On a cold winter afternoon back in 2005, I met an old friend for coffee in Dún Laoghaire, and when we finished up, he told me he was going for a swim down at the Forty Foot. I was shocked anyone would swim on such a Baltic February day, but I decided to accompany him. I was newly sober and had got back into photography and wanted to test out my new Olympus camera on this secret community of winter swimmers.