Polar Bear Swim

January 1, 2006 | 1,709 views | Trackback | |

Call me crazy, but I kind of promised myself a good month ago that if I was feeling half human this morning (New Year's Day), then I would join the rest of the gang in the time honoured Vancouver tradition of the "Polar Bear Swim" off English Bay Beach.

As luck would have it... or maybe bad luck... depending on how you look at it, Mel and I both pulled up hangover free which was a rather large surprise to the both of us. We celebrated the little vitory over alcoholic side-effects by joining Chris, Andrea, TJ and Lyndsey at one of our favourite greasey soons - "Teresa's" on Denman. The grease injection was just what the doctor ordered pre-swim.

We had enough time to return home, have a quick rest and then meet up again on the beach at English Bay in front of the bath houses in the pouring rain. I couldn't believe the amount of crazy-like-minded people were willing to dip their toes in the icy water but there was almost a "Carnival" atmosphere going on down on the sand and everyone seemed to be having a great time despite the weather. There were vikings, fairies, bears, pirates and a whole assortment of other costumes on show both in and out of the water. TJ, Bosh, Aaron and I stripped down to our boardshorts and made the dash down the sand through the crowds and into the water. While the stuffing was knocked out of me as the cold water hit my chest, it really wasn't that bad and the buzz and tingle that your body experiences when you leave the water again made it all worth while.

2006 Polar Bear Swim - English Bay, Vancouver

Amongst all the mayhem and celebration, some fella actually won the actual "Polar Bear Swim Race" out to the far buoy in the bay and as far as I know the party continued on in the rain long after we packed up and headed home to shower and warm up.

On the way back to the house we passed this crazy VW Beetle parked in one of the gas station's that some guy had gone to town on with an insane amount of ornate decoration and modification. With the crowd that had gathered around I wasn't able to talk to the guy to find out what his motivations were, but we took time to look the vehicle over and marvelled at all the intricate details including the functioning fountain on the hood! LOL