Daily ocean swim is a balm to lost love and COVID stress

A forced meditation.

That's how architectural designer Julia Booth describes her daily swim in the Pacific Ocean off the shores of Vancouver. 

Julia began her outdoor swimming regime on March 16, 2020, to mark the one-year anniversary of her partner's death, a man with whom she had a short but intense relationship. 

Julia met her late partner Danny Howard in the summer of 2018, and she says they had an instant connection.  

"I just felt so impacted by him when I met him," she says. "We spent, I don't know, four or so hours together, just the two of us. I just wanted to seize every moment of the day with him."

Danny was a friend of her roommate's, and Julia knew that he was living with brain cancer before she met him. She says because of his health condition, she hadn't considered him as a potential mate. 

But a few hours after their first encounter, she remembers telling her family that she had met the most "amazing" person.

Julia did struggle to reconcile her intense feelings with Danny's unhopeful prognosis. 

A 'general, pure love'

"Knowing that he had a limited time left here on Earth....it really upset me," Julia describes through tears. 

"I felt just this genuine love for him as a person. I hadn't identified it as a romantic love or a friendship love. It just felt like a general, pure love and that doesn't happen to me every day." 

During their eight month relationship, Julia and Danny had many outdoor adventures that included the creation of a new sport, "can-nude-ing," or canoeing in the nude. 

When she was making plans to commemorate the one-year anniversary of Danny's death, she planned to go skinny dipping in the ocean, an activity they had enjoyed as a couple. 

However, March 16, 2020 was also the day that most of B.C. shut down in an attempt to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Julia says the beaches were crowded with people who had been sent home from work, so she decided to wear her swimsuit when she jumped into the frigid Pacific Ocean. 

A forced moment of escape

Julia describes the first cold plunge as a shock that brought relief from anxiety. 

"It was a forced moment of escape from all the overwhelm that I was feeling, and particularly the buzzing in my head," Julia says.  

Her original intention was to only swim on the anniversary of Danny's death, but the next day she once again sought relief from the stress of COVID by taking a swim. 

Julia has gone swimming every single day since her original plunge almost a year ago. 

And she plans to mark the second anniversary of both Danny's death and the unofficial start of COVID-19 in B.C. by getting back into the water. 

Written by Jean Paetkau