Meet the Hudson River TikTok swimmer who shocked social media with her Statue of Liberty dip

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By Amy Kuperinsky | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com




How much would someone have to pay for you to dive into the Hudson River?

Donna Paysepar did it for the likes.

A TikTok video of her plunging into waters associated with raw sewage, dead bodies and centuries of pollution has people on social media crying foul.

As people on both sides of the Hudson secure their masks to help fight an actual pandemic, Paysepar went ahead and doused herself in who-knows-what. Many have made jokes about the swimmer transforming or mutating into some kind of creature a la “The Toxic Avenger” or the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

But Paysepar says the splash of fame was all worth it — however grimy.



The now-famous dip happened Aug. 12 after she and her family set out from Port Washington, Long Island on a friend’s boat. She came up with the idea when they stopped to have lunch in view of the Statue of Liberty.

Paysepar, 20, says she dove into the water since it was her first time being so close to Lady Liberty, but also because her social media spidey senses were tingling.

Her 10-second TikTok video, set to the saccharine synth of the Børns song “Electric Love,” has been viewed 2.7 million times, garnering more than 244,000 likes.

“Honestly I expected it to do that ‘cause I kind of knew this was kind of an outrageous activity,” Paysepar tells NJ Advance Media. “I just have the YOLO (you only live once) mentality.”

In the clip, Paysepar waves to the camera before exposing her body to whatever lurks in the water. Though much of the general public seems revolted by the premise, she considers her excursion a success. She says she gained about 2,000 TikTok followers since posting the video (as the time of publication, her total was 8,709).

“When it started getting likes, I was like, ‘OK, this was what I wanted,‘” says the avid TikTok user, who normally uses the app to post things like her attempts at viral dance challenges.

“I’ve always been really the crazy one in my family, always doing the most,” says Paysepar, a resident of Nassau County, Long Island.

“Swimming with lady liberty,” she captioned the video, using a pink hearts emoji and hashtags including #independentwoman.

While Paysepar has become known for tangling with the waters of the Hudson River, she was technically in Upper New York Bay when she took the dip. And yes, it was her first time swimming there, though she does spend a lot of time in the water in general. Paysepar, a liberal arts major at Suffolk County Community College, works as a lifeguard at a day camp and gives private swim lessons.

After her video was reposted on Twitter this weekend, the clip inspired a new wave of revulsion, horror and commentary about the swimmer’s health after the encounter. The aquatic adventure was posted to the “TikTok Cringe” subreddit.

“I literally just took a dip in and dip out just for the video,” Paysepar tells NJ Advance Media. “I didn’t swim, really.”

Still, “the water was really gross through,” she said in another TikTok video. “It tasted really bad, I got some of it in my mouth.”

Noticing the alarm surrounding her video — in the age of COVID-19, no less — Paysepar consulted the website of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

In a response video on TikTok, she shared one viewer’s comment: “That water used to be on fire from pollution 30 years ago.”

“I did not know this information,” Paysepar said with a tentative smile. She proceeded to highlight this passage from the state website:

Can you “safely dive into the Hudson on a hot summer day? Generally, yes.”

However, a spokesperson for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation says that while water quality in New York Harbor has “greatly improved” since the Clean Water Act was passed in 1972, “this is still not considered a swimmable portion of the river.” But if someone chooses to swim there, the DEC recommends making sure they don’t swallow water and keep their head out of the water.

“This reduces the chance of getting sick from bacteria, parasites or other microorganisms that can enter your body through your mouth, eyes, ears and nose,” the department says.

Paysepar says she learned on the website that if you swallow the water “nothing really happens.” (“I didn’t swallow any,” she says.) In another video, she reads a passage from the website that talks about the history of sewage overflows in the water and how someone could dangerously expose themselves to toxins like PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, by eating fish from the Hudson River.

But she’s not the only one swimming near the Statue of Liberty. The website UrbanSwim lists a 2.2-mile “Liberty to Freedom Swim” in New York Harbor from the statue to One World Trade Center (”Freedom Tower”). The swim is planned for Sept. 5 in memory of those who died and served on Sept. 11, 2001.

Paysepar, who also blogs about food on Instagram under the name @nyc_li_foodies (she’s currently looking for restaurants to review), is feeling fine, though she’s had to contend with harsh replies since posting the video.

“I thought it was funny but some comments are a little mean,” Paysepar says. “Some people are sending death threats saying, ‘I hope she dies from that water’ ... ‘She’s not going to be able to have kids.’”

She addressed such comments in a response video, calling the harbor “caca water” and warning people against making suicide jokes.

Still, would Paysepar jump in again?

No.

“I did it for the video and for the memory,” she says. “And ‘cause it was also hot.”

[FBD]

well she aint getting likes for that body

[Muddy]

Pollution sucks man..