Polar Bear swim returns New Year’s Day after a 2-year hiatus

One of San Pedro’s oldest and most popular — not to mention coldest — traditions is set to return next week, with swimmers braving the chilly waters of Cabrillo Beach on New Year’s Day.

The annual Polar Bear swim, which dates back seven decades, will take place on Sunday after being canceled the previous two years, first because of the coronavirus pandemic and then because of a sewage spill.

The event will kick off with the naming of the Polar Bear King and Queen at 11:30 a.m.

The annual dips in San Pedro started informally sometime in the 1940s. The late John Olguin was among those who launched the idea, along with fellow Los Angeles County lifeguard Jack Cheaney.

Later, they formed the Cabrillo Beach Polar Bears and the first official Polar Bear Swim took place on Jan. 1, 1953.

The Cabrillo Beach Polar Bears are an athletic club to health, fitness and community service, according to its website — and, of course, swimming.

The annual polar swim, meanwhile, is meant to encourage people to start the new year off with some healthy exercise, camaraderie and some time outdoors in nature.

The annual gatherings typically top out at 800 swimmers and includes friends and neighbors, parents with kids, and younger and older folks alike, who kept in shape swimming all year round off San Pedro’s shoreline.

Many of the people who participate have done so for years, uninterrupted — until the pandemic hit.

The polar swim was canceled in 2021, though some folks gathered informally anyway and a virtual swim was posted on Facebook.

The event was set to return this year, but on New Year’s Eve in 2021, 2 million to 4 million gallons of untreated sewage spilled into the Dominguez Channel. The channel drains into the Pacific Ocean and the spill caused several beaches to close because of high bacteria levels.

Cabrillo Beach was among those beaches — nixing the polar swim.

But now, the tradition will resume.

After the king and queen are crowned, the swimmers will run into the water at noon, with folks laughing and screaming as they take the plunge.