(music, acoustic guitar)
-Our lives are increasingly comfortable,
warm homes to wake up in, cars that insulate us from the sound of traffic,
and social media algorithms that feed us what we already want to hear.
(waves crashing)
But when was the last time you chose to be uncomfortable?
- I'm feeling ... stinging.
I'm stinging cold.
- For those gathered at Alki Beach in West Seattle
this Saturday morning, that's part of the appeal.
- You're walking over to the Sound and people are like, “Oh my God, are you going to go swim?”
Yeah, I'm going to go swim.
- These are the notorious Alki Swimmers who gather here every weekend
to enjoy the frigid waters of Puget Sound, no matter the season, and exercise
not just in overcoming the elements, but building community too.
- It's a people.
It's just a great group of people that do this all the time.
-I think a lot of these people live really close, you know?
So it's just nice to have, like, such a local thing,
and you can get to know people who live nearby.
- With water temps as low as about 45 degrees,
they've certainly earned their name, Notorious.
- 50 degrees is kind of the benchmark for me.
If it's colder than 50 degrees, I wear two swim caps.
- Sam Day is one of the original core members who designed their logo and flies
the flag. It's a pretty informal group,
but has grown more
popular in the years since the pandemic closed pools
and more folks discovered the allure of open water.
- I'm an evangelist for this.
I love talking to new people and, you know, people walk by
and who are not going to swim, and they always ask us questions.
And I love to answer in that, too.
We're pretty social group.
- Now they range from a dozen on Sundays to 40 or 50 swimmers on others.
Folks sharing an iconic part of the Seattle experience,
water and nature in a bracing way.
- There is a connection to the place
there is a connection to the beach, to the Sound itself,
and when you swim to the lighthouse and there's just this feeling of
I have arrived, this is the place.
(music, acoustic guitar)
-Some may only tackle a few
hundred meters, while others are training for bigger objectives.
Count Melissa Kegler in that second category.
- The swims I'm most proud of with marathon swimming is the triple crown
of open water swimming, which is English Channel, Catalina Channel
and circumnavigation of Manhattan Island.
And probably my favorite marathon swim is actually right here in Seattle.
The Amy Hyland Swim, which is typically Bremerton to Alki,
and I was the first person to do a double.
- That's out and back,
just over 10.5 hours on the go,
but her latest project is ice swimming, projects in even colder water.
She broke the U.S.
ice distance record captured in the film “Ice Mermaid,” airing on PBS,
and is filming another movie about climate change and swimming alongside
vanishing glaciers in Alaska called “After Drop.”
- If you really get to know the water really well, you almost start
seeing the water more like a person that you're building a relationship with.
You get to know it, how it moves, what it looks like,
all the different, you know, intricacies of how the water behaves.
You develop this sense where you trust the water
and you understand almost what it's thinking, in a way.
I'm thankful for that relationship that I have
with the ocean every day.
- To some extent, that's what drives many of the swimmers at Alki,
a new way to appreciate the landscape we love.
- So the connection to place, this is our place.
- Not defying the cold, but embracing it.
- It's hard getting in...
comfortable now.
- To find comfort.
- To go a little further.
- In being uncomfortable.
- It makes you feel alive and it keeps you alive.
(music, acoustic guitar, song ends)
Watch CityStream Tuesday nights at 7 on the Seattle Channel.
Or find us anytime online at SeattleChannel.org