Every week, “the Bluetits” of Pembrokeshire find relief dipping on the cold sea of the Welsh coast. What is in the eight-degree waters that has forever changed the lives of these women?
Sian Richardson fixes her big blue eyes on Alison Ingersoll. Both are sitting at a table chatting over a cup of tea. They are in what used to be a barn on the cliff next to Porthselau beach in Wales. Now is the shelter against the strong wind and the cold 10 degrees of the morning.
Sian is trying to convince Alison to have her first cold-water swimming experience: “For women, enter into the water always hurts twice,” placing her hands just below the hips. “Then, you will walk five steps, and you’ll feel it here,” uplifting her hands to the chest. “Probably, you’ll scream motherfucker! But after a while, you’ll feel amazing!” says Sian with a big smile.
Alison opens her eyes. She understands that she won’t escape. In less than an hour, she will be part of “The Bluetits”: A group of women from Pembrokeshire, most of them over forty years old, who are swimming in the cold waters of the Welsh coast.
Sian is one of the founders and what she started as an extreme group activity, now has turned into community support. Most of the women are facing problems like cancer, breakups, menopause, surgeries or life itself. Everything seems to vanish in the cold water.
I don’t know how many people came along in the hope that they were going to find a cure.”
Sian Richardson
“I don’t know how many people came along in the hope that they were going to find a cure,” says Sian. But the group grew from two members to more than 30. Around the table, there are 10 bluetits, and now it is difficult to hear the wind between the laughs and the chat.
What is it in the cold waters that has changed the lives of these women forever? This only can be seen on the beach.
‘This is disgusting, why I am here!’
Full body neoprene wetsuits are not accepted. Alison knows it because under a borrowed coat, she is only wearing a borrowed summer swimsuit. To be baptized as a “bluetit” you are stripped bare to feel “the thrill that comes from been exposed,” says Sian. Alison says: “I don’t handle surprises well”.
Now, Alison and Sian are walking to the beach. “I always look across the cliff, and I know that it’s going to be very rough and I say: ‘Oh, oh, I don’t want to do this’. Then you take your clothes off, and you say, ‘For god’s sake, it’s freezing’,” says Sian.
It is true. There is no official definition for cold water. However, some sports agencies define it as a temperature between 10°C and 15°C. The Bluetits will have a dip of 20 minutes in the eight-degree sea of the Welsh coast.
According to science, the initial reaction to cold water includes gasps, hyperventilation, tachycardia, and increased levels of stress hormones. Nothing healthy so far. “This is disgusting, why I am here!’” says Sian to explain what is going on in her head minutes before entering.
In the same process are Jan Warren and Sue Cox from Pembrokeshire. They are part of the bluetits, who are now hopping and leaving their clothes behind: Gloves, wool hats, coats and extra layers go off. Penny Calder drove an hour to be part of this ritual.
“There’s just something where we’re brought together by a common need,” says Sian.
For Jan Warren is complex: “During the swim, we all at some point have to let go about something that may burst into tears, and it’s like ‘wow that’s out of this world’. It’s like we share ourselves, our real selves, the things that we’ve kept.”
It’s like we share ourselves, our real selves, the things that we’ve kept.”
Jan Warren
Also, there is reason that seems more important than ever, women empowerment: “My best day was when a German lady shouted out to us, ‘I’m so proud to be a woman today!’”, says Sue Cox when the group swam in the cold of February in the blue lagoon, not so far from Porthselau beach.
“We’re all of a similar age, and we will be losing members of our family and friends, and people come swimming when they’ve just been bereaved, and the support is incredible. Tears coming down your face in salt water, and it’s just the whole thing merges, it’s cathartic. The cold-water strips everything away” says Jan.
In the Bluetits, there’s no money involved or memberships. There is also no pressure for being friends. “There’s nothing there saying you’ve got to be something, you don’t have to be an amazing swimmer, you don’t have to have a great stroke, you don’t have to have an amazing body or whatever it is that,” says Sian.
‘You’ve just done something that scared the shit out of you’
The warm cosy house seems ages ago, and the sound of the waves has replaced the jokes. The Bluetits know that the water is freezing. But nobody seems to mind it either.
Everybody’s feet are in the water. Some steps into it and a symphony of screams start as the water gets deeper: At the top of the legs and in the chest, as was forecast. The extreme sides of the members start to emerge. “You know the fear, as well as the euphoric screaming. So, I think we all kind of know each other quite well,” says Sian.
However, a couple of strokes after, the screams are replaced by laughs, and the healing effects of the water start to appear.
“Suddenly you think that you feel amazing. Your brain is saying ‘you are amazing, you’ve just done something that scared the shit out of you and now you’re alive’ and you know the coffee’s coming,” says Sian.
This is the moment when the chat restarts. The Bluetits are grouped in clusters of two or three swimming and talking as in the kitchen an hour ago. The conversations goes from “Oh you’ll never guess what Spencer did at the club last Friday night…” to topics like “some of us have got elderly parents and we might be moaning or complaining or just inquiring about dementia or whatever,” says Samantha Minas.
Part of the group follows the conversation outside. “I am glad that I did because I have moments along the way when I felt alive. People go through their lives, just doing and not being alive,” says Debbie Cranmer.
But now, is the turn of Alison for her first dip. All the group is in the water calling and cheering at her. Two steps into the water and Alison curves her body: the gasps, hyperventilation and a recoil face are there. Every wave is torture for her.
Five steps more, and she has got it. She is now a “Bluetit”, and the group is clapping Alison and screaming her name. They have a saying for this kind of moments: “We never leave a tit behind,” says Jan.