About 15 to 20 people take part in the Dips ‘N’ Sips Club at Higgins Beach every Monday. Drew Johnson / Leader

What started as a small group of friends taking a frigid winter swim at Higgins Beach in Scarborough has steadily grown into the Dips ‘N’ Sips club – where friends, acquaintances and even strangers come together for an hour every Monday to take a dip in the ocean, sip a beverage and get to know one another.

“One of our friends describes it as ‘recess’ or ‘playtime,'” said co-founder Abigail Snipe-Bushey of Portland. “It’s very much like a playground; people you don’t know that well go, ‘Do you want to swim?'”

Dips ‘N’ Sips co-founders CiCi Berthiaume, left, of Windham and Abigail Snipe-Bushey of Portland unveiled homemade T-shirts for the club on Monday. Drew Johnson / Leader

“‘Do you want to go do headstands? Do you want to go play chicken?'” added co-founder CiCi Berthiaume of Windham. “It’s brain-off time and you just relax.”

When they took to Higgins Beach in March, Snipe-Bushey and Berthiaume weren’t intending to start a club. A winter dip in the ocean was simply a mental health exercise, they said.

“Every time you go in, it’s like a reset of your body,” Berthiaume said.

Snipe-Bushey compared a winter dip to a runner’s high.

“You feel a lasting effect,” she said. “For the next two hours, you’re feeling that euphoria from getting in. I think it’s a perfect tool for mental health, especially where we have such frigid and mean winters here.”

A friend supported them from shore on that first March dip. The three took a photo, posted it on social media and that was that – or so they thought.

Comments rolled in with people asking when they’d be doing their next winter dip so they could join in. Many were people Snipe-Bushey and Berthiaume knew but hadn’t spent quality time with before, such as neighbors and fellow yoga class attendees. Then, those people would invite their friends and so on.

“It’s a lot of people who were in similar circles but we had never hung out with,” Snipe-Bushey said. “It’s a good spot for people who don’t know a lot of other people in the Portland area. A friend of ours from Texas told their friend here to come. She came and now we’re friends.”

The club meets weekly and one of the dips each month month doubles as a birthday party. Monday’s dip celebrated members with July birthdays and featured cupcakes, party hats and a charcuterie board on a surfboard. Drew Johnson / Leader

Emma Cost of Portland was one of the earliest to join the club.

“It’s really grown since the first few people went in, and it’s been such a great space to be a part of,” Cost said. “Mondays can be kind of seen as the worst day of the week and, honestly, the club makes them the absolute best day of the week.”

And, as the group grew, random beachgoers began to take notice and join in, too.

“I started polar plunging in February and one day in mid-March I came here by myself, and there were about 10 girls there,” said Zoe Carrey. The group noticed Carrey was plunging alone and asked her to join the club. “I said, ‘hell yeah!'”

Carrey lives in North Conway, New Hampshire, and makes the hour and 45 minute commute every Monday, which is “worth it 15 times out of 10,” she said. She’s made close friends and said the group is very supportive of one another when they go through tough times. The weekly trips to the area and sense of community Carrey has found in the Dips ‘N’ Sips Club have convinced her to move to the Portland area.

And this week’s dip was a special one for Carrey: once a month, the club celebrates its members’ birthdays. The July birth-month celebration on Monday featured party hats, cupcakes and a charcuterie board – on a surfboard.

“It’s creating this wonderful group for people from all walks of life and people of all ages,” Carrey said. “My mom, who’s 62, came today. That was really cool.”

Now, 15 to 20 people routinely meet at Higgins Beach every Monday evening. They’ve made an Instagram page that has over 100 followers and, on Monday, the co-founders handed out homemade T-shirts.

While attendance has been better in the summer months, Snipe-Bushey and Berthiaume said they plan to keep it going strong as the ocean gets colder and expose others to the benefits of a winter dip, or at least have them come and support those who are.

“Some weeks, people come and don’t go in,” Snipe-Bushey said. “The community aspect is really big. It’s just intentional time.”

“It’s a very playful community, more playful than a lot of the clubs or groups that people are a part of,” Berthiaume said. “You can make what you want of it; some people bring surfboards, some people bring beer, some people don’t drink, some people swim for 20 minutes, some people don’t go in every week.

“It’s very much just a community space.”

The Dips ‘N’ Sips Club meets at Higgins Beach in Scarborough every Monday at 5:30 p.m. For more information, email the club at dipsnsips24@gmail.com.