Community event Salty Sips will return with its new official organiser Human.Kind yoga studio on Wednesday 20 September, just in time for the transition to warmer weather.
Salty Sips is a weekly sunrise meet up at Henley Square, where community members can join Human.Kind for some guided movement at sunrise, followed by an ocean dip and a coffee.
Henley’s Salty Sips was started in 2021 by Lily Biggs and Nikita Trewartha as the two frequently met up for sunrise swims on their own, then began inviting new people. Those new people then invited more new people, and so on. Before Lily and Nikita knew it, hundreds of people were rocking up with their togs on, prepared to dip and sip — no matter the weather.
Human.Kind ran the pre-dip sweat, providing a mini-yoga class to warm the body prior to the quick cool-down, which co-owner Triton Tunis-Mitchell says led them to be “essentially running [Salty Sips] for the last year or so”.
“We were running the event as it was and [Lily and Nikita] were leaving [Adelaide] and wanted it to keep going, so it kind of made sense for us to take it on,” Triton says.
“If people came to Salty’s earlier in the year or last year, it’ll be the same thing… just underneath the Human.Kind banner and that just gives us a certain amount of robustness behind it, that we can have great teachers supporting it.”
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“So at this stage, we don’t actually have insurance for the swim and we’re just going to encourage that people are swimming at their own risk — we can provide the yoga, the swim is on their terms,” Triton says.
“It’s taken six months of looking and we’ve probably gone through like 15 insurance companies and even though it’s a dip up to your waist — it’s not like we’re going for an ocean swim out to the jetty and back — there’s just no appetite for that.
“I think that’s an issue in insurance generally that they’re very risk-averse, which is probably good, but that can then shut down these kind of community events… it’s like, well, let’s just be smart, and be supportive and take care of each other.”
Despite the insurance woes, Triton wants the ethos of the original event to stay the same.
“Salty Sips is really kind of like a community health gathering,” she says.
“It’s really just a great chance for people to get together to start the day with a bit of a healthy community vibe.
“It’ll be a great opportunity to move, connect with some new people, drag some friends along for a cold water swim, and maybe have a coffee afterwards.”
The main difference from the original concept will be a weekly switch between Henley and Glenelg Beach.
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“We have a studio in Glenelg and for us, it’s a nice way to bridge that,” Triton says. “We have really great connection with the council there and they have great support and facilities for us.”
As they say, win the morning, win the day. These pictures: Ellie Everett.“B Corps are businesses for good — to become a certified B Corp, it’s quite a thorough process,” Triton says.
“Most constitutions are set just for profit, whereas [Human.Kind’s] is set for people, planet and profit.
“Saltys is great because it really satisfies taking care of a broader population… so for us, it really fulfils that part of doing good in the world.”
Triton says the positives of dipping in cold water are worth the early start.
“Just [starting] the day with yourself for yourself. It’s so easy to pick up our phone and start the day in emails, and before you’ve even kind of began and taken your first conscious breath you’re already into the stress of it, and so there’s no platform of regulation there,” Triton says.
“Whereas if you know, we do the yoga and we move and we breathe and then we’ll jump in the water and then we have that kind of social time – which is not based around work, it’s just purely social – it feels like you’ve kind of already begun the day on good terms.
“That rolls through — there’s a certain level of gratitude, there’s a certain level of connected to purpose and virtues that you then take out the day.”
Salty Sips returns on Wednesday, 20 September at 6:30am for yoga, and 7am for the dip, at Henley Beach.
Connect with Salty Sips on Instagram for more.
Is this a hug, or are they trying to warm each other up? Or both? This picture: William Steinhardt.