A health-care worker who once found the waters off Hawaii cold is now prescribing early-morning dips in Departure Bay as a way to improve one’s mental health.
Gina Villares-Talbot, a respiratory therapist at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital, was celebrating her birthday outdoors with her husband last September when the two came upon an elderly lady who ran buck naked into the chilly waters off Newcastle Island.
“She looked fearless and it inspired me to do the same,” said Villares-Talbot, a 33-year-old mother of two who says her husband and others raised eyebrows when she voiced her intentions. “Normally I hate being cold. At soccer games, I would be the person so bundled up, you wouldn’t be able to see my face.”
Nonetheless, she and three friends started meeting to swim in the ocean at Departure Bay every Sunday at 9 a.m. Word got around and, last Sunday, there were 20 or so people at the beach — children, teenagers, adults and a dog or two.
Some wade in just to their knees, some jump in and scamper out quickly and others take a 10-minute leisurely swim.
Villares-Talbot calls it a form of mental-health therapy.
“I sometimes come after a 12-hour shift at the hospital and wash off work.”
While she can comfortably be immersed for up to five minutes now, in the beginning, she was often brought to the point of tears by the frigid waters.
She says the shock of plunging into the ocean sends electrical impulses to the brain, which increases alertness and forces your focus to the present.
Villares-Talbot and a few others now meet every day. So far, they have swum in the ocean for 106 consecutive days.
Recently, the group got together to create the Departure Bay Dippers, with an eye toward making a difference in the lives of some of the community’s most vulnerable citizens.
The dippers are seeking sponsorships and donations for a 21-day Plunge Challenge, running until March 21, with proceeds going to the mid-Island branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association. Other initiatives include collecting food donations every Sunday.
• For more information on the group, go to departurebaydipper.wixsite.com/departurebaydippers.
