Few weeks ago we took part in Polar Bear pitching event, the idea was of getting nipple-deep into a hole in the ice and pitching your project as long as you could in the freezing water.
We saw the polar bear pitching event pitcher guy (appropriately dressed as a polar bear) at Slush last year and thought that it's the worst idea ever. Who wants to get in the icy water, no way!
In true Osuuskunta Hastur style, we are very nimble to change our opinions about things and decided to give the ice hole a go. Even though I'm Finnish, I had never tried ice hole swimming however healthy it's supposed to be. So It was a first to me and Mr Z (poland) as well.
As we arrived to the event site and got registered, the ladies asked us will you guys be pitching from the ice hole. Mr Z's face froze suddenly (he had tried to escape from a moving vehicle just 10 minutes earlier to avoid going into the water). After about one second of hesitation, I said yes, we're going into the hole. Yeah baby!
We walked to the pitching site and watched the first batch of pitches and despite wearing full winter clothing, man it was cold out there. Looking at the people going into the hole physically hurt. It was hard to believe we would be going in there soon. Obviously if our mission is to produce a game of discovery, we absolutely must go out of our own comfort zones as well so : man's gotta do what man's gotta do!
We moved to Jääli swimming pool to get our bathrobes, slippers and things and went to the changing room. People who'd already pitched came in one by one and told us that it was not so bad. Just build your core temperature before going in, do push-ups and the sort and you'll be fine. I did my tai-ji routine for 20 minutes to warm up while Z had a few beers to build courage. With me waving my hands about the changing room space must have looked a lot crazier than the beer consumption..
Our turn came and we were picked up by a car in front of the swimming pool. To my surprise, the air that felt very chilling an hour ago with a thick snowboarding jacket on, didn't feel that bad after the warm-up with just swimming trunks and a bathrobe on. The car took us to the site and since we were first of the batch, we were quickly directed to the stage.
Mr Z thought we would go to a sauna before the ice hole (would be a standard practice here in Finland) but oh no, we went in directly. It was freezing but not so bad. Only thing I remember is that I nearly fell off the little platform that was built inside the hole (scary). After getting up from the cold water, we were interviewed by the bear who was amused by Mr Z's outfit (Suomi t-shirt, Aloha shorts and slippers, like he was going to the beach). Then it was time to head to the mobile sauna to warm up and then head to the transportation.
All in all we had a really memorable experience with the ice-hole pitching. There was food and beer at the afterparty, believe me that you get really sleepy after ice swimming, sauna and a meal. The beers after that will render anybody quite brain dead, honest =)
Good people were met and fun was had. We had a chance to check out camp hastur mk3, this apartment in Oulu we'll be using in the next few months to finish Hoodownr. So besides coding and things there's also the moving thing to do and the moving day is this coming friday. Besides the computers and things we won't be taking much stuff along, just the shisha, our trusty record player and a bunch of vinyls for some serious after-coding relaxation sessions.
So the majority of team Hoodownr is heading to Oulu now. If you happen to be around, pop by for a cup of coffee or meet us at Kulttuuribingo sometime!
Hope to meet you all in Oulu!
Sami
Hastur
