Deeside Dippers: Our story

As most stories do, it all began over coffee with friends.  Lockdown was taking its toll and we wanted to find an activity where varying degrees of fitness could come together in the quest for friendship, improving mental health and getting out in the fresh air. The result, of course, was cold water swimming. There is nothing quite like that first dip in freezing water; all at once you are in the moment - you and nature and silence. No one can describe the sheer delight of swimming with a glorious bunch of like minded women; the healing and powerful connection with the water is a wonderful gift. 

During this month of April we are swimming for the River Dee Trust to raise much needed funds to keep our waters clean and safe. What better way to celebrate our connection with our wonderful outdoors than taking on the challenge of swimming, dipping, dooking as often as we can over the month. We would love for other dippers to join us in our quest in order to bring attention to our beautiful Dee and to the wonder that is cold water swimming.

‘This plunge into the cold water of a mountain pool seems for a brief moment to disintegrate the very self; it is not to be borne: one is lost: stricken: annihilated. Then life pours back.”  

Nan Shepherd

Deeside Dippers taking on the April challenge:

Alina Geike-Stevenson, Arlene Knudsen, Catriona and Grace Mcintosh, Diana Colebrooke, Fiona Carter, Heather Cowie, Jane Douglas, Lynne Mollison, Sara Henry, Shelley Farrar, Alison Sharp, Natalie Mair,  Kate Abrahams, Hannah Fettes, Aislinn Ritchie, June and Ella Robertson and Catherine Stone. 

Swimming Safely:

Although wonderful, it can be very dangerous. If you are dipping remember to take the necessary precautions to keep yourself safe:

• Try to swim with a buddy, if you are swimming alone - make sure you tell someone where you are going and stay close to the edge.

• Wear a brightly coloured hat

• Don’t push yourself and stay in the water too long

• Remember a warm drink and plenty of warm clothes for after your swim

• Beware of the afterdrop (where you get cold after a swim, and the cold blood in your extremities flows back into you body) this can be really horrible and very dangerous.