Chippawa polar bears brave extreme cold
The night before his first polar bear dip, Dan Greenwood’s wife tried to talk him out of it.
He was having none of it.
“She said it’s dangerous, ‘You’ll get a heart attack,’” said the St. Catharines resident as he prepared for the plunge Saturday. “I’m psyched. We got life insurance, so …”
Greenwood, along with about 30 other brave souls, did what few people have been able to do in Niagara this winter: Take a polar plunge. With dips being postponed throughout the region because of a frigid cold spell, Chippawa’s seventh annual event was one of the few opportunities for divers to defy the temperatures.
Organizer Troy Roberts of the Chippawa Public Docks Committee said extra precautions were taken before the event, and nothing short of a blizzard was going to cancel it.
“We knew we could pull off something that was extreme and unique,” he said. “I almost want to call it the Super Bowl of polar bear dips.
“It’s bragging rights to say it was minus-30 and I went into the river.”
It wasn’t quite that cold, but close. As the first divers hit the water at noon, Niagara Falls was under an extreme cold warning from Environment Canada, with the temperature at –15 C, feeling like –26 C with the wind chill. It meant far fewer participants than usual for the event, but those who showed up were in their usual assortment of costumes and flashy swimwear.
Doing his fourth plunge, John Thompson of Niagara Falls was decked out as Hulk Hogan. Saturday’s weather wasn’t intimidating him.
“There’s no preparing for it, it’s just … in you go,” he said. “It’s refreshing, let’s put it that way.”
Thompson does the dip every year to raise money for Canadian Tire Jumpstart, which provides funds for families which cannot afford the cost of sports registration, equipment or transportation. He raised $400 with Saturday’s plunge.
“My part of it is going in the water and having a good laugh.” Held at the Chippawa boat ramp on Lyons Creek Road, the event was supposed to offer heated tents for onlookers, but the cold knocked out many of the heaters and generators.
Thompson’s advice for aspiring dippers on a day like this: Make it quick.
“Try not to dunk your head, and have a towel ready,” he said. “Get in, get out. As long as we’re only out there for 20 or 30 seconds, everybody should be good.”
Troy Leonardo of St. Catharines picked the event’s coldest year ever to do his first dip. “It’s gonna be epic,” he said. “And a bit scary.”