Charlotte Ringbæk: “I'm nearly in the same humour every day when I’m here, and I'm looking forward to it, and sometimes when I bicycle over here in the rain or heavy wind, and in the dark, I think this is really weird. I'm bicycling in the evening, to take off my clothes, go into cold water, and go into the sauna. It’s strange, but it feels so good.”
Hello and welcome to episode four of This Amarkaner Life, which comes to you from the Helgoland winter bathing club, where the air temperature is just above zero and the water temperature is a relatively balmy five degrees, and it is absolutely delightful.
UPSOUND: Nina Marie in and out of water, saying (in Danish): “It is wonderful, so wonderful. The cold shock.”
Okay, let’s get one thing out of the way from the start.
This isn’t going to be one of those podcast episodes where the hapless host tries something for the first time and gets to be all what-the-fuck and why-on-earth about it.
You see, I’ve been a member of Helgoland for five years — so that’s five years of throwing myself into the icy waters of the Øresund, five years of reviving my frozen corpse in the sauna, and five years of experiencing Det Kolde Gys — the cold shock — for myself.
And when December rolled around — and the water temperature at Helgoland hit single figures — I figured it was high time for an episode about one of my favourite spots on Amager.
So here we are — or rather, here I am — sitting stark naked in a sauna, with a few dozen strangers, wondering if there’s something indecent about how I’m holding my microphone.
UPSOUND: Sauna bells
To be precise, I’m sitting in the largest of Helgoland’s four saunas, a communal one with spectacular views not only of Amager beach but across the Øresund towards Sweden too.
Inside the sauna it’s 80 degrees Celsius — and the humidity is rising.
That’s because we’re enjoying a sauna gus — a ritual involving three 15-minute sessions in the heat, with breaks in between to dash outside into the snow for a cooling dip in the sea.
And the so-called gus master at the front keeps pouring water over the sauna’s two ovens to create even more steam.
The gus master’s name is Charlotte Ringbæk, and I’d heard she was something of a sauna super-user.
So earlier in the day, I sat down with her on Helgoland’s wooden deck and began by asking her where she was from.
Charlotte: “I’m actually born here at Amager. But when I was six, my parents wanted to move to the south of Copenhagen and I lived here until I was nearly 19, 20. Then my boyfriend I moved back here to Amager and I have been here evry since and I am 55 years old. I live here at Amager. I live close here to Helgoland. In my mind, she’s a blue old lady who nearly every people know but not every people has been here. She's over 90 years old, and she has been placed in places other than here. She has also been totally put down and built up again.”
Named after a popular bathing resort in Germany, Helgoland has indeed moved a few times in the past hundred years or so — most recently in 2004, when Amager’s beach park was built.
Since 1936, Helgoland has been run by Copenhagen municipality — and while it’s open to everyone in the summer — only members of its winter bathing association may access the facilities between October and April.
There has of course been a boom in winter bathing in recent years — including at Helgoland. Its winter bathing association now has around six thousand members — including Charlotte.
I’d assumed she’d been a member for years — but it turns out it wasn’t that long ago that cold water really wasn’ther thing.
Charlotte: “I have been a winter bather in my head for so many years. But actually, I was only winter bathing until the autumn, and then I stopped. So it has nothing to do with winter bathing. But I have been winter bathing in my head.”
Which begs a question, of course — what was it like when she finally took the plunge?
Charlotte: “It was a little awful, but you know, I got the last ticket because there are people who really wanted to become a member and I got the last spot this year and I really felt in my mind that I had to do something extraordinary to achieve this spot. I was so cold. Really. I froze a lot in the beginning, but I understood that I had to do this regularly, so I decided to go here every day. Also because I live very close to it and it has been in my head for so many years, so now I really have to live it out.”
No kidding. As I say, Charlotte is something of a super user now. In fact, having joined Helgoland in December 2016…
Charlotte: “I have been here every day since. So I'm very fond of it. I feel that the combination of the heat in the sauna and the cold in the water was a perfect combination. I get into the sauna and say, ‘wow, this is a really comforting feeling, both the cold water, but also the heat.’ The water now is five degrees, but in the sauna, we have about 80 degrees. So when you mix the combination, your body will do a lot of work. Your blood circulation, your heart rate, your pulse, your mind, you are really doing a workout with yourself.”
Indeed, it’s not unusual to see winter bathers lingering after their final dip, wearing no more than a towel, and radiating heat as if they had just finished a marathon.
And for Charlotte, the benefits of winter bathing go hand in hand with her professional life.
Charlotte: “I work as a physio. I have been a physio for 10 years. I have my own clinic, but also I'm a physio for the Danish Folketinget, the Danish parliament, and all the people who work there. And also I'm a fitness instructor. Very close to Helgoland we have a fitness centre, and I work there, and I combine these two things — winter bathing in the morning and just cross over the road and then I'm in my work as a fitness instructor.”
There is, in fact, a growing body of evidence for the physiological benefits of experiencing hot saunas and cold water, such as increased protection from cardiovascular disease.
Yet talk to pretty much anyone who enjoys winter bathing and what comes up time and again is the impact on mental health and well-being.
Elisabeth Jacobsen: “It's an easy way to get energy and make me happy, especially because the winter is dark. So I think the light and the view are always amazing. It gives me more energy.”
Nina Marie Sindahl: “What do you say? I get born again when I go here and go in the water. If I have a day where (I feel) ugh, I go to go towards the beach and go in the water, and then I feel like I'm a newborn child. I love it. I feel good.”
That was 77-year-old Nina Marie Sindahl, and we’ll hear from again shortly. Before that, it was Elisabeth Jacobsen. She happens to be a cold-water swimmer — but as she pointed out, it's Helgoland’s location — and the views it affords — that make it so special.
For instance, the airport is due south and sitting in the sauna watching planes coming into land, especially at night, provides its own kind of mindfulness. And I’m not the only one who thinks so.
Charlotte: “We have a large window, so we have a lot of views, and you're just sitting and relaxing. You're sitting in the heat, you relax, your muscles relax, and you just look out and you empty your brain. When I use this time over here, I don't use time in front of my television, in front of my, computer, in front of my mobile phone. I take some time out and use them here. Over here, I really feel wellness in my mind. So it helps me get through hard times.”
UPSOUND: Happy bathers
Another factor that explains the popularity of winter bathing is its communal spirit.
Helgoland is a community with its own social calendar, from Christmas dinners to guest days, to the annual fancy-dress dip where members who have survived three winters are ceremonially baptised in the Øresund, wearing costumes.
And winter bathers tend to be a friendly lot too —
UPSOUND: Changing room chatter
— even if everyone has their own winter bathing rites and rituals.
Charlotte: “This is my holy spot, in a way. And I know a lot of people come here and have the same feeling. I don't talk a lot with other people, but I know they're here and I know that we have the same interest. I know we have the same feeling when we see this place. It makes me a part, a small part, of something bigger where everyone here agrees that it does something with you. Some people are in the water for two minutes, and some for 10. Some people are just going down, dip, and up again. But we have the same feeling about it. We like it, and that's what I really like, that we can have and share a different to use it, winter bathing, sauna gus.”
For several reasons, the membership of Det Kolde Gys skews older.
Charlotte: “Don't you just love this, older people hand in hand because there's ice now. So they come together, they're going to bathe together and they are maybe over 80 years old. I feel this is really nice.”
Many of those members struggled when the saunas were shut for stretches during lockdown — ironically, of course, a time when they needed a mental health boost more than ever.
For Charlotte, meanwhile, the enforced closure led to a change in her own winter bathing ritual.
Charlotte: “Before Corona, lockdown of everything, I was mostly here in the evening, and I combined it with the sauna gus, but when everything was locked down, also Helgoland, I stood up every morning and went to the beach. I used the bridge or just the beach to go into the water, and this is three years ago now, and I'm just doing — every morning I come here, or just to the beach and go into the water. Then, in the evening, I can come as well here, going into the water and combine it with the sauna. But in the morning, it's mostly just the water.”
That’s right. Charlotte is one of those hardy souls who can go without the sauna.
Charlotte: “I don't need it. I enjoy it. I love it, but I don't need it. My body is more, you know, prepared for the fitness, my work as a physio, when I have been here in the morning. I'm ready, but also clear in my head and make me get into action.”
UPSOUND: music and steam from the sauna gus
And today, she’s getting into action as one of Helgoland’s gus masters — a role she volunteered for a couple of years ago and now does about once a month.
Charlotte: “As a gus master, my role is to make you feel comfortable with the heat and also give you a different experience. I can use oils, I can use music, I can use sounds.I try to make the 10 to 15 minutes as comfortable for you so you can stand them, but also challenge you. For some new guests, it will be a very intense experience to go into a sauna gus. The sauna gus is not hotter, but there will be mostly steam. So there will be higher humidity. The sauna is 80 degrees but when I put the water on the oven, the steam, you will feel the humidity.”
UPSOUND. Charlotte introducing Christmas oils and Christmas music starting to play
Charlotte: “It is winter and it's Christmas time so we are going to listen to some Christmas carols. Also, we are going to smell oils, which maybe will make you feel now it's Christmas.”
UPSOUND: Christmas song ends, applause
The third and final session of Charlotte’s gus over, I head back into the water with my microphone and meet some brave people who are doing more than a dip.
UPSOUND woman chatting about how long she can stay in the water; Charlotte talking about deep breathing, tolerate stress
It is, as I say, absolutely delightful — but when you stop to think about it, it’s also quite strange. And I’m not the only one who thinks so.
Charlotte: “Sometimes when I bicycle over here in the rain or heavy wind and in the dark, I think this is really weird. I'm bicycling in the evening to take off my clothes, go into cold water and go into the sauna. It’s strange, but it feels so good.”
Well, I wasn’t planning to ask her about the near-mandatory nudity at Helgoland — but it came up, so I did, and it turns out that we English aren’t the only ones who can be a little awkward about it.
Charlotte: “It took me many years to become a member because of the nudeness, and now it's just normal. I don't think about it. We could have done this interview naked, it is nothing to me, nothing. But I wouldn't have said that six years ago. So many people need more body awareness. They are so much in their head. And when you go into the water, when you go into the heat in the sauna, you can't be in your head. You experience, what is my body doing now? So for me, it's really a privilege to have this feeling that, okay, I can take off my clothes, I maybe years ago have had some issues with my body, and now I don't care, actually. When you come out here, you feel that you have said goodbye to the city and now you have stepped out to nature and be a part of nature when you come out here.”
Assuming that doesn’t put you off, what advice does Charlotte have for those thinking of getting into winter bathing?
Charlotte: “Just do it, but do it with an experienced friend or, you know, a winter bather who will introduce you to it. Just do it. Don't think so much because you can't think yourself out of the situation. You're going into an extreme, maybe extreme cold water for you. Just do it and find out that you're not going to die. After this experience, you will laugh a little. You have many, you know, hormones in your body that will really get up to your brain, and it's fun.”
Some would even say it’s addictive.
Indeed, the last word should go to Nina Marie, whom we met earlier. I had just finished getting dressed when we got talking and I asked her how long she had been winter bathing.
Nina Marie: “About 30 years. 30 years."
“30 years?"
Nina Marie: “Yes, nearly 30 years.”
“How often do you come?"
Nina Marie: “Every day. Sometimes two times a day. I never stop. The day I cannot go down here, I don't want to live anymore. I hope I have many years to come down here and take a swim. It's so wonderful.”
“I hope you do too, and I'm going to let you put some clothes on now because I’ve just realised I've been interviewing you and I'm fully dressed you, and you’re not. It’s up there with the strangest interviews I've done, but one of the nicest as well. Thank you for your time.”
OUTRO MUSIC
This Amarkaner Life is written, produced, and edited by me, James Clasper.
If you’ve enjoyed listening to it, feel free to share it with friends and family or leave a nice review wherever you get your podcasts.
The only thing I don’t do is the music.
That’s by two artists: Scenery and Squares and Triangles — and you can find links to their music in the show notes, along with a link to Helgoland’s homepage.
Many thanks for listening — and I hope to see you in the so-called slush ice soon.