"Ice Bear" Lewis Gordon Pugh has broken his own world record for the longest ice water swim on Friday.

Lewis swam for 1.2 kilometres inside the Norwegian mountains where the water temperature in the lake, about 300km northeast of Bergen, was just above zero degrees.

As per the rules of the English Channel Swimming Association, Gordon only wore a cap, swimming trunk and goggles.

"I'm ecstatic," he told Reuters by telephone. "It was the hardest cold water swim I have ever done because the water is so fresh."

Last year 36-year-old Pugh swam for 1 km in the Barents Sea off the northerly island of Spitzbergen and in 2003 he swam five kilometre around North Cape, Europe's most northern point.

Pugh said that after the initial shock the body feels a searing, burning sensation. After 15 minutes of swimming, he lost feeling in his hands and feet.

His love of the ice-cold water is part of a study by universities in South Africa, Norway and Finland.