In Salthill, Sea's The Word

As the pandemic soared, open water swimming— once practised only by hardcore old-schoolers in this Galway city suburb—became the coolest trend next to banana bread baking

- Aileen Blaney

BACK IN OCTOBER OF 2020, I MET AN OLD FRIEND FOR A SWIM IN SALTHILL, A SEASIDE SUBURB IN GALWAY CITY ON THE WEST COAST OF IRELAND.

Facing page: Long Walk in Galway city (top) overlooking the river Corrib before it empties into Galway Bay; A teenage body-boarder surveys the waves at Blackrock (bottom left); A bride getting photographed on a beach in Salthill (bottom right).

In spite of the Indian summer we were having, an autumn bite in the air reminded us of what season we were in. We inched ourselves into cold Atlantic seawater, wondering out loud why this had seemed like such a good idea. “My brother is looking forward to the water getting really cold,” Sarah said. “He can’t wait until it’s too cold for all the new swimmers.”

The phenomenal popularity of open-water swimming during the pandemic had left all-year-round sea-swimmers, like Sarah’s brother, dispossessed of the exclusive cachet of a longstanding pastime. No wonder, then, when I asked around how the on-off-on-again social restrictions were impacting peoples’ behaviors, the resounding answer that came back was “the swimming.” At the same time as entire societies were experiencing what felt like nature’s way of reckoning with a human-induced crisis, people were finding solace in the great outdoors.