Sheboygan Polar Bear plungers revel in icy dive into Lake Michigan as only way to start new year | Throwback
SHEBOYGAN - Polar Bear plunges have been a bone-chilling event for many — and to some, it is the only way to start the new year.
The event will be held again on Jan. 1, 2023, marking more than 50 years of a refreshing way to start the new year.
Registration for this year's event starts at 10 a.m. Jan. 1 at Dave's Who's Inn bar, 835 Indiana Ave. The dip starts at 1 p.m.
Longtime Polar Bear Club member Art Bohn said the 2020 event had very mild conditions and was nothing to get excited about.
Acuity's Wally Waldhart of Sheboygan said before the event that it wasn't cold enough. Temperatures on Wednesday rose into the mid 30s.
"We always like to see it around 10 degrees, sunny, and maybe a little snow coming down," he said. "But today, it is just too warm."
In 2012, Bohn told the Sheboygan Press the plunge is a way to end one year and usher in another.
The plunge it is an exhilarating experience, he added.
Every year is different in its own way. On brutal cold years, jumping into the lake results in experiencing warmer water than air conditions.
One year, there was so much snow and ice at the lakefront that Polar Bear Club members had to utilize a chainsaw to cut a path at the lakefront to allow people to safely enter the New Year's waters.
Before the Sheboygan Armory was closed as a pre-dip meeting spot for the Polar Bears, it was a place to meet, check your costume, have a drink and maybe dance a tune or two to bands that would sometimes frequent the event.
Today, Polar Bear signups are usually held at Dave's Who's Inn.
The event is well planned today, with medical technicians on hand to help in case of an emergency.
A Press clipping said that one year an Alaskan radio station called a Sheboygan Polar Bear Club member. Polar Bear Club's Larry Pratt said they were curious about how they got real polar bears trained to jump in the lake. When the station found out that humans — and not bears — jumped in the lake, that station was even more interested, Pratt said.
Groups of people, including foreign exchange students, corporate concerns such as Acuity, church groups and participants from distant cities have been known to attend the event as a way of taking part in one of the larger New Year's Day dips in the country.
More than 500 people were taking part in the dip during the mid-2000s.
Through the years, a common chant has been "It's not cold enough" before the start of the event.
To many, the annual Polar Bear Plunge has become a tradition in their lives with which to begin the New Year.
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This article originally appeared on Sheboygan Press: Sheboygan Polar Bear dive into Lake Michigan a New Year's tradition
