A couple claim daily winter dips in the sea naked have boosted their body confidence - helping them feel 'liberated' and banish any worries they may have. Daryl Ashley and Susan Roux met while walking along Prussia Cove, Cornwall, in September 2017 and after striking up a conversation decided to take a swim in the sea right away.
The couple soon began a relationship and found that daily swims along the coast boosted their body confidence and helped ease any troubles they had. Hedger Daryl and photographer Susan started off taking a dip in their swimwear, but as time went on they shed their clothes, and inhibitions, and started skinny dipping.
The 48-year-old said he and 51-year-old Susan's first naked swim together was 'liberating' and that while always sensitive to other beach-goers, many 'don't give a monkeys' and barely bat an eyelid. And Daryl said the hardy duo aren't just fairweather skinny dippers, but brave the chill of the ocean even in the depths of winter.
Dad-of-one Daryl, from Bodmin, said: "It just felt liberating. We're born like that, so why not? I'd been going to optional-clothing beaches for most of my adult life so it was a bit more of a change for Susan, and it was a thrill to do that with her.
"People are so tied up with the internet, social media and how they should be. It's so stifling, and I find you just need to get away from it all.
"What better way than to be at the complete mercy of the sea? The lack of clothing just adds an extra sense of freedom to that.
Daryl Ashley (Kennedy News and Media)
"Getting in the sea and resetting your brain and doing something physical and active has got to be good hasn't it? If there are kids around obviously we're sensible about it, but if we can do it, we'll do it.
"Recently we went to Cornish beach and there were other families so we just covered ourselves as we went in and out, but when we're in the waves people can't see anything anyway. No one gives a monkey's. It's not anything sinister, you're just trying to be at one with nature, people are more and more understanding of that nowadays."
But the duo don't just take to the waves in the sunny weather, but dip their toes in all year round too. Daryl said: "In fact in the winter it's better because mental health issues are alleviated to a degree by getting in the cold water.
"It switches all that rubbish off in your head for a little bit. If you do it in the winter, that cold water is [even] colder so it's going to have more of an effect than if you did it in the summer when the water's warmer."
Daryl said he and Susan didn't necessarily plan on naked swimming becoming such a central part of their lives, but now it seems strange not to strip off and be confident. Daryl said: "I can't even really remember how it started, it sort of evolved and now we just do it.
"It seemed a fun thing to do, and I guess for the first time it was such a laugh that it just carried on from there.
Susan Roux (Kennedy News and Media)
"Then it got to the point where we didn't really want to wear stuff because it feels like you're wearing too much - It's weird really. Once you've tried it you don't really want to go back to wearing stuff, it's quite addictive really.
"I know when I was a teenager I couldn't take my shirt off myself because I didn't want people taking the mick out of me because I was a bit chubby, and that really affected me quite deeply. But now you know that you are what you are. The more you do something like nude swimming the more it increases your confidence, and I'd say it's done that for us.
"It hasn't made us want to be models or anything, but it's definitely beneficial in lots of ways and that confidence is one of them."
Despite not being nudists in any other areas of their lives, Daryl said that he found naked swimming helped him 'reset'. Daryl said: "Our lives in general have become a sort of treadmill of direct debits and having to go to work every day to pay your bills off otherwise you'll slip under - that's what I feel anyway.
"I know a lot of people feel they aren't happy in their work but they tick along and it's all fine, but a lot of people do struggle, and I'm one of those. So it's just nice to let everything go and just be a polar opposite of that.
"If you're at a nudist beach the barrier is a little bit lower, you're a bit more connected and tend to talk to each other a bit more. It's like an unofficial club. Having that psychological barrier broken down connects you, it's weird really.
"The overwhelming benefit we get from it is to our mental health. Getting in the water just temporarily resets everything and makes your brain behave itself for a bit - you just feel like somehow your worries don't bother you.
"If I'm feeling really low, because I unfortunately do suffer with depression, it will lift you out of that for a little bit, because you can't concentrate on anything else. It makes you brighter and more positive about life and then you can deal with what you've got to deal with.
"After you've been in the water you think, 'that thing I couldn't get on with before I can do now'. It's something that we know we both enjoy.
"If we've had a bit of a hard time or we've had a bit of a bicker, or something's not quite right in the day, we know that once we go for that swim it seems to alleviate and put things in perspective. You can look at life in a new light because you feel a bit more relaxed in general, and we know that we have this thing we love doing together - it's quite nice to realise that."
