Hotter than July (Definitely!)

“I'm sitting half-naked and shivering wet on an outdoor stage in Heinola, a sleepy town in southern Finland. A crowd of hundreds cheers and takes pictures. On either side of me sit five other barely clad men, all of whom are shivering uncontrollably despite the balmy summer weather. We have spent the past half hour lowering our body temperatures by bathing in ice water. The Swede next to me is nearly hypothermic – his lips have turned blue - and he is having trouble understanding the referee, who explains to us that we are about to enter a 210 degree sauna. Whoever stays in the longest wins. This is the Sauna World Championship and those are the rules.”
The beginning quote is by Joshua Davis, American with a distinct Nordic background, who shares his near-death experiences of the Sauna World Championships… where else, but in Finland. His story continues on page 4, “Extreme sauna-ing is….”

Some of our Swedish American friends have an almost missionary zeal when it comes to bastubad, saunas. The English/international word “sauna” is Finland’s sole contribution to the global vocabulary, and while it's used in most corners of the world, Swedes use the word bastu — supposedly an abbreviation of badstuga.
A bastu, or sauna, is a small room or house designed as a place to experience dry or wet heat sessions, or an establishment with one or more of these and auxiliary facilities.
Anyone with an affiliation with such an establishment, for instance the Swedish Ski Club in Vermont, will know that a bastu session can be a social affair in which the participants disrobe and sit or recline in temperatures over 80°C (176°F). This induces relaxation and promotes sweating, and eventually a perceived, finally real, cleansing of the body.
Every sauna experience will follow its own set of rules, but there are certain things that are considered bad manners: keeping the door open too long or wearing clothing (In the Nordic countries saunas are virtually gender-free zones where nudity is common and expected, quite a shocking experience for many Americans).
Contrary to common belief, the origins of "sweat bathing” are not isolated to the Nordic region. It is common among the Inuit people in the north, Native Americans, in South America, even in Africa. Steam baths and public bathing houses are known from the early Greek civilization to have morphed into the Roman Thermae, and there’s even a Jewish equivalent, called Shwitz.
Records and other historical evidence indicate that the first wooden saunas in the Nordic area were built in 500 A.D., often dug into hills or embankments.
Contrary to the Turkish steam baths, so-called hammams, where humidity is sometimes close to 100%, the Nordic saunas have relatively low humidity levels and temperatures sometimes approach or exceed 100°C (212°F). This allows air temperatures that could boil water to be tolerated and even enjoyed for longer periods of time.
“Bastu bad” can be dangerous, as heat prostration or the even more serious hypothermia (heat stroke) can result. Factors must be considered - such as amount of water thrown on the heater (which increases humidity so that sauna bathers perspire more copiously), length of stay in the sauna and positioning in the sauna - to have a safe first experience. Davis in his report from the Sauna World Championships shares all of the techniques he wasn't fully able to take advantage of himself.
BOX:
While saunas are common also in Sweden, Finland has a likely record when it comes to per capita saunas. In a nation of about 5 million people, there are an estimated 2.1 million saunas. Practically every apartment building has a shared sauna, with different days reserved for men and women. And of course a sauna is as important as a kitchen at even the most modest summer cottage. The Finns have an old saying about the alleged impact of saunas on health: "If booze, tar, or the sauna won't help, the illness is fatal."

Sweden has its own Bastu Academy. Headquartered at Kukkolaforsen at the Torne River on Sweden's absolute northern border to Finland, it has members all over the country and perhaps the world. The academy recently hosted 37 Chinese tourists who experienced one of the smoke saunas in the region. Its Website (in Swedish only) www.bastuakademien.se can offer valuable hints regarding etiquette, techniques and equipment.
There are several suppliers of sauna equipment, one of Sweden's largest being Tylö, www.tylo.se (available in English), which has distributors in eastern USA: www.balticleisure.com. You’ll find the most saunas in America, not surprisingly where many Finns settled, in the Upper Peninsula in Michigan. And when it comes to building your own from scratch, we found www.saunastore.com to be quite helpful. If you are looking for a special supplier or want an exact replica of the Finnish Embassy’s sauna in DC, we suggest www.cankar.org/sauna/building/building.html#namerica as a valuable source.