It is approaching noon on an unseasonably warm day in Los Angeles and roughly 50 people are crowded into the backroom of Mystic Manor, a bohemian mansion in the Venice neighbourhood.
In the middle of the room with her legs crossed is a yogi, who with the help of a guitarist leads the group in a chant giving thanks to Mother Earth as a pug named Alan scurries over legs.
This is not, however, a spiritualist retreat or even a yoga class, but preparation for the latest trend for single Angelenos — ice bath speed dating.
Those taking part, a mix of young tech workers, older hippies and a sex therapist offering advice on making the most of one’s “erotic power”, have grown tired of dating apps and are seeking a human connection.
They hope to find it after stripping down to their swimsuits and spending three minutes up to their necks in freezing water, squeezed tightly together with a stranger against the backdrop of house music.
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The unique twist on speed dating is from IcePass LA, which offers unlimited cold plunge services for $99 a month and branched out into dating after finding its main offering was a great way of, er, breaking the ice.
Aryan Davani, 39, its chief executive, extols the health benefits of ice plunging, including reducing stress and providing a hit of dopamine. “Health is wealth but you shouldn’t have to be wealthy to be healthy,” he says.
With the yoga-inspired part of the session over and the sex therapist having shared her advice on “self-pleasuring”, it is time to take a dip in the garden in baths set up near the manor’s swimming pool. To find their partners, women pick men’s names out of a bucket.
The 27-year-old owner of a balloons business who calls herself Molly Balloons, and Greg Wolfe, a 60-year-old health coach, spent more than three minutes in the ice bath together. “It was heroic, it feels biblical, righteous,” she says. “There’s a serious adrenaline component to it, it’s a super particular kind of rush.”
To help drop inhibitions and encourage intimacy, the pair ask each other questions printed on laminated cards left floating in the bath. They include finishing the statement, “I wish I had someone with whom I could share . . .?” and describing a “perfect day”.
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Both said that they had a unique insight into the other person while submerged in the water. “I got to experience Molly’s dynamic side where she claims her power and she’s not shy about it,” Wolfe says.
She agrees and says: “Any time you go through an ecstatic or extreme experience with somebody — it’s like, show me, don’t tell me. What are you? What are you about?”
Amy Silliman, a 38-year-old producer, braved the icy waters with David Skyler, a 36-year-old retouch artist and musician. Shivering after climbing out of the bath, they agree that the activity is an effective way of getting to know someone new.
Silliman says: “The humility that this brings you down to, you’re just being brought down to base level human, you’re just surviving together. And either you can roll with it or you can’t.” She adds: “When I think about dating in LA and how everybody has the facade, here there’s no facade. You’re in there freezing.”
Skyler echoes her comments. “It puts your body in such a state that there are no barriers left. You’re just kind of like, ‘oh, this is the real me’. After a minute and a half your body goes into a state of hypothermia.”
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Silliman and Skyler’s first date went so well that they then joined each other in a sauna set up in the garden.
Ice bath speed dating, it seems, gets results.
