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Over the last seven years, we’ve worked with all kinds of communities – cold water, mental health advocates, inclusive groups, women’s surfing. But we’ve never worked with a cold water synchronised swimming group before!
Meet Out of Sink– the most fabulous group of sea loving women who turned the quest for cleaner oceans into art. As artistic swimmers, aka synchronised swimmers, they perform at festivals and events to help raise awareness of the plight of our oceans.
We went down to Mousehole in Cornwall to find out more about Out of Sink – and capture their energy and joy on camera.
Out of Sink formed in 2021 just six weeks before their very first performance. This group of eight sea swimmers all wanted to join the Global Day of Action for Climate Justice during COP26 in November 2021.
There was a poetic brilliance to their protest. As Russia and China – whose national artistic swimming teams had won gold and silver at the Tokyo Olympics a couple of months earlier – failed to join the COP26 talks in Glasgow, Out of Sink moved as one to show what would happen if world leaders continued to not work in sync to combat climate change.
Starting at Newlyn, they performed a ‘land swim’ to Penzance along the perimeter of the 2050 flood plain – the line that water will reach if the sea level continues to rise. Once they reached Jubilee Pool in Penzance, they performed in the water at a community event.
“I’d got this group together, and I felt like we really needed a goal because it’s ok to say this is what we’re doing, but we needed something to aim for,” says Mary, who founded Out of Sink in 2021. “It was Pippa who suggested COP26. And so, we spent six weeks getting it together.”
Performing a protest, explains Mary, is a brilliant way of getting positive attention. While other protesters get negative press or no coverage at all, the quirkiness, aesthetics and joy of a synchro performance captures the attention – and hearts – of everyone who watches it.
“Whilst marches took place in Truro and Falmouth, the atmosphere in Penzance caught the imagination of the community, as Out of Sink arrived at Jubilee Pool ahead of their performance,” reported Cornwall Live.
It’s always been our photographer Cat’s dream to capture on camera the joy of a synchro team. But photographing Out of Sink went beyond our expectations.
For a start, we arrived in the pretty harbour town of Mousehole in a fierce electrical storm. The sky was so dark, the streetlights came on. Thunder clapped, lightening flashed and the rain sheeted down. Luckily, a local café, 2 Fore Street, let us take shelter inside and use them as our base – here’s to lovely Cornish hospitality.
But it seems that no amount of stormy weather can dampen the spirit of Out of Sink. Once down on the beach, the team shed their dryrobes ready to perform.
It’s sometimes hard to direct a group of people for photographs, but not Out of Sink. Singing the 80s classic Gloriaby Laura Brannigan and wearing our Body Happy Swimsuit with their fruity headgear, they performed some signature moves. Our favourite was ‘The Caterpillar’, pictured below.
After a hot drink break in the café and a change of costumes, they came back to the beach for some group shots in our Cold Water Swimsuit (“Ooh, it really does keep you warmer”), pink hats, shoes and floral ‘foofs’.
Out of Sink’s joyfulness is infectious. You can’t help feeling happy in their presence – or being mesmerised by how beautiful people are when they radiate happiness. It’s one of the reasons their protest performances are so effective.
But it also brings these eight women, each facing their own personal challenges, resilience, support and joy.
“There's this real sense of everybody being really supportive of one another,” says Mary. “Every week, somebody comes with something going on at home or at work, and everybody's completely there to support them, but we're not necessarily totally involved in each other's lives.”
The hugs, laughter and deep friendships were evident to us as outsiders. It’s something we’ve been lucky enough to witness in all the communities that have pranced around in our swimwear over the years – the deep connection that comes from sharing an activity.
For a team that trains to move together in synchronisation, perhaps that sense of belonging runs even deeper.
Watch the short film Tides Reach 2050 with Out of Sink here
Watch Mary being interviewed here
Follow Out of Sink on Facebook or Instagram
