Cold Nips just love ocean dips

The anticipation builds and excitement bubbles, the earlybirds stand chirpy and fresh, and the night owls and laggards shuffle in.

Blackness is slowly replaced by the young light and fairy floss colours dance across the sky. The chatter and laughter begin. Then, we run. One after the other, a cannonball effect; a stampede of the wild ones. There’s excitement and dread. It’s freedom, and it’s addictive.

Cold Nips is a Perth-based group that gets together each week for a sunrise ocean swim, followed by coffee at a local cafe.

The movement often attracts hundreds (sometimes as many as 500) people with the purpose of creating real-life connections and organically born friendships between young people away from the screen.

The founders, Jian Yen and Ryan Linton, craved to create a way in which young people could connect. They explained that outside the realms of sport, school and religion, the primary way to meet others was usually in toxic environments involving alcohol.

“Cold Nips is open to anyone, of any age,” Jian says. “We have an array of colourful people who come down, from all walks of life.”

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