Where it begun
The roots of the Lennusulps movement began in the autumn of 2018, when Kaspar and Märt started swimming from the pier of the Noblessner sailing school. They had read a book about Wim Hof, “What Doesn’t Kill”. Neither of them thought they would continue with this hobby through the winter. But they did. In the spring of 2019, the first ladder made by Märt from wood salvaged from a pallet, had been discovered by few other swimmers.
In the spring of 2020, Kaspar and Märt sat on the bench at Noblessner’s pier and waited in a line. They now had to wait to get in the water. In one year, everything had changed. The abandoned construction site had become the most hip-district in town. For Märt and Kaspar it seemed strange and even funny that the ladder had become so popular that they had to line up to get into the cold water. Maybe that’s when the idea of creating better facilities for winter swimming in Noblessner began to sprout.
Noblasulps
By 2021 the Noblasulps movement had grown significantly. We estimate around 2000 people swim in Noblessner’s chilly waters. Kaspar and Märt founded NPO Noblasulps to officially organize the winter swimming activity in Noblessner Harbor. Beginning of November 2021, for the first time, it is possible to change clothes in a warm changing room and use the sauna. We had an awesome season in 2021/2022 which got a lot of new people discovering winter swimming and joining the community.
Unfortunately 2022 November we could not open our club at Noblessner. There are many reasons for it. However the main obstruction was the construction activity which did not provide a safe passage to water from the sauna. This was the end of Noblasulps for the time being.
Lennusulps
About three days had passed since the shutdown of Noblasulps, but Märt didn’t let it go. There had to be a way to facilitate the club in the area. We looked around and found a cosy place in Seaplane Harbor, next to Suur Tõll. A week later there was a plan on how to finance and build the sauna and the other facilities. This remains one of the craziest projects ever due to the immense time pressure – the club had to open before Christmas to make the season count.
On December 15. Lennusulps opened its doors for the first time. With 1,5 months we had managed to get the permets, finances and built the most awesome winter swimming sauna. It was not easy. There was a high probability that the windows are going to arrive 4 days after the opening date. The sauna was barely hot when we opened as the sauna stove installation finished 15 minutes before.
We wish to thank our awesome supporters without whom this could not have been possible:
Saunum, Tele2, Cocon.life, Standwood, Rentbull, Puumarket, Seaplane Harbor and VBH Estonia.