The Boxing Day Dip is a UK tradition. Every 26th December, scantily clad masses gather at seaside locations around the country to go for a little dip, in whichever icy water they happen to be near. This year I was in the UK, and my nearest stretch of frigid ocean was in Seaton Carew, in the northeast of England; the home of tough northern hoards, and my wife’s family. This year I joined the dip.
For an amuse-bouche, we stood in a pub car park for thirty minutes, so we could chill down nicely. Then it was over the road onto the beach; tops, bottoms, and footwear off and a wander down over icy sands to the threatening North Sea. Many of my compatriots had come dressed in shades of fancy; the Scooby Doo costumes, Pokemon onesies, and pink tutus lending their owners a fraction more warmth. I’m not a fancy dress kind of person, so I unwisely came dressed solely in my brother-in-law’s swimmers. No extra warmth for me. My brother-in-law, even more wisely, watched from the side lines.
Then it’s a run down and into the sea. Don’t think. Don’t dither. Don’t question. Just go. Any hesitation will have you running back to the pub car park; a shamefaced Boxing Day Dip failure. Once you are in, you have done it. There are no further requirements. You have dipped and you have achieved. How you dip, is entirely up you. It’s a matter of personal conscience. Most wade around in the shallows for a bit then get out – a mistake I feel. The lower legs will acclimatise to the cold, but the rest of the dipper’s body will chill down rapidly and they will be cold, very cold.
It’s counter intuitive, but it’s much better to rush in as far you can, then dive under the waves and let the cold water slosh through your internals. Do that a few times and you’ll feel like you are made of iron, and your mind will be hard reset. Any anxiety, stress or post-Christmas blues will be burnt away by the cold water shock. Now you are good to splash around in the winter sea for a while, and chat to the RNFL guys who are there to stop people swimming off for Norway.
I love a cold water swim, and that was about the coldest I’ve ever done. The North Sea is the most frigid in Britain – it doesn’t benefit from the warming Gulf Stream to take the edge off. Also, northerners like to feel themselves to be a hardy lot, and diving into the North Sea in midwinter feeds into that myth and makes us feel superior to the soft southerners, even more so than we do normally.
