A cool way to celebrate the new year
How did you ring in the new year in Vancouver?
For 2015, my editors made that decision for me with an assignment to plunge into English Bay for my first Polar Bear Swim.
A fellow reporter learned the hard way that shoes were vital last year, so I brought a pair of flip-flops, but down by the bay, the bikini-clad Bellchambers sisters from Australia shared my worries about what was ahead.
Rachel Bellchambers said she expected to “go numb and go blue” in the frigid West Coast water while her sister, Sarah, said that it seemed like how a “true Canadian” would ring in the new year.
Nicole, who was there just to watch their stuff, said, “There’s no way I would go in the freezing water.” (She seemed like the most reasonable of them.)
Nikki Bailey, a secondtimer, told me the water is “exceptionally unpleasant,” but if you run in and out quickly, it’s not too bad.
“You’ve got to get at least your shoulders underneath, though,” she warned me.
Rob Mooy, a 14-year veteran, assured me that when you come out “it’s toasty warm.”
Bearing Mooy’s promise and Bailey’s warning in mind, I made my way into the throng of swimmers. There may have been a countdown, but there was so much screaming it could have been somebody announcing the rapidly dropping temperature of the water.
I scrambled to keep up with the crowd as it surged toward the shore, lost a flip-flop in the mayhem and thought I might pass out when I got in.
But after a few seconds of agony, I snapped out of it and found myself surrounded by swimmers high-fiving each other and hooting, “Happy New Year!”
And my flip-flop bobbed to the surface.
It was awesome — and I think it was for all 2,310 registered swimmers.
“Feels so good!” said Kay Kim from Korea.
“Another banner year,” the parks board’s Sean Healy said after the event. “The turnout was excellent. It was ideal conditions, as you know, so I think that’s really one of the things that made this year special.”
A crowd of about 15,000 filled the beach, making it feel like the entire city had come to watch.
Healy noted that it was an injuryfree year, with nothing more than a few cut feet.
“We had a lot of newcomers, had a lot of folks come up and say it was their first time,” Healy said. “And then, of course, we had our regular repeaters as well.”
Regulars, like the ‘Lingerie Ladies’ in 1950s-era undergarments and a Viking who stayed in the water for about 20 minutes, red-cheeked and blowing away on a horn while drinking something probably left over from New Year’s Eve.
“And that’s exactly what the lifeguard on duty is (for),” Healy said.