Well that was cool! Actually it wasn’t just cool… it was freakin’ freezing! But we got the 4th Annual LOST Polar Bear Dip done anyway! But that was easily the toughest one ever!
This has been an unusual winter already, and it’s only just begun… and by unusual, I mean snowy and cold! Ice storms, snow storms and temperatures that… well, let’s just say, temperatures that don’t make you want to jump in the lake!
Joanne and I did a little New Year’s Day run in the morning and went by the lake to check it out. And honestly, someone or anyone could have talked me out of going for a dip in the Lake very easily at that point. Fortunately (or not) it looked like we’d be able to get in and out okay. So it was on.
Only about an hour or so later we were back to the same spot… and I was already cold. The air temperature about -10C/14F… plus a bit of wind made it even colder. But that wasn’t the worst of it… the water was below freezing! The trusty “Rob Kent thermometer” that usually rounds up in the summer, was rounding up today too… to zero degrees! Dwayne brought his thermometer down and it said 28F… which is -2.2C!!! Obviously this begs the question “how can that be?” The water was still open, even though it was colder than freezing… for the simple reason that there was a bit of a current there that kept the water moving. You could see it as small pieces of ice floated by… or you could just look on the other side of the pier and see that the creek had several inches of ice on it!!!
We’ve never had water temps that cold, I believe it is usually around 1 or 2C… and this was the coldest air temp we’ve ever had as well!
Anyway, somewhere around 50 people showed up just before noon. I barked out the orders, as this was going to have to be quick! So this was the strategy: we were going in at the stroke of noon… so at 11:59 we all quickly got undressed… (except for Brian and Scott that had shown up in their bathrobes already!). Until that point it was hard to tell who was going in and who wasn’t, because no one was getting undressed early! So we all got down to our speedo’s and bikini’s really quick! Then the quick photo op for the other half that were there just to take pictures, laugh and assist in re-dressing those with numb digits after. Then the count down… 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1… and all hell broke loose!
I believe the total number was 25 crazy LOSTies that plunged into Lake O! The youngest being Serena Hardy at 6 years old… doing her second polar bear dip in her life, no less!… and she made it with a big ol’ smile to boot!
Miguel even planned a “Dip or Dash”, the dip was what most people did (in and out as fast as you possibly could)… and a few did the Dash instead! Which entailed swimming out and back to Darren”the Neoprene Kid” Osborne, who manning a buoy in his 7mm wetsuit (and a pink dance outfit from his Jane Fonda workouts back in the 70’s!) It was supposed to be 25m out and 25m back… but I think Darren was being kind with his measurements… either that or I set a new record for 50m breaststroke with a goofy looking hat on!
I must say, we LOSTies are pretty easy to please… because the best part was the fact that Darren had brought some heavy rubber mats that went in the water and Miguel had some carpet that ran down to the beach… both of which were awesome! Beats the hell out of having your feet stick to the rocks like a third-grader’s tongue to a metal post!
Anyway, good fun was had by all and Brett and Lambrina even opened up the coffee shop so we could all get some warm liquids in our bodies and have a mid-winter catch up with all of our LOSTie friends!
Special thanks to Darren and Miguel for the mats and carpet… and to a tip of the hat to Chris who showed up late, but went in anyway! (under Darren’s neoprene supervision!)… and to our young Ukrainian LOSTies, who swam out to the buoy and back… and then just hung around on the beach visiting… in their speedo’s! And a special good luck wish to Colleen for 2014… as she is going to be attempting her 3rd successful Lake O Crossing… when things warm up a little that is!
Anyway, all the best to all you LOSTies out there that made it down for the dip… and to all those that couldn’t make it… or had the brains to stay inside! See you all soon, back at LOST Beach… when it warms up a little!
Cheers,
Rob