Our Centre is an independent public organization registered in Moscow, and consists of medical and other scientists investigating problems of surviving and swimming in very cold water. The Centre has studied rescue and survival in water at 4-10 deg C and sometimes colder than 4 deg C, particularly after aircraft accidents and shipwrecks, for 10 years. Its activities include training people liable to accidental immersion in very cold water, such as rescue teams, fishermen, and gas- and oilfield workers on offshore fields how to act to give themselves the best chance of survival in extremely cold water. The Centre also promotes swimming in very cold water for sport and health.

We work with international scientists who have expertise in this area, Professor William R. Keatinge from London University and Doctor. Pirkko Huttunen from the University of Oulu, Finland and have publications.

For these purposes we organize marathon swims and carry out medical researchs of swimmers in cold water with extremal psychic and physical conditions (night, winter, choppiness). Our considerable achievements: we swam across the Baikal Lake (45 km, t (water) = 3,5 - 4 dg C), across the Bering Strait (42 km, t = 4 - 8 dg C), the Issjik-Kul Lake in summer (69 km, t = 10 dg C) and the Issjik-Kul Lake in winter (185 km, t = 2 - 6 dg C), the Archipelago of Severnaya Zemlya (near the North Pole) (t = minus(!) 1,8 dg C), the Ladoga Lake in May 1995, July and December 1999, the Saima Lake System in 1997-2000 in Finland (t = 6 - 10 dg C), in June 1998 in Greenland (t = 2 - 6 dg C) and others.

We have been carrying out the medical research and popularization program "Finland swims" together with "Suomen Latu" since 1997. We swam from Mikkeli to Anttola (1997), from Anttola to Puumala (1998) and from Puumala to Savonlinna. Now we are going to swim from Savonlinna to Varkaus (27.05 - 01.06.2001). And then we want to swim across Finland in about 10 years.

We plan to carry out swims off the West Greenland coast and off the Antarctic Continent coast. We have been carrying out medical research and popularization program on the territory of Russia ( from the White Sea, across the Onega Lake, the Ladoga Lake and the Neva River, to Finnish Gulf and Baltic Sea) since 1995.

We have found the "comfortable" cold water temperature range for health-giving to be between 9-10 and 11-12 dg C. Regular cold water swams under medical specialist's supervision may improve your health.

Our practical results are extremely useful for a great amount of people who live or work in the northern countries with cold seas, lakes and rivers. It shoud be noted that our organization is the only one in the world, which has reached such outstanding practical results.