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Opinion
With the weather turning cold, Spanish student Esther Sebastián hopes that the latest craze of nude bathing in ice cold seas and lakes will continue
I had heard about Danish people swimming in the sea during the winter time just with their swim suit on. They said that you lived longer. Sure, if you can stand that, you can stand anything. I had also heard about swimming with no clothes at all. However, I thought that was rare. But, it seems that the combination of both has been the last craze in Denmark during the last long winter.
And with the weather turning cold, I hope that it is going to be the same again this one, too.
The first time I went to the beach it was 14ºC. Not really cold in Denmark. 20 minutes and I had already seen 2 penises and 2 nice boobs. Not together, thankfully, but one after the other.
But this tendency increased as the temperature decreased, with more people were doing it.
-1ºC and you can see double the number in less time. Always alone, of course. It seems that Danes only feel comfortable when they do these things in solitude.
It seemed quite normal always, like they did it every week or everyday. They just went with a towel, dropped it in the sand, and you watched at them thinking “is s/he really going to do it?”. Then they went calmly to the sea and they dived in and swam. After a few minutes – even the Vikings can’t stand it for more, I guess – they went out, got the towel again, not without haste, of course, and went.
They never looked at their observers, who were always there, including myself and a group of Japanese people taking pictures and laughing.
Conversely, it was nothing outrageous for a family with 6 to 8 year-old girls going for a walk on the beach and hardly daring to touch the cold water.
They even greeted the nude bathers. And they were so close they must have been able to see if they had shaved their butt crack or not. Totally natural.
But, you know you are as crazy as a Dane when you would like to do the same and just swim with no swimsuit in the frozen Scandinavian sea while other people just behave normally.
Maybe you will even find pictures of yourself in a Japanese porn magazine some day.
Read also our feature: Taking a splash as a nudist
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