C'mon in, the water's freezing

Courtesy Tom McGann

Brave souls are seen participating in the last year's Coney Island Polar Bear Club New Year's Day Plunge.

By Rob Lovitt, msnbc.com contributor

Resolutions, shmesolutions. If you really want to get a jump on the new year, there?s nothing like a plunge into icy water to clear the head, focus one?s attention and put things in perspective.

?You?re totally immersed in this intense experience,? said Dennis Thomas, president of the Coney Island Polar Bear Club, a winter-swimming group that sponsors an annual New Year?s Day plunge?in the Long Island beach community.

?It?s not about work or family or money or any of the other stressful things we deal with every day,? he said. ?It takes you somewhere else so simultaneously, it?s a way to leave things behind.?

Like your sanity? Not so, maintains Thomas. ?It used to be a bunch of old weird guys doing it; now we have 150 members and get about 100 swimmers every weekend,? he told msnbc.com. ?We?re not those nuts on the beach anymore.?

For newbies, the New Year?s Day swim offers a good introduction as the water temperature will be in the mid-40s, relatively balmy compared to the 31 or 32 degrees it?ll be later in the winter. According to Thomas, approximately 1,200 swimmers will take the plunge with another 5,000?6,000 less-adventurous spectators cheering them on.

They should be in good, albeit goosebumped, company as similar New Year?s plunges will take place in Boston, Seattle, Toronto and other cities across the U.S. and Canada. Most are free, although many ask participants to gather pledges for charitable causes.

The Coney Island plunge, for example, is one of 11 mid-winter events that are participating in Freezin? for a Reason, a fundraiser for Camp Sunshine, a retreat for children with life-threatening illnesses and their families. Ranging from an ice-choked lake in Virginia to the frigid waters of Maine?s Casco Bay, the events promise to be heartwarming and bone-chilling at the same time.

Then again, if misery truly loves company, it?d be hard to beat the MSP Polar Bear Plunge?in Annapolis, Md., on Jan. 28, when as many as 12,000 hardy souls will take to the waters of Chesapeake Bay. Now in its 16th year, the event has raised more than $400,000 for Special Olympics Maryland.

The event is part of a day-long festival called PlungeFest, which will feature live music, a pee-wee plunge for the kids ? think wading pools, not open water ? and a beer garden for adults. Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco is scheduled to make a celebrity plunge ? unless, that is, he has to be in Indianapolis for the Super Bowl a week later.

Then again, whether Flacco goes in the water or not, other plungers may be too focused on their own impending immersion to notice. With typical late-January water temperatures registering in the mid-30s, even experienced plungers have been known to get goosebumps before they even get wet.

?As many times as I?ve done it, I still get nervous,? said Kelley Schniedwind, spokesperson for Special Olympics Maryland and herself a frequent plunger. ?You?re standing on the beach, saying, ?Am I really about to do this???

Afterward, though, she?s always glad she did. ?You look around, people are laughing and yelling, and you think, wow, I just did something crazy, it was fun and I survived. I feel really good.?

More on Itineraries

Rob Lovitt is a longtime travel writer who still believes the journey is as important as the destination. Follow him at Twitter.

Source: http://itineraries.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/23/9664644-cmon-on-in-the-waters-ing-freezing

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