The air was cold and misty, the water chilly and muddy-looking, but nevertheless as day broke a couple of dozen members of the Dawnstalkers sea swim club strode down the slipway and joyfully plunged into the Severn estuary.
“That was great,” said Grant Zehetmayr, a founder of the club that meets at Penarth seafront in south Wales come rain, sun or even snow, after his bracing dip. “Dawnstalkers has changed my life. Knowing that every day there will be someone ready to brave the cold sea with you is really quite special. I love it.”
On Thursday, the Dawnstalkers were feeling particularly cheerful after – to the surprise of many – the bathing water quality at Penarth beach was officially rated “excellent” by Natural Resources Wales (NRW).
At the end of a year when the quality of water off beaches around England and Wales has attracted a wave of ugly headlines, it was a bit of bright news, especially as the beach is just round the headland from a major city – Cardiff – and easily accessible to hundreds of thousands of people.
Zehetmayr, 44, a company boss who has swum off Penarth almost every day since New Year’s Eve 2020, conceded that the water did not appear inviting. “It’s silty and some people still think it must be grim.”
He also said people sometimes raised concerns about the “nuclear mud” dumped off Cardiff and Penarth after being excavated as part of the Hinkley Point C construction project on the Somerset coast. “But I haven’t been ill from swimming and I haven’t come out glowing,” he said. “This designation feels a bit like vindication.”
The Welsh climate change minister, Julie James, herself a keen sea swimmer, said Wales wanted more and more groups to ask for their swimming spots to be officially designated as bathing water.
“We want to be a world leader on this,” she said. “We want to designate more waters and encourage everyone of all shapes, sizes and abilities to don their costumes and brave our waters.”
She added: “We are keen to make sure community groups know they can apply to have water designated and then it can be checked.”
James Tennet, a 35-year-old events director who led the campaign to have the beach designated and classified, said: “Not many people used to swim here. The water is brown and doesn’t look enticing, but I wanted to find out if actually it was safe.”
He said receiving the “excellent” categorisation had been a bonus and would encourage more and more people to visit Penarth beach and jump in. “It’s not so much about swimming. It’s more about going into the water and talking and connecting and communing,” said Tennet.
It is not that the waters off Wales are by any means perfect. NRW’s information about Penarth beach highlights that there are sewage pumping stations with sea outfalls not far away from where the Dawnstalkers meet. There are regularly Surfers Against Sewage warnings at Welsh beaches, even those with “excellent” bathing water designation.
Dr Kat Rayson, a clinical psychologist and Dawnstalker member, said plunging into the estuary’s waters had helped her mental health. “People are so friendly despite the ungodly hour and cold, and we know that those small, everyday connections improve our mental health.
“When I do dip regularly, I feel a sense of euphoria. When I don’t do it, I notice sadness creeping back in more intensely.”
Jackie Rawlings, 76, said: “The exhilaration experienced from cold water swimming is impossible to describe. Having the support of people who you can talk to when things are tough, knowing you won’t be judged, is priceless.”
