"

She also set an age-group world record in the 45-49 200m backstroke, a distance only recently added to official competition programmes internationally.<\/p>\n

Rodgers said swimming in such cold water brought a combination of physical and mental challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy teeth hurt a bit and I feel the cold sensation in my chest. I was hyper-focused.\u201d<\/p>\n

She compared the mental challenge to ultra-running.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou go into a different mode and I brought that to ice swimming.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DebbieDebbie Rodgers competed in the 250m freestyle at the national ice swimming championships in Alexandra in July. Photo \/ Peter Holley<\/p>\n

Jones, of Ng\u0101ti Kahungunu, Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti and Ng\u0101 Rauru descent, competed at last year\u2019s open-water New Zealand championships before tackling the pool championships this year.<\/p>\n

He raced the 50m and 100m freestyle before taking on the 1km freestyle, finishing in 19m 44s.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a little bit nervous, some hesitancy. But I felt better once I put my head under the water,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

During the 1km swim, Jones said his fingers and toes, followed by his arms and legs, began to feel \u201clike concrete\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first 250 metres, I was struggling mentally. At one point I was going to stop.\u201d <\/p>\n

He instead focused on his breathing and technique.<\/p>\n

\u201cNext thing I knew, I was getting stronger and stronger and I\u2019m swimming the last two lengths.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair trained year-round in some of Hawke\u2019s Bay\u2019s colder waters, including the Maraet\u014dtara Falls, Lake Rototuna and the Pacific Ocean off Ahuriri.<\/p>\n

\"Hawke'sHawke’s Bay Frozen Ferns Davey Jones and Debbie Rodgers train year-round in Ahuriri. The pair will represent New Zealand at the World Ice Swimming Championships in Romania in January. Photo \/ Hayley Redpath<\/p>\n

They also used a 3C outdoor ice bath about four times a week to prepare their bodies for the shock of cold-water immersion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ice baths I\u2019ve been doing really helped with my recovery post the 1km,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe shaking and shivers came on, but I\u2019ve learned to ride it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the World Championships, Rodgers plans to compete in the same events she raced in Alexandra, while Jones will add the 500m freestyle to his programme.<\/p>\n

The 29-member national ice swimming team receive no dedicated funding and the Hawke\u2019s Bay pair were fundraising to cover the cost of competing in Romania, while also promoting the sport locally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She also set an age-group world record in the 45-49 200m backstroke, a distance only recently added to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1561,10541,25822,1976,2027,10136,111,43,139,69,87540,1237],"class_list":["post-564274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-bay","tag-ferns","tag-frozen","tag-hawkes","tag-ice","tag-named","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-swimmers","tag-two"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}