I’m sitting here today at my desk reminiscing on our cold water dips, missing our group chat pinging my phone everyday with a place and time to meet. I started cold water swimming at the beginning of January this year, inspired by Sophie Hellyer’s Rise Fierce movement. It stared with just two of us here in Newquay, on a bitter January day. Verity and I met down on south Fistral, stripped off and dived into the sea. It literally takes your breath away, I’ve never felt anything like it. The next day, we were five of us. Same place, same time. As the week passed, the group grew and we were fifteen. From there, we began a WhatsApp group where anyone could join, and we’d meet at location once a week for a big group dip.
The group consisted of mainly women, well, actually all women. The Ice Queens. A group centred around empowering women, meeting new friends, and a weekly rendezvous to jump into the fiercely cold British sea, whatever the weather. I want to share with you today some photos from an amazing group of women I met through these cold water dips. They are The blue Tits, a group of fellow cold water lovers. Katie is always guaranteed to be at every dip, her zest for life and the cold water swims is infectious. In her free time she hand sews these incredible swimming bonnets, picking apart flowers and designing these statement pieces. One rendezvous I took down my camera to our favourite dip spot in the Harbour and did a quick impromptu shoot before they swam, in celebration of these incredible women; their graciousness, their passion, their smiles and their all round fabulousness.
