A 'healthy Addiction': Sea Saunas Make Waves In Ireland

Dungarvan, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Apr, 2024) For Sharon Fidgeon, a regular visitor to Ireland's increasingly popular beach saunas, her weekend sessions "have become a healthy addiction" that tap into a centuries-old Irish tradition of toning up by getting sweaty.

On sandy Clonea beach on Ireland's wind-battered Atlantic coast, the 52-year-old artist told AFP that alternating between the sauna and freezing seawater makes her feel "so incredibly alive".

"Once you get down in the sea up to your neck, it really sets off the endorphins in your body," said Fidgeon after a dunk in the two-kilometre-long (1.2 mile-long) bay near Dungarvan in County Waterford.

"And having the sauna here lets me stay in the sea that bit longer," she said, putting on a dry robe and sandals before briskly stepping into the barrel-shaped structure on wheels above the beach.

In Ireland the Covid-19 pandemic launched a surge in sea-swimming as a bracing escape from lockdowns.

mobile saunas became a post-Covid "add-on", according to Deirdre Flavin, who operates several along the Waterford coast, towing them to beaches by car.

"The market is growing and steadily increasing, awareness is spreading, and people are enjoying the experience and coming back for more," she told AFP as she fired up one of her saunas.

Aside from their health benefits, Flavin, 40, said the cosy boltholes are ideal havens in Ireland's wild and often wet and chilly weather.

"People can more comfortably sea-swim all-year-round now as they can warm their body cores up after the dip," she said while packing wooden logs into the sauna's stove.