Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.

Bárbara Hernández helped Cristian Vergara, Matías Ola, Julietta Nunaz Gundlach, and Max Sonna expand the Argentinean winter swimming scene.

Starting out in her wetsuit in the open water, Hernández has now ventured out of her neoprene and ventured out in the cold glacial water with only her bioprene in an enthusiastic embrace of ice swimming.

Ola and Vergara have awakened the South American interest in ice swimming. “There were only a few swimmers at the start,” describes Nuala Moore. “Then they entered the ice for the first time – and actual competition without wetsuit – and fell in love with the cold. They have the ability to train all the time as they live at the glaciers for 5 ice competitions.

Barbara is a bullet; she is so humble and fabulous, same with Julietta and Max who swim in the glaciers in Chile.”

Moore expects a lot from her Chilean ice colleague. “Barbara is a supreme speed swimmer and will be a force in the Ice in 2016. She has just begun her ice swimming career with super speed swims last summer.”

Copyright © 2015 by World Open Water Swimming Association