Greystones, Ireland (July 2, 2025)
This morning, Sean Griffin and I went for a Wim Hof style ocean dip in the Irish Sea. Anne-Marie opted-out so as not to risk prematurely inducing labor ;-)
To be fair, it’s July. The residents of Greystones would scoff at my report as (and this is true) they meet at sunrise 365 days a year and do a morning dip. If you’re curious about it, it’s called the Outdoor Swimming Society and it’s been going on for years.
Sean and Bill report on their first dip of the morning into the Irish Sea
Sean has a bit more of a connection here as members of the Outdoor Swimming Society will tell you that “the glue that hold the group together is Steve and Dave Flynn, of local cafe The Happy Pear.” That’s also where Sean and Anne-Marie first met. I could go down a whole rabbit hole on the Happy Pear as it’s a local shop with all sorts of stories and deep roots in Greystones. Even the currently closed hiking trail from the nearby town Bray is known as the “Bray to Pear” trail implying that so many hikers go there, it’s the “true” destination inside of Greystones. But I digress.
Beach Day at Greystones, Ireland
The saving grace (for me at least), was the sauna across the street with an epic view of the ocean. I didn’t bring my camera into the sauna (mostly because I didn’t want to be snapping pictures inside a sauna), so I grabbed a picture from Google Images to give you an idea of what it looked like — not exactly, but you get the general idea.
NOT actual view from Greystones Sauna — just the general idea
Sean and I went back and forth from the sauna to the ocean and back so that we had three different swims, with two sauna warm ups in between. We agreed to finish with the cold so that we could warm up with air around us rather than overheating in the sauna.
I use the word “swimming” liberally. In truth, I was wading into the water, dunking, wading around and staying in as long as I could before saying, “Right, that’s long enough, I’m getting out.” Wim Hof would not have approved. Then again, I haven’t been training to hang out in the freezing cold water. I was happy enough just to say I was in the Irish Sea - and to be doing it with someone else just as crazy as me. Thank you, Sean!
Yikes! Cold. Burr. Remind me why we’re doing this?
