‘Some perverse enjoyment:’ P.E.I. Polar Bear Dip going ahead in 2023 with new organizer taking lead
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CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — Jake MacCallum is able to make the leap within the 2023 Polar Bear Dip – each as a participant and the organizer.
When he learn the information earlier this month that the occasion’s organizer was stepping down and the swim may not go ahead, he wished to assist. So, he contacted Jason Lee, a previous organizer.
“Hey, I’d like to take this on. I’m all the time on the lookout for new and thrilling issues,” MacCallum advised Lee.
Lee was on board and despatched him all the data. Since then, MacCallum has been attempting to get the phrase out by means of social media, he stated in an interview with SaltWire Community on Dec. 28.
“It looks as if a fairly simple occasion to prepare, given you will have the our bodies.”
With MacCallum taking on, the 2023 Polar Dip is ready for 10:30 a.m., Jan. 1 on the seaside subsequent to the Charlottetown Yacht Membership.
Spectators are inspired, and anybody attending can park on the Yacht Membership, MacCallum stated.
Members are additionally inspired to donate to the Higher Room Hospitality Ministry Meals Financial institution, which accepts meals and cash, he added.
MacCallum, who plans to participate, has not but truly performed the Polar Bear Dip, however he describes himself as a “chilly water fanatic.”
A few years in the past, he received into the work of Wim Hof, a Dutch motivational speaker recognized for his respiration methods and skill to face up to excessive chilly, MacCallum stated.
“I type of grew to become obsessive about chilly showers and going out within the chilly snow and simply laying there.”
Whereas numbers fluctuate on the Polar Bear Dip every year, MacCallum hopes to see about 50 individuals and an equal variety of spectators, he stated.
Members
Dave Beaton is among the individuals who frequently takes half within the polar dip. In actual fact, a couple of dozen members of his household maintain their very own annual Boxing Day polar swim.
Beaton and MacCallum met earlier this month when Beaton and his household had been within the water on Boxing Day.
Due to the Boxing Day swim, Beaton generally skips the New Yr’s Day swim, however he plans to participate in each occasions this yr, he stated on Dec. 29.
“I believe it’s going to be a very good yr this yr. By way of weather-wise, there doesn’t appear to be any ice within the harbour. I do know my son, who’s been doing it for 9 years in addition to a household occasion, he’s actually eager on it. So, he’ll be fairly instrumental in dragging me alongside, I believe.”
Do you know?
• The 2023 Polar Bear Dip will go forward whatever the climate.
• As of press time, the forecasts for Jan. 1 in Charlottetown had been calling for rain, with a excessive of 4-7 C.
Having an ice-free harbour makes a giant distinction. In any other case, dippers have to face round, ready first for a gap to be dug within the ice, after which for fellow swimmers to get out and in, Beaton stated.
Ready to go in may be fairly daunting, even in years the place there isn’t a ice, he added.
“As you are standing on the shoreline simply earlier than getting into, you’re considering, ‘What the heck am I doing? I’m a sane, cheap individual. Why am I standing out in a pair of shorts and sneakers, going to take a plunge into freezing chilly water?’”
With no signup required, MacCallum stated anybody who desires to participate can merely present up on Jan. 1, able to get moist.
“As you are standing on the shoreline simply earlier than getting into, you’re considering, ‘What the heck am I doing? I’m a sane, cheap individual. Why am I standing out in a pair of shorts and sneakers, going to take a plunge into freezing chilly water?”
Dave Beaton
However to be prepared, Beaton had a pair ideas: Put on footwear, as a result of swimmers’ ft shall be too numb to really feel sharp objects on the seaside. And be ready to get heat and dry as quickly as potential, he stated.
“It’s a fast occasion. You’re in and also you’re out. … There’s some perverse enjoyment to it, I’ll put it that method.”
Logan MacLean is a reporter with SaltWire Community
[email protected]
@loganmaclean94
