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Freezing His Butt Hof: New Ice Immersion Record

by Jordan Yerman | January 27, 2008 at 09:40 am

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Immersing himself in a tank of ice for over an hour, Wim "The Iceman" Hof has broken his own world record and reaffirmed his nickname.

A man who calls himself a tantric master broke his own world record by standing engulfed in ice for 72 minutes.

Hof said he survives by controlling his body temperature through tantric meditation. Tantra is an Eastern tradition of ritual and meditation said to bring followers closer to their chosen deities.

He set the world record for full body ice contact endurance in 2004, when he immersed himself in ice for one hour and eight minutes.

Hof says he survives by controlling his body temperature with the tantric practice of tumo.

His feat kicks off BRAINWAVE, a five-month series of events in New York exploring how art, music, and meditation affect the brain.

[Hof] says he owns six recognized world records for a variety of extreme feats, including the fastest barefoot half-marathon in history (2 hours, 16 minutes) and the longest swim while holding one's breath under ice (188 feet, 6 inches).

Wim is a 48-year-old married father of five, who makes his living as a nature guide.

Indeed, last January Hof completed a 21-km run above the arctic circle in Finland, wearing nothing but a pair of shorts. Further details here. Apparently, Hof's freezing point, as it were, is below that of an average human (like Jaques in The Big Blue), allowing him to sustain lower temperatures than you and I, but I, for one, am not really keen to test that in practice.

DF: If you break the world record tomorrow, what's next on your agenda of things to do?

WH: North Pole.

DF: What are you going to do there?

WH: Full marathon in shorts.

DF: Would you like to see your kids follow in your footsteps and do this kind of thing when they get older?

WH: No, no. I don't want them to be that crazy.

This sort of activity makes me wonder "why"... but why do we do anything that puts our minds and bodies to the test? Any downhill mountain biker or ski jumper will tell you that it's not just for the exercise.