Portland neighbors and friends Kelsy Hartley and Caitlin Hopkins share a love for cold water dips.

In 2021, they created the community known as Two Maine Mermaids. Their nicknames are Ebb (Hartley) and Flow (Hopkins).

They’ve been hosting cold water dips ever since.

The signature Two Maine Mermaids event is the annual International Women’s Day dip in March at Willard Beach in South Portland. This year, they estimated about 1,500 dippers participated.

Two Maine Mermaids also offer couch to cold water training sessions for those interested cold water dips best practices.

Hartley and Hopkins emerged from the water long enough to answer five questions about what inspires their chilly adventures.

How did you first become interested in cold water swimming/plunges?

Hartley: I got sober in January of 2019, and about five months into the year I was really struggling. At the time, I was following a group in Ireland called The Happy Pear, and every morning they were doing something they called swimrise; jumping into the ocean at sunrise. They seemed so happy that I figured I could try it. So my first cold plunge was May 2019, head first at Willard Beach. I came up hollering and laughing, and have been hooked ever since.

Hopkins: I love the ocean and a friend suggested that I start swimming in the summer. Summer faded into fall and then winter, and so ocean swimming shifted into dipping year-round.

How do you like to describe the sensation of running into freezing water?

Hartley: It’s like taking the volume of life and turning it all the way up. All the sensations pop, colors get brighter, birdsong is clearer, everything seems beautiful. And after the plunge, happiness floods right in. When I started, I was doing this plunge style run into the water. But as we kept going later in the season, I shifted to walking in a little slower, not shocking the whole body as fast.

Hopkins: We prefer a slow and steady walk into the water to allow our bodies time to feel all the sensations and give ourselves, and our nervous systems, the opportunity to shift from flight or fight to “I am safe.”

How does it benefit your physical health?

Hartley: The body and mind are so connected, that it’s almost hard to differentiate between them. Cold water has mixed research on physical health, but for many suffering with chronic pain, the water is incredibly helpful for aches.

Hopkins: Kelsy is the biology mermaid.

How does it benefit your mental health?

Hartley: I think for a lot of people the cold water is a reset. It’s a way to take the spinning thoughts, anxiety, worry-loops and future-fear projections, and stop them all in their tracks. The cold asks the whole body to come online, the entire nervous system takes center stage. And so, for a brief minute, we can exit our brains and enjoy the quiet, peace and physicality that comes when we switch to tuning into the sensations of the body. It’s like a memory of being animal. There is something simple in that experience, and I think it’s so good for us to remember that. As we’ve gone down some rabbit holes and our own research about cold water, we’ve found lots of wonderful reasons for why this actually happens. There is a cascade of hormones that flood our bodies, some of them what we know as the “happy” hormones.

Hopkins: Personally, I have been able to mentally imagine myself in the ocean in January or February practicing slow and steady breaths and taking really good care of myself when I am faced with uncomfortable situations in my everyday life.

Tell me one that that could convince others to try a cold water swim.

Hartley: You have to try it to find out! Two Maine Mermaids was started because cold water connects us to nature, joy and community. So if you want to get out in nature, meet some fun-loving people and infuse a healthy dose of joy into life, come for a dip with us.

Hopkins: You’ll learn how to take really good care of yourself.

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