Annual Polar Bear Dip called off this year
Organizers of Oakville event decide to cancel lake plunge because of unsafe conditions
On New Year’s Day, Kassandra Wu was all dressed up with no place to swim.
Proudly sporting her polar bear onesie on what she called the only day of the year she could acceptably wear it in public, Wu was all set to cheer on her brother and his four kids Monday in the annual Polar Bear Dip at Coronation Park — until it was cancelled for the first time since 1985.
“It’s the New Year’s Day tradition that we have — we meet up here and then we go for food at their house later,” Wu said. “I’m kind of bummed, but I get it. It’s a health and safety issue.”
The brothers who founded the event, Trent and Todd Courage, said they made the call to cancel the event when they arrived at the beach in the morning to find undercurrents had caused rocks to shift, and the ice to form on the surface in a way that would make it unsafe for the more than 700 people who had signed up to plunge in.
Organizers of the Toronto version of the event, set to occur New Year’s Day at Sunnyside Beach, cancelled their event Sunday due to frozen conditions at that beach.
The Courage brothers said they may have plowed ahead if ice was the only problem.
“We’ve been ‘frozen over’ before, but we meet that challenge by breaking it up — we have volunteers down here, 30 of us breaking ice up for four or five hours and creating a passage,” Trent Courage said.
The brothers have been responsible for putting on the New Year’s tradition since 1985, and teamed up with World Vision to support their water projects 25 years ago. Since then, they have raised $1.6 million for the charity.
Despite the cancellation, at least $100,000 more has already been raised for this year’s event.
Michael Messenger, president and CEO of World Vision, was set to do the dip for the ninth time this year.
“What’s amazing about it for me is it’s a zany thing to do . . . but it’s for a fantastic cause,” Messenger said. “We made the right decision today to cancel it for safety reasons, but you know for the children we’re supporting in the western part of Africa, they can’t cancel the challenges they have.”
Would-be dippers were disappointed about the event cancellation, but eager to make the best of a sunny holiday.
Virginia Stevens brought most of her family to the Polar Bear Dip — including her cousin, sister-in-law, nephew and friends.
“We’re Filipinos, we’re tough,” she said. “We’re disappointed but hey, there will be other polar dips, so hopefully next year they will be able to do it.”
Polar bear dips still occurred in many cities and towns across Canada, including Hamilton, Saint John and Calgary. With files from Bryann Aguilar