With the thermometer reading a balmy -3 C, and the windchill making it even colder, about 100 brave souls began the new year with a dunk in the icy waters of Okanagan Lake Jan. 1.
Once again the annual Summerland Kinsmen Club’s Polar Bear Dip on the lakeshore at Sun-Oka Beach, this being the 30th anniversary, proved to be a popular spot for the many splashers and well-wishers.
For participants jumping around trying to maintain circulation while they waited for the noon countdown to begin, just feeling their toes, let alone wiggling them in frozen sand, was almost impossible.
For some of those people at the start line, the dip is an annual activity to blot out the night before and wash away their sins.
This was the third year in a row for Al Messier, and when asked why he chose to ring in the new year this way, he replied: “I don’t know, I was just asking myself the same thing. I’ve been second guessing myself the whole time. Last year there was snow on the ground and the year before there was ice on the water and this year it’s the wind, but I figured I might as well.”
For nine-year-old Macy Block, who was there with her mother Karen, jumping in the water was the result of a bet.
When asked afterwards while she stood shivering by the bonfire on the beach if she planned to make it a yearly event, she thought for a moment and said: “No.”
Evelyn Parcher-Travis of Penticton was with her brightly decorated Rainbow Warrior teammates and thought the dip would be a perfect way to celebrate her recent marriage.
“We’re newlyweds and we’re trying to start a new tradition and our friend invited us so this is our new tradition, to be crazy and go in the water,” said Parcher-Travis.
