The Polar Bear Plunge

Have you heard of this? Probably so. Have you seen it? Have you done it?


For the New Year celebration I went up to Bellingham to see my friend Charles. On New Year's Day we went to Birch Bay to watch the traditional New Year's Day Polar Bear Plunge. I had heard of this phenomenon going on in other states like Michigan and Alaska, but for some reason I didn't think of it happening here. Among us.


Again, have you seen this?


We got there and saw the crowd standing around in flip flops, aqua socks, and bare feet even, some with their towels wrapped around their shoulders, some without. Some wore full body covering, such as the cute dad with his little approximately 9-year-old daughter in matching pirate costumes complete with eye patch. Others wore almost nothing at all, such as the red, white, and blue very skimpy bikini. Charles said that bikini girl was a regular.


I was bewildered. Why would anyone do this? The wind was blowing. It was seriously cold. Not as cold as last year, evidently, as I overheard one mother's attempt to calm her fearful and shivering maybe 5-year-old daughter with, "At least there's no snow. Remember last year and the snow?" This little girl was clinging to her mother for dear life, dressed in a purple swim suit, her arms and legs wrapped tightly around her mother's body and her hair blowing in the arctic wind. Her mother was similarly clad.


I looked around myself at the people. Charles said they were brave. That is not the word I would have used. So, I thought about it. What is the point of running into freezing cold water and then running back out? Conquering self? Being able to say you did it? Most people got wet up to their waist or even their upper thighs. Very few actually dove in or got themselves completely wet. Bikini girl did. On the way to the car I saw her, little bikini, no towel, the skin of her entire body bright red.


I don't get it.