Even about Beau and the ice bath

Did you see Beau last night? Probably, because he touched a million viewers and kept me engaged until the last seconds of the program (it doesn't happen often that I keep my eyes open so late) and that was of course due to Beau himself, but especially because of that ice bath waiting for him on the sidewalk in front of the studio. He would sit in it for three and a half minutes under the guidance of Wim Hof, you know: the ice man.

A few Wim Hof facts. He is called the ice man because he once sat in an ice bath for an hour and fifty minutes and ran up Mount Everest in shorts. But he also ran a marathon in the desert without water. The man is a miracle. He takes care of his four children himself (his great love ended her life, something that shattered his heart), eats one meal a day for 38 years, and can hold his breath for ten minutes.

This Wim Hof, also known as the Miracle Man, was going to get Beau into that bath. It started with an intense breathing session where all the table guests (Albert Verlinde, Michiel Vos, and Joost Eerdmans) breathed along with him. Deep and intense, deep and intense, and suddenly they had to stop and it turned out they could hold their breath for more than a minute. Then it was time. Beau had to go outside. I don't know what I found most touching: Beau's leopard print bathrobe, his swimming trunks that he had already worn under his suit throughout the broadcast, or his slightly panicked rush as he grabbed some ice cubes from the bath (did he think it would get less cold that way?) fighting for first place.

There he went. He grabbed Wim Hof. And now breathe, breathe, be here. In and out. Long breaths. You are here, you feel nothing. You are not thinking about TV for a moment, you are with me. That's how it went. ‘There is Beautje, there is strong Beautje,’ Wim Hof chanted. In the background, I saw Michiel Vos who had walked outside with the other table guests, ensuring that the one-and-a-half-meter rule was not forgotten. Behind Beau, I saw Albert standing, holding the leopard print bathrobe that he would soon wrap around Beau with dedication and pride.

Beau came back to the present and announced the RTL News (‘With Anita Sara Nederlof’) as if he were just sitting behind the desk in a suit. I can only say one thing: chapeau, or shall we change that word from now on to chaBeau?