It is almost hard to imagine that a man from Sittard got the whole world into the ice. Yet Wim Hof did exactly that. The world knows him as "The Iceman". To us, he is much more: a man with enormous energy, an open heart, and a view of the world that touches us deeply. Without him, Dip & Breathe would never have come about.
Who is Wim Hof?
Wim Hof was born on April 20, 1959, in Sittard, in Limburg. Even as a teenager, he sought out the cold. He spent hours outside in the snow and slept outside in winter, without a tent and without a sleeping bag. What sounded crazy to others was a journey of discovery for him: how far can a person go if they stay with their breath and their mind?
That question never let him go. He became one of the best-known Dutch people in the world. He stands on stages all over the world, wrote books, and inspired millions of people to enter the cold water themselves.
Wim Hof's records
Wim Hof has shown what a person can do. According to Guinness World Records, he earned 18 Guinness titles over the years. A few of his best-known achievements:
- Swimming 57.5 meters under the ice (2000). He swam through a frozen lake, from one hole to the next. The day before, something went wrong: without goggles, his eyes froze. The next day, he simply went again.
- Barefoot half marathon over ice and snow (2007). In Oulu, Finland, he ran 21 kilometers without shoes, in 2 hours, 16 minutes, and 34 seconds.
- Mount Everest in shorts (2007). He climbed to an altitude of 7,400 meters, wearing only shorts and shoes.
- 44 minutes in the ice (2010). Up to his neck in ice cubes, a world record. Later, he even held out for almost two hours.
- A marathon above the Arctic Circle in Finland, in the bitter cold.
- A half marathon through the Namib Desert, without drinking a drop of water. From extreme cold to extreme heat.
- Mount Kilimanjaro (2016). Together with a group, he reached Gilman's Point, at the edge of the crater, in 28 hours.
Many of his records were later broken. Often by people who themselves entered the ice because of him. And honestly: that is perhaps the most beautiful record of all.
His view of the world
What touches us most is not even what Wim did. It is how he looks at it. His motto actually says it all: "What I can do, anyone can learn."
Wim believes that there is much more in every person than we think. You don't have to buy anything for it. You always have your breath with you. The cold is there for everyone. The only thing you need is the courage to start.
He looks at the world with an open mind. He listens to old traditions, to nature, and to science. He didn't let himself be told what was and wasn't possible, but simply went and discovered it himself. We recognize ourselves in that curiosity and that freedom.
His energy
And then there is his energy. Anyone who has ever seen Wim knows it: he laughs, he sings, he makes jokes, he is pure. He doesn't do it strictly or heavily, but with joy, warmth, and a healthy dose of Limburg humor.
He shows that it is not about acting tough or enduring pain. It is about breathing consciously, learning your limits, and then laughing again. That mix of depth and lightness, that is exactly what we want to give too.
Because of him, I started doing this
Kevin: "I started doing this because of Wim. Because of him, I went into the ice in Lapland and Sweden. I am not as big as he is, I know that. But we share the same opinion. We stand behind Wim, behind ice dipping, and behind the breath. That is what we are about, and that is what I want to pass on."
Whatever the media writes: we stand behind Wim
Newspapers write a lot about Wim. Headlines come and go. What remains is this: the ice is still cold. The breath is still free. And millions of people all over the world have once stepped into the water with a beating heart, because one man from Sittard said that everyone can do it.
A headline is written in a few seconds. An ice bath you have to do yourself. That is why we prefer to listen to what we see and feel ourselves, in the water, with our groups, year after year.
So let us just say it out loud: we stand behind Wim. Behind the cold, behind the breath, and behind the man who taught the world that there is more in you than you think.
From inspiration to Dip & Breathe
Dip & Breathe is a co-creation of Purity Healing × Studio Purana: Kevin Lorenzini and Erik van Tilburg. We take people along in breathwork and the ice bath, in the Netherlands and on trips to Lapland. There, above the Arctic Circle in Kiruna, we go into the ice under the northern lights.
We do not offer official Wim Hof lessons. We work in our own way, with what we ourselves have learned and experienced. But the spark came from Wim, and we are happy to say that out loud.
What do researchers say?
Wim also had himself studied by science. Researchers from Radboudumc in Nijmegen studied what breathwork and cold do in a group of test subjects who had trained with Wim in 2014 (source: Kox et al., PNAS, 2014). Since then, a lot of research has been done worldwide on cold and breathing.
We promise nothing with that. We do see that many people tell us after an ice bath that they feel clear, calm, and alive.
Dip & Breathe is not therapy and not a medical treatment. Do you have a medical condition, are you pregnant, or are you in doubt? Then consult your general practitioner first.
Entering the ice yourself?
You don't have to be an Iceman. At Dip & Breathe, we build up slowly, always from your level. First breathing, then the cold. And then laughing together, exactly as Wim showed us.
View all Dip & Breathe events →
Also read: Breathwork and ice bath: how Dip & Breathe works · Northern Lights trip to Lapland
Purity Healing and Studio Purana are not affiliated with Wim Hof or Innerfire. "Wim Hof Method" is a brand of Innerfire B.V. Cover photo Wim Hof: Stefan Brending (edited), CC BY-SA 3.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons.
