On Labor Day in 2019, Andrew Encinas, a 27-year old social media entrepreneur shuttled back and forth between his new office to set up his desk with a fleet of new computer monitors and the party at his brother’s house in Anaheim Hills, California. Like his business idol Gary Vaynerchuck, Encinas thrived on the challenge of starting a new business and constantly looked for ways to optimize his performance. His favorite technique for dealing with stress was a breathwork and ice immersion protocol called “The Wim Hof Method.” Around 6:30 in the evening, Encinas made his last trip back from the office. His brother Adam invited him in for ice cream and a football game on TV.
“Sure,” he said, “But first I want to do my Wim Hof in the pool.” He asked to borrow a pair of swim trunks. This wasn’t unusual. Over the years Encinas had learned that the Wim Hof method had an almost miraculous calming effect on his nervous system. He watched videos of Hof swimming under Arctic sea ice and teaching influential social media stars to hyperventilate to the point of passing out. Encinas preferred to practice alone and often did four or five rounds of breathing in a single day. Video of Andrew doing the breathwork in the water a few months earlier focused on the peaceful expression on his face. He texted his friends that the method “works really well in the cold.”
A few minutes after Andrew went into the pool, Adam started to wonder when he would finish up and rejoin the family. Then, according to the coroner’s report filed in Los Angeles County, children at the party noticed Andrew appeared to be sleeping in the shallow end of the pool. Adam ran outside to find his brother in a “meditative position” underwater with his hands clasped in front of his chest and unresponsive. Adam dragged Andrew out of the water and performed CPR to get his heart beating again. “But when we got to the hospital there was no brain activity. He was already a goner," says Adam Encinas.
The circumstances around Encinas’s death are far from unique in the world of the Wim Hof Method and stem from a common conflation of two of its pillars: submersion in icy water and Hof’s characteristic hyperventilation breathwork. When practiced separately, those pillars can confer the benefits Encinas was seeking. When practiced together, they add up to an incredibly efficient method to drown.
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