Matt Stebbins
Thousand of women shed both their inhibitions and their clothes on an Irish beach Saturday, culminating in a new skinny dipping world record. More than 2,500 women braved the cold waters outside Dublin, Ireland, meeting on Magheramore beach to obliterate the previous mark.
The event raised funds for a childhood cancer charity. Noted Lucia Singagliesi, the Guinness World Records official on hand to certify and adjudicate the event, a total of 2,505 women spent at least five minutes naked in the sea. That total far eclipsed the old record, easily setting the new world record.
Previously the record had been Australian, set by a ground of 786 participants in a 2015 skinny dipping event near Perth. A Finnish group involving 789 participants also claimed the record, though that attempt had not been certified.
Saturday, well more than three times that number stripped and dove into the sea. As The Guardian reports, the fundraising event—spearheaded by Dee Featherstone and now in its sixth year—is and was a smashing success, now raising thousands of euros each year.
The women in attendance spoke highly of the event. “Brilliant and bracing,” said one participant.
This year the money raised goes to Aoibheann’s Pink Tie. Set up in 2010 by Jimmy Norman and Mich Rochford, the name honors Norman’s daughter Aoibheann, who died from cancer at the age of eight.
Despite recent warm weather in the area, the waters of the Irish Sea still quite chilled participants. Water temperatures measured a brisk 12 Celsius—54 degrees Fahrenheit at the time of the swim. For reference? Most pools keep their waters in the 80’s.
Many of the women said if given the chance they would do it again. Like participants in the Perth event, body positivity was a major draw in Ireland. “We are all different shapes and sizes and ages and it was just super,” said one woman, noting, “I have never been naked in front of anybody before, except my husband, and it was brilliant.”
