Kiola Werner vividly remembers the pain of his first icy plunge into the Salish Sea, inspired by a man he was working with as a fledgling videographer.
It started about three years ago, the 23-year-old had just bought a camera – revisiting a passion of his youth while he was in school for business. Kit Warren, a friend of his dad’s, was helping him dip into the film world.
“Before we could formulate ideas for his podcast videos, he would invite me to do the cold water swim every morning,” the now 23-year-old said. “It’s tough, like the challenges you face in life.”
The pair ended up diving headlong into a hot project about a community of Victoria cold-water swimmers.
The 30-minute documentary – Inner Waves: Four Stories of Transformation Through Cold Water Therapy – explores the folks who take to the waters off Mile Zero any day of the year. It captures the experiences of four individuals whose lives were changed by cold water therapy.
They got to know each other over more than a year of working and swimming together.
“That kept me pushing to do this documentary,” he said.
They found out about Storyhive funding applications about a week before the deadline, Werner said. “We all pitched this project together,” he added.
With hours to spare they hit the ‘submit’ button with a pitch video made that day. Six months later the approved grant kicked off the two-year project with a $20,000 budget.
Coproduced by Jenna Rae, and developed with composers and filmmakers from across Greater Victoria, the documentary launched with a 200-person premier at the Vic Theatre in April 2024. Now Inner Waves is available on Storyhive’s YouTube channel, Optik TV channel 9 and Stream+.
Of the four, Warren’s story is the one that stands out for the young filmmaker, who now lives in Duncan.
“Mental health, trauma, drug addiction, these are some of the stories we tell. It’s really about coming together as a community and the ocean being a place where people can come together,” he said.
He knew the people and some of the shared tales, but as a 20-year-old working with those with far more life experience, the focus of the story eluded him – until Warren’s first interview delving into moments of trauma that left him injured.
The Mile Zero Minnows continue their cold water therapy swims in Victoria.
Werner has shifted focus to cooking.com, building a sales business with a focus on funding food security films or documentaries. His cold water dips continue on an as-needed basis.
“I do it when I feel like I need to do it,” he said. “It comes and goes, it’s a lot of energy you use and it’s very intense.”
