Dew stairs on Ascension Day is a well-known phenomenon. Dew swimming is less so, but it is on the rise. Bosbad Zwinderen invited early birds on Thursday to swim a few laps. With breakfast afterwards.
,,Nice man, come in too!” A group of elderly ladies swim, laugh and chatter their way through the basin of Bosbad Zwinderen early in the morning. The outside temperature indicates just under 4 degrees, but the swimming water is a pleasant 26 degrees. “A bit cold yes, but after that it’s so nice and relaxing.”
The beautifully situated swimming pool in Zwinderen is taking part in dew swimming for the first time. According to board member Helga Zwaan, 25 participants have registered: mainly elderly, but there is also a group of children.
Up early
Four of them are on the road with grandma Heika (70) from Wachtum. The alarm clock was set early, around 6 am. But that didn’t bother the grandchildren (13, 12, 10 and 9 years old), because they like swimming. Also at this time.
Their parents are not such water rats. But Grandma Heika does. He swims a few laps every week for half an hour. “Good for fitness,” she says. “For the body and in the head.”
The dew swimming suits the active board and the roughly sixty volunteers who keep the Bosbad running. Four-day swimming, disco swimming, breakfast buffet for morning swimmers, swimming lessons, eating pancakes, barbecue.
‘Keep it fun’
,,We want to keep it fun for swimmers”, says Helga Zwaan. The swimming pool in Zwinderen attracts around 36,000 visitors annually and has around 1,300 season ticket holders. “We see people from all over the area coming to us.”
In the basin where the group of ladies swim laps, a morning mood is hard to find. The mood is supreme. ,,You don’t take underwater pictures, do you”, one of them yells at the photographer.
Agatha (59) from Oosterhesselen has been coming here from an early age. “It’s really great here,” she says. “Beautiful accommodation, right in the woods. A very pleasant place.” Two or three times a week she is in the pool. “Sure, it’s a bit cold at first, but once I’m in the water: wonderful. After swimming I feel fit all day.”
Between the little ones
As an adult, Agatha has still obtained the C diploma. ,,Then I stood on the side between the little ones and was sometimes asked if I, as a mother, followed the lessons of one of my children, haha.”
She finds the extra diploma valuable. “Especially the experience of swimming with clothes on. You look up to that. It takes a lot more effort to save you then. More people should experience that.”
“Do I still dare?”
Agatha likes to push the limits of her possibilities. Test yourself. ,,How? Well, it may sound a bit strange, but every year I dive backwards off the diving board at least once. Do I still dare? And every time I succeed I think: yes!”
She has to laugh at herself. “It’s just fun. And hey, everyone has flaws.