Chilly Dipper: Cold Water Swimming through the Pandemic

Chilly Dipper features my big white thighs again…but thankfully also a wonderful, mad-as-a-hatter lady called Kath from Vermont. A heartwarming tale about new friendships and ice baths in the garden during the recent covid-19 pandemic  Chilly Dipper premieres at the Kendal Mountain Film Festival in November 2022.

Synopsis

When Britain goes into lockdown at the start of the pandemic, Hannah picks up her camera and begins to film family life with young children. At first it feels like they are living a whole heap of delightful low key Sundays in a row, but just like zoom calls even a delightful never-ending succession of low key Sundays can start to lose their shine.

Throw covid health anxiety, pregnancy during lockdown and postnatal rage into the mix and life becomes a struggle. That is until a red envelope lands on Hannah’s doorstep which forges a new and special friendship with a wonderfully bonkers lady in America. The friendship helps Hannah to refocus attention on cold water swimming adventures and ice baths in the garden. Filmed and directed by Hannah Maia, who also stars in this heartwarming tale of family life, cold water, postnatal rage and friendship during the covid-19 pandemic. Duration: 28 minutes

2020 the start of a strange year…and a new friendship

On the 23rd March 2020 the British Prime Minister announced the first covid-19 national lockdown, ordering people to “stay at home”.  The next three months were spent with just the three of us at home. Unable to mix with any other family. I started to just film stuff on my phone. 

It really felt like we were just living a whole heap of delightful, low key a Sunday’s in a row. Like month after month of Sunday’s…and what’s not to like about that.  But just like zoom calls even delightful, low key Sunday’s day after day start to loose their shine.

Anxiety was also high…reading the news about health services on the brink across the world…and did the virus work like this…or like that, and R numbers and K numbers and leaky borders and superspreaders….how to make sense of it all.  Towards the very end of 202o I also give birth and have a tiny month old baby during the third national lockdown.  Several months in I realise the outbursts I am experiencing are some kind of post-natal rage.  

And then one day out of the blue, during the third national lockdown, and as if the universe knew exactly what I needed, a red envelope with a Valentines day card inside arrived from a lady called Kath. 

Kath is a wild swimmer, a red hot chilly dipper. An ice seeker. One of those strange women with an energy so bright you’re pulled into their orbit. We’d connected on social media… …when Kath reached out and told me, that she had got the courage to start filming herself, and tell her own story,  after watching a previous film I’d made, about the size of my thighs and love of cold water. That made me happy. 

In turn Kath was now inspiring me!