From A to Sea – The Southern Star Sea Swimming Podcast · The Southern Star

The swimming women of Iceland

·32 min·2 clips

Participants are told to “just show up,” and the group still goes in together.

1. From A to Sea – The Southern Star Sea Swimming Podcast episode “The swimming women of Iceland” focuses on Tina, Margaret, and Clara’s Reykjavik sea-swimming group. 2. Producer-presenter Siobhan Cronin hosts Tina, Margaret, and Clara, three swimmers she met at Sædraikevik beach in Iceland. 3. The episode asks how the group began, what the women do before and after the sea, and why cold-water dipping matters to them. 4. Tina says she and Margaret set up the group in November three years ago during a wellness course. 5. Margaret explains that they added a sea day because they were already dipping in the sea and wanted to try it with participants. 6. Tina says the first cold-water session went so well that the course changed from one day a week to three days a week. 7. She also says they stopped the fasting course because “No one wanted to fast in December.” 8. Margaret describes Iceland as a country where people like their swimming pools and do outdoor swimming all year round. 9. She says the group normally does not wear wetsuits, only neoprene gloves, boots, and yellow hats. 10. Clara explains that the beach routine begins with gratitude, warm-up exercise, and a small bowl or gong before the sea entry. 11. She says her sister-in-law went into about five-degree water for the first time and loved it. 12. Clara says she started sea dipping to see whether it would relieve pain in her legs and back. 13. She says the water helps with that pain and that she never feels better than when she is in the ocean with the other women. 14. Tina says some members come for pain relief, while others come after grief, burnout, depression, or stressful lives. 15. She says the social side matters because women can arrive feeling unwilling, name that feeling in the “complaint department,” and still enter together. 16. Tina says they walk into the ocean hand in hand and sing to regulate breathing in the cold water. 17. The episode sounds conversational and local, with three guests answering practical questions about temperature, clothing, and routines. 18. The tone stays relaxed and communal, with several examples of laughter, dancing, clapping, and shared cold-water habits. 19. Listeners interested in cold-water swimming and women’s community rituals. 20. Listeners looking for technical analysis rather than personal stories.

As heard by us

A sea-swimming ritual in Iceland where song, routine, and friendship help carry the cold.

This sea-swimming story in Iceland works best when it lingers on the small things: three weekly meetups, a short meditation, a joking "complaints department," and the group going into the water arm in arm, singing. Those details give the piece its shape.

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Why you'd press play

Press play for a sea-swim circle that turns cold water, worry, and song into one shared ritual.

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