‘It’s just this quietness and seeing and feeling everything around me. It’s a big expansive feeling,’ says multidisciplinary artist Claire Love Wilson of winter ocean swimming. Photos by Serena Renner
Vancouverites find strength and healing through regular plunges into the Pacific.
When the COVID-19 pandemic first hit, people all over the world began taking frigid ocean dips.
In Vancouver, where residents have a century-old tradition of plunging into the Burrard Inlet on New Year’s Eve, the cold-water habit has taken off, especially along the shores of English Bay.
It’s here, away from screens and bad news, that they can reconnect with themselves and the natural world.
Feet sinking into damp sand, the mind calms to the sound of seagulls and lapping waves. As the body enters the water — usually slowly and with shallow breaths that deepen with each step — thoughts are replaced by sensations. A beating heart. Tingling skin. Throbbing fingers as vital organs call the blood away for warmth. Pain. Quiet.
Back on shore, fully clothed, blood floods to the limbs and brain, easing inflammation and releasing endorphins and dopamine. Some call it the “afterglow.”
Here’s the story of five Vancouverites who have found vitality and renewal in the wintery waters around Kitsilano Beach.
Read the full feature, published January 14 2022, at The Tyee. The original version of this story—produced as a class project for the Visual Journalism course at the UBC School of Journalism, Writing, and Media—won Excellence in Multimedia Journalism at the 2021 Jack Webster Awards.