“There were a lot of uncertainties,” Jordan Fielder, SCI BC peer, describes of the time period immediately following his injury. “I didn’t know if I was going to have any insurance. Income stopped coming in. My wife had just given birth and was on maternity leave. We were going into this huge unknown with our relationship, our finances, and where we would be living.”
In 2012, Fielder had a dirt biking accident while living in Fort McMurray, Alberta where he was working as an HVAC refrigeration mechanic and anticipating the birth of his first child with his wife, Jen. “I was trail riding on my KX 450 and I was in a meadow with tall grass. And while I was going through that meadow to get onto a trail, I hit a big boulder that was sort of hidden in the grass,” he says. “I broke my sternum rib cage on both sides and T3 to T5 was pretty much pulverized. It was a complete spinal cord injury.”
After the accident, Fielder spent three months at the Glenrose Hospital in Edmonton for rehab before returning home to Fort McMurray where he and his wife quickly realized that the approaching winter conditions weren’t conducive to his recovery. Originally both from BC (Fielder from Victoria and Jen from Comox), the pair decided to return to Vancouver Island and bought a house sight-unseen in Comox. “Our son was born about two weeks after I was out of rehab and he was about only 30 days old when we moved home. We took a leap of faith,” he says. “We definitely couldn’t have done it without our community. During those first six months, we just didn’t know what to expect and everybody really chipped in. There was a lot of uncertainty and everyone pulled through.”
On the Island, Fielder adapted to life with SCI while also embracing his new role as a father. Gradually, and with support from near and far, he returned to many of the hobbies he loved before his accident. Whether it was in the form of phone calls with SCI BC’s Peer Mentor Program Manager, Bert Abbott; YouTube videos from the States on how to drive with hand-controls; local friends who helped install an old Handy Dart lift in his RV; or a UK company that introduced him to all-terrain wheelchairs, help came from every corner of the SCI community. In particular, Fielder cites Mountain Trike UK as being one of the first places where he learned about off-road, three-wheeler chairs and purchased one to get him back on the trails. “Being out on the trails has always been a passion of mine and here on the Island, there’s so many logging roads and trails to explore… Eventually I ended up building a couple of little four by fours with hand controls in them. I started meeting up with off-road four by four groups out here and was back in the bush again. It’s a great pastime.”
Ten years later, Fielder and his family took another leap of faith and sold their house to buy a larger property and build a fully accessible home for their growing family. As with most things in Fielder’s SCI journey, opportunity arose through creating connections and community. Their new neighbour, and now close friend, expressed an interest in cold water plunging and this piqued Fielder’s interest. “I remember thinking, I could probably build one of those,” he says. “I had zero knowledge about [cold plunging] before this, but with my background in mechanical systems and refrigeration I thought I could figure it out. I researched what was available and found that options were fairly limited for an outdoor cold plunge back [in 2021]. So I had a co-worker at the time draw up a design and decided to build one and just see how it goes. We kind of knocked it out of the park and we realized this could actually be a business.” That’s when Eureka, a cold water immersion tub business, was born.
The name Eureka is an ode to the sudden insight often found after taking a cold plunge, and the lightbulb moment that came to Fielder when trying to brainstorm what to call the business. Today, Eureka is owned and operated by Fielder and his wife and focuses on producing cold immersion tubs that have the style of a fine piece of furniture and the functionality of a high-quality machine. Each tub is made to order in Comox, BC with heavy-gauge stainless steel and a brushed finish. “We realized that because we make [our tubs] out of such high-end materials, it kind of prices us out of the residential market… we had to go back to the drawing board and now we’re aiming to get these things into commercial clients. Spas and hotels, boutiques, and health clubs.” Evolving immensely from the original prototype Fielder made in his workshop, the tub now has chemical monitoring and plumbing modifications that meet public pool health guidelines and is commercially viable.
One of the first steps in ensuring that the business was a success was to gain a better understanding of their product. “From T3 to T5 I have zero feeling so I didn’t know what to expect,” Fielder explains of his first cold plunge experience. “But it’s funny, even with a spinal cord injury, when you put your feet in the cold water your body reacts. The [water] temperature usually ranges from three to 10 degrees celsius and I like to do it at about five. Once I get up to my chin I can sit there for about three minutes. With an SCI it is easier, you’re feeling it from the shoulders up so you really have to get deep into the tub to make it count, but I notice a difference. When [I] get out of the plunge all of the spasticity is gone. Your legs and torso are like Gumby and everything is super loose. As a daily practice I find it really helps with spasticity.” He also notes an accompanying burst of adrenaline that makes exercising afterward easier and a natural hit of dopamine, or a happy feeling, that lingers throughout the day.
In the past few years, cold plunging has become a very popular wellness practice and many plungers, with or without SCI, note similar outcomes. Given the recent increase in popularity, the science behind cold plunging benefits is still emerging. A 2025 study, Effects of cold-water immersion on health and wellbeing: A systematic review and meta-analysis by researchers at the University of South Australia is noted as being the first systematic review of health impacts of cold water plunging in general populations. The review included 11 studies involving 3,177 participants and concluded that cold water plunging had several benefits, such as a reduction in stress 12 hours post plunge, increased sleep quality, and an increase in general feelings of wellbeing, but that other purported benefits remained unsubstantiated. Still, for many people, it’s worth taking the plunge.
As the business continues to evolve, Fielder remains rooted in and inspired by his community. Now a father of three, he and his wife are busier than ever carving out time for family camping trips, fishing adventures with friends, and, of course, cold plunging. “Having a good work-life balance is important and I think that’s what keeps me happy. Keeping busy and trying to have a positive outlook on things because I know how uncertain things can get,” he says. With the benefit of hindsight, he recognizes how far he’s come but it can still feel unbelievable. “Looking back, it’s kind of a blur. We couldn’t have gone through it without the community support.”
Learn more about Eureka cold water immersion tubs at eurekaspas.com.
Read more stories from the Fall 2025 issue of The Spin, including:
- Virtual tours
- Cannabis
- Catheter coverage advocacy
And more!
