Bondi Icebergs
Bondi Icebergs Swimming Club is an Australian winter swimmers club,located at the southern end of Bondi Beach in Sydney, New South Wales. The swimming club was established in 1929 and has a small museum on the first floor.A defining characteristic of the Club is a rule that to maintain membership it was mandatory that swimmers compete on three Sundays out of four for a period of five years.Water Polo by the Sea is held there every year by Australian Water Polo, with the Australia men's national water polo team taking on various international all star teams.
The Bondi Icebergs Club was a location for a Jim Beam advertisement.The Bondi Icebergs Winter Swimming Club compete against Cronulla Polar Bears Winter Swimming Club, South Maroubra Dolphins Winter Swimming Club, Clovelly Eskimos Winter Swimming Club, Maroubra Seals Winter Swimming Club, Coolangatta Surf Life Saving Club, Coogee Penguins Winter Swimming Club, Bronte Splashers, Wollongong Whales and Cottesloe Crabs in the Winter Swimming Association of Australia Championships.
"Some might question the sanity of anyone willing to swim outdoors on a cold winter’s day, but for the Bondi Icebergs, winter swimming is a time-honored tradition.Every Sunday from May to September, the ocean pool at the southern end of Bondi Beach is packed with taut, tanned bodies clad in Speedos. The club’s salty, tanned veterans swim year-round no matter the weather.
The club has held on to the constitution drawn up by its founders in 1929, which makes it compulsory for fledgling members to do their time during the winter season even when temperatures plummet to single digits.Bondi Icebergs club president Alan Gow.This initiation includes swimming in the outdoor pool three Sundays every winter month, and more than 75 times over a five-year period. Then, and only then, will swimmers be granted the club’s coveted full membership.On a summer’s day, the Pacific surface can be as smooth as glass, but when the thunder clouds roll in over Bondi and the sea swells, the pool gets a direct hit from the pounding surf.“It can be tough when it’s cold and raining and the weather is unforgiving,” says club president and member of 39 years, Alan Gow.