Do you dare a Polar Bare swim?
Posted December 31, 2013 9:34 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
SURREY (NEWS1130) – When you wake up tomorrow with a whole, brand new year laid out ahead of you… what are you gonna do?
How about jumping into the freezing cold Strait of Georgia in one of the region’s many New Year’s Day polar bear swims wearing only your one-button bathing suit? We mean sans trunks. Naked as a jaybird.
The Skinnydipper Recreation Club and Surrey’s United Naturists are co-hosting the 8th annual Polar Bare Plunge on Nude Year’s Day at the clothing-optional Crescent Rock Beach in Surrey.
Skinnydipper president Paul Andreasson says the crowds are never huge, but people are very enthusiastic. “We’re not trying to out-compete English Bay, but people certainly enjoy the same kind of fun, only without clothing. We enjoy it.”
Organizers do welcome costumes, but only on the peripherals.
“Obviously, we tend to want to limit it a little, bit but if you want to put on a red nose and antlers to honour Rudolph, that’s fine,” Andreasson tells News1130.
It’s swimmer’s choice as to where you’d like to place that red nose.
New this year is the Mad Hatters Swim Club, the Triple Crown of polar bear swims.
“We noted a few years ago there were a couple of ladies who had set themselves the challenge of doing all three local swims — White Rock, English Bay and ours. The timing is just right that you can make it so we are creating the Mad Hatters Swim Club. For anyone who wants to enter, if they can give us photographic evidence that they have participated in all three, and of course to qualify for ours you have to be nude, we’ll enrol you in the club and give you a place of honour on our website.”
But careful… it’s chilly!
“I think the water temperature is similar at all three locations,” points out Andreasson. (That red nose might fall off!)
Foot protection, including secured sandals or aquatic shoes, are highly recommended to help with footing. You don’t want an ill-placed barnacle rash to start the year.
Entry is free but supporters and spectators are asked to bring cash donations for the War Amps PlaySafe and CHAMP childhood amputee programs, highlighting the danger to pedestrians from trespassing on the adjacent BNSF railway. The BNSF Police will likely attend, ticketing people walking on the train tracks.
Registration for the 2014 Polar Bare Plunge begins at noon. The swim is at 1 p.m.
