Our Story
We often say we met in the ocean and fell in love on the dance floor—but here's the whole story.
Before the joyous "hot vax summer" of 2021, there was an anxious spring: a season when New York City was emerging from COVID lockdowns and trying to figure out who we were.
It was during that in-between time that Grace, a resident of Brighton Beach, and Allaire, a resident of Bed-Stuy, each decided to join the storied Coney Island Brighton Beach Open Water Swimmers, better known as CIBBOWS—a ragtag group of crotchety New Yorkers who flock to the ocean year-round to swim up and down the coast.
Neither of us had much long-distance swimming experience, but we did have a dream: to be in the water. In our respective hometowns of Austin, TX, and Phoenix, AZ, we had spent the best days of our childhoods swimming. If there was any place to figure out the next chapter of our lives, surely it was the ocean.
It's extremely difficult to speak while open-water swimming, but somehow, we connected on that first swim. We stayed in touch for the rest of the season, coordinating swim times and occasionally getting lunch afterward.
the first day we met. (2nd and 3rd from left)
And when summer came to an end, Grace invited Allaire to a dance party in Prospect Park—and we haven't stopped dancing or swimming since.
