Why this community is dipping into the icy Atlantic together
Cold dipping and sweating it out next to a stranger, getting chilly as a community
I couldn’t really believe it. With water temperatures of just 0.6 °C and much of Mahone Bay frozen over, I felt a sense of calm dipping into the frigid ocean water with Cold Water Kelly.
Kelly Simpson started The Sweaty Panda Sauna as a way to promote cold dipping with a safety net and build a community focused on health.
“We need a way to connect that doesn’t involve booze, that you’re not holding a phone, everyone’s sitting together here, they’re losing weight, their hives are going away, their skin is improving, like their overall health is just skyrocketing, especially the mental health too,” Kelly told me.
You can do multiple rounds, going back and forth from the cold ocean to the sauna, but what should you end on?
“The cold is anti-inflammatory, so you want to end on the cold as well, you get a really good boost in calorie burn as well as dopamine release when you allow your body to heat itself up on its own without the assistance of the sauna.”
The community sauna is open to the public, and Kelly charges $22 for an hour-long session in an attempt to make it more affordable than other high-end spas.
The sessions aren’t private; you could be cold dipping and sweating it out next to a stranger, but that’s the whole point.
“You just have to get over the fear of the new experience of being seen in a bathing suit and any of these things; they don’t matter here. All that matters it’s just people doing good for themselves.”
This boat shop was built in 1850, originally a fish processing plant, but then used to build boats, and now is being used to help build a wellness community, with a panda as its mascot.