Welcome to Seabirds Wild Swim Shop

Welcome to Seabirds Wild Swim Shop. Seabirds Ltd is a Community Interest Company that aims to promote outdoor swimming as a way to improve wellbeing. As keen sea swimmers we recognise the huge benefits of getting in the sea to our well being. Our aim is to introduce the joy of the waves and salted wellbeing to those who most need it. Profits from our Wild Swim Shop are used get more people in the sea for the 'salted wellbeing' that we have discovered is so great for our mental health. We source and sell products that are built to last and ethically made. We facilitate and host courses and events to provide participants with the confidence and knowledge to introduce outdoor swimming into their lives. We have a wild swim community group 'Salty Seabirds' who swim year round on Brighton and Hove's beaches. For as long as we have been swimming together, we have talked of making the sea accessible to others. In the sea, where all the best ideas are borne, we came up with Women, Wellbeing and Water. A course aimed at giving women the confidence to get in the sea for respite and relaxation and to escape the day to day. With the help of a National Lottery grant and funding from Paddle Round the Pier Charity Festival, we have been able to turn our talk into action. We have the beaches of Brighton and Hove on our doorstep but it is still under-utilised by so many. The idea was to help women that wouldn’t normally have the confidence to don a swimsuit or wetsuit access the benefits of sea swimming that we have both experienced over the last few years. We know how much sea swimming has helped us and people around us, to get through some difficult times. We ran a pilot session in September 2018 after funding was secured, which allowed us to try out our ideas and gain valuable feedback from participants. Then in June this year we launched our first course. All swimmers on the course were referred to us by Brighton Housing Trust’s Threshold Women’s Services. The service supports those with issues including anxiety, depression, self-harm, low self-esteem, suicidal thoughts, parenting issues, birth trauma and perinatal depression. The demand for the course was high and it was full within 24 hours. Here is some of the feedback from the course after it completed: How have you found outdoor swimming? "It was amazing experience, so freezing, joyful and hypnotising. Life giving and relaxing. Friendly atmosphere and felt so looked after." "Fantastic. It has been great learning about the sea, current, tides etc but the sense of a group experiencing the water together is lovely" "Life affirming. It has lifted my mood and given the confidence and encouragement to plan on making it a regular habit." "Will you swim in the outdoors again?" Definitely yes. It was life giving experience to feel nature, waves and still feel safe as I was looked after well in the water. I loved sound and feel of the sea, which made me feel happy, relaxed and enthusiastic. I feel energetic, optimistic included and better to deal with problems and chronic pains in the future. Thank you for a great experience. "Yes. I’ve joined the seabirds and started swimming with others. Its life enhancing actually life changing. Thanks so much!" "I will definitely swim outdoors again – in fact I have already ventured in a couple of times between lessons. I feel so grateful to have had the privilege of being amongst such kind and encouraging experienced swimmers and I would really like to start meeting up. I would also like to maybe learn how to do the crawl, and would like to hear of any lessons…." The reference to swimming with others, the sense of community and connection which provided the confidence to swim in the sea. This is at the heart of the Salty Seabird Sea Swimming group. So much so, that many of our group volunteered to join the new swimmers each week to swim, guide, assist, chat with them. And drink tea and eat cake with them at the end of every session of course. It is these swimmers that encouraged the new swimmers, happy to pass on their skills and experience, happy to welcome them into our flock. As the new swimmers gained confidence, the Salty Seabirds gained new members. That was our aim. And that was the new swimmers aim. With feedback like that we are of course straight into planning the next courses....