This video was filmed in January 2024, the sun was rising, and it looked like it was going to turn into a nice day, so we decided to go down to Loch Ness for a winter dip. I thought I would take the opportunity to try out the Insta360 X3 video camera. This was the first time I would be taking the camera into the water with me, so that, along with the fact there was snow on the ground, and it was damn cold, made me apprehensive about the whole escapade. Leaving the house, I was aware that I was nervous but the ‘game face’ was on. From the point I had told Mhairi the plan, I knew there was no going back; we were going to be in for an adventurous morning, no matter what.
Looking at the video, there must have been jitters present because I decided to put the Insta360 dive case on at the beginning of the journey rather than when we arrived at the edge of the loch just before going in the water. My thought process was I didn’t want to spend too much time standing at the edge of the loch getting colder in the wind trying to sort out the camera.
The walk/jog to the shore went without a hitch, we managed to cross the river without any issues, but the crossing did give us an indication as to how cold the water was going to be. This started the mind racing, but we were almost there and the sun breaking through the trees gave us a beautiful distraction from any negative narrative within our minds.
When we arrived at the shoreline, we were surprised to see the edges of the loch starting to freeze. Loch Ness is a massive body of water; you don’t often see any ice on it at all, so being presented with this filled us with excitement and fear. Once undressed, I couldn’t tell if the shivers I was experiencing were from the low temperatures or from the anxiousness that was washing over me.
I walked through the newly formed ice and made my way to a point where I knew it was deep enough to dive in. When you are in this position, your body sends huge amounts of danger signals to your brain and your mind does its upmost to get you out of what it considers to be a life-threatening situation. It’s at this point you have to take control and just get it done. I find that if I wait too long my mind will start coming up with an abundance of very reasonable, well thought out reasons as to why I should remove myself from said situation. At the end of the day though, deep down I know they are all just excuses, and I need to fight past that and just get it done.
Having got myself to where I needed to be, I took the plunge.
The cold water takes your breath away, so you have to take control of your mind again to breathe. I normally think two words to myself, calm and breathe, this usually allows my mind and body to work together. I slowly repeat these words over and over again in my head until I have acclimatised to the situation and can function normally again (well, as normal as possible anyway).
However, my usual techniques went out the window as soon I hit the water, as well as dealing with the cold water, as Sod’s law would have it my camera started unscrewing itself from the selfie stick. I have no idea how it managed to do it, but I just felt it spinning round and getting looser. This catapulted me into emergency mode, and I grabbed the camera to try and tighten it up before I lost it to the depths.
Did I mention I’m not the most confident swimmer, I do okay now, but I still have a bit of fear and doubt when it comes to water. I had a near drowning experience in a swimming pool when I was a kid where I had to be hauled out of the pool by lifeguards which resulted in me avoiding deep water for all my teenage years, in fact I never returned to the water like that until I was in my mid-twenties.
All these things put together meant my nerves shot through the roof, but pretty quickly I remembered my calming techniques and I managed to sort myself out. Once I had taken control again and I could focus on the beauty all around, the feeling went from panic to exhilaration.
We are so lucky to have this this type of natural beauty on our doorstep and I am so grateful to be motivated enough to get out in it. It is far too easy to stay wrapped up in our comfortable lives isolated from the challenges that nature offers us. Often there is trepidation when it comes to stepping out of our comfort zone, but the rewards are definitely worth the effort.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the video. I am starting to experiment with the Insta360 X3 and explore the video editing app CapCut so I will try to put some adventure videos together and post them here.
I do have to say that Mhairi went in that day too, if I don’t mention it, I’ll never hear the end of it 🙂
Many thanks, Malcolm
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