Sea Swimming Blog #1

Day 27 of sea swimming.

#1 of the blog.

Day 18,250 of Jason’s life (give or take bearing in mind leap years) as the Salty Sea Pups headed to Bouley Bay to celebrate Mr Butler’s 50th birthday. Greeted by morning mist and rain, he wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

It was the first day out with all the boys - Jason & Will (leading the way with well over 100 consecutive days in the water) along with Beni, Sam, myself and the camera.

When I first started winter sea swimming back on 17th November 2020 I wasn’t sure if this was going to be the kind of activity that faded away (like so many other things I tend to do in life!) but now I feel as though this could be something I do for a long time.

Was it some kind of coincidence that I’d been listening to and absorbing the words of ‘The Iceman’, Wim Hoff in the weeks prior to taking the plunge?

Perhaps… but if I’m being honest another factor which pushed me towards this new adventure was an element of ego.

Jason, Will and Ben had been committed to the water for a serious amount of time BUT I used to be a swimmer I thought to myself! The water was my territory.

Having been a competitive swimmer in my younger days being in the water really does feel like a second home… but unlike the sterile nature of the pool, this is proper nature, unbounded and raw… answerable to no one.

After my first winter dip in board shorts in a sea temperature of 13.8 degrees Celsius - the ego was well and truly washed and frozen away, stripped of ‘normal’ thought and experiencing a simple stream of consciousness and presentness as my body entered the primordial mode of survival in the cold, I’d suddenly found my new love by revisiting a reincarnation of my old.

“The pool just isn’t the same as the ocean.

It has no energy. No life.”

- Linda Gerber