A cold plunge, a themed potluck: Coldwater Collective's Alki Sundays

Seattle Fitness Magazine · 8 Oct 2026

• 4,550instagram followers
• 197kickstarter backers
• 3saunas by Jan. 2026

Alone in the lake first

Nate Garberich, raised in northeast Seattle around Magnuson Park, went into Lake Washington alone for a couple of years.

A friend in London had started a popular running group, the Seattle Times reported, and Garberich wondered whether a cold-plunge group could catch on the same way. He went online looking for company on his year-round plunges, and people came.

Coldwater Collective started in 2023 at spots on Lake Washington, mostly Magnuson Park and Mt. Baker. Before long he was hosting five or more events a week. The group's motto is "Courage in Community."

From the statue to the Bathhouse

Alki came later. The first Alki Sundays, in July 2023, were set for noon at the replica Statue of Liberty across from Alki Cafe.

That September they became a weekly 9 a.m. plunge. A Seattle Met columnist who joined one of those mornings counted more than 50 people and watched as "everyone rushed into the water in a raucous scene".

Afterward the crowd "congregated by the fire pit, where there were treats including cinnamon rolls, cream-filled strawberries, hot chocolate, and pancakes made by camper stove". Among them were "die-hards who come every week, even when it's 19 degrees out". Later the meeting point moved to the Alki Bathhouse. The start time drifted toward late morning and stayed there.

Potlucks with a theme

Garberich added a potluck, and people started bringing grills.

By May 2024 the Sunday had a name, Brunch on the Beach, with a new potluck theme each week. The group has billed themes from avocados and surf and turf to pumpkin and apple spice and comfort food. Greg Finney, who said he was known at the meetups as "Greg the grill guy", told the Seattle Times: "You get all the camaraderie of joining a sports team without all the effort."

Kelly Trombley, who sought out the group after moving to Seattle, told the paper the plunges "kind of felt like when you're a kid and you're on the playground and people run up, like 'Hey, wanna be friends?'" One of the group's slogans, "Thaw the Freeze", takes aim at the Seattle Freeze. Curiosity about cold plunging first brought people in, Garberich said, but "the people who have stayed have been more interested in just hanging out with people". The group has billed parties to match: evening barbecues on the beach and a third-anniversary party at Alki on March 1, 2026. Ahead of it, the group thanked "everyone who's come to dip and hang the last 3 years".

The saunas on the sand

Before Bywater, the group billed a sauna at Alki Beach Pride in August 2023 with another outfit, PNW Mobile Spa.

Bywater grew out of the group, and Garberich founded both. He and Laura Lennon launched Bywater through a Kickstarter, Capitol Hill Seattle reported. The campaign closed on June 1, 2024, with $25,694 from 197 backers against a $25,000 goal. Their first sauna opened to the public that month.

In October 2025, Seattle Met likened the barrel-shaped saunas to "a pair of giant Twix bars with two little chimneys poking out of each", and by January 2026 Bywater had three. "When you're in the sauna, there's nothing to do besides just hang out and talk," Garberich told Capitol Hill Seattle. Lennon said: "We try to say like inside voices, but definitely encourage community and sharing."

When the gray comes back

On Sept. 2 the group announced on Instagram: "The gray is back! The saunas are back! The beach parties are back!"

It billed a Sunday meetup at Alki at 10:30 a.m., the start time it has posted since at least October 2025, with a potluck theme of "Salmon or salmon color-ed". On Sept. 18 it billed an Equinox Beach Party for the coming Sunday at the same hour: "Come celebrate the start of fall!" Bywater had Sunday permits at Alki Beach Park through Oct. 4, for saunas parked on the boardwalk slightly west of the Alki Beach Bathhouse, the meeting point the group has given since mid-2024. As of Oct. 8 the group had posted nothing for any Sunday after Sept. 20, and the city's September permit list showed no Bywater Sunday at Alki after Oct. 4, so the group's Instagram, with 4,550 followers, is the place to check before going.

Sign-ups go through the group's bio link. The group posts a participant agreement and liability release on its website and asks plungers to bring "a towel, warm clothes for before and after, and water shoes or sandals if you have them!" For newcomers, the group has long promised "we will help you get started".