Annual Polar Bear Plunge is a chill way to start the new year

EDMONDS — Why not start the new year by jumping into 50-degree Fahrenheit water?

“When you hit the water, you’ll understand you’re alive,” said Mike, a 8-year veteran of the Polar Bear Plunge in Edmonds.

The sun was shining, and there was hardly a breath of wind at the thin, rocky beach just north of the Edmonds ferry landing.

“This was a warm year,” he said.

Mike, who declined to give his last name and gave his age as “over 60,” was not alone.

Dozens crowded the beach at Brackett’s Landing to take a dip in Puget Sound on New Year’s Day.

“When I first showed up, it was just a few of us,” Mike said.

The Polar Bear Plunge was started in 2008 by Brian Taylor, the owner of Daphne’s Bar in downtown Edmonds, and members of the Edmonds Uplift Society, a group of the bar’s regulars.

They start at Daphne’s, drinking Rainier beer.

“I hear it has special antifreeze characteristics only on Jan. 1,” one female member said.

Then, clad in bathrobes, they march to the waterfront.

But they aren’t the only ones showing up to swim anymore.

This year, the roughly two dozen Edmonds Uplift Society members were easily outnumbered by other bathers.

At 7 years old, Bergen Whitelaw was one of the youngest.

He had decided to join in only about 30 minutes earlier. Originally, his family was only coming to watch.

On the beach, Whitelaw didn’t hesitate.

“I just ran in,” he said, shivering beneath a couple towels.

It was colder than he expect, he said.

But it wasn’t cold enough to keep some folks from taking a second dip in the water.

Tawny Redford and his niece, Shealyse Chase dove in with other family members, came out and then decided to go back in.

“It takes your breath away,” Redford said. But “it wasn’t really that bad.”

It was the first Polar Bear Plunge for both Lynnwood-resident Redford and Chase, who is visiting from North Dakota.

It was the start of a new family tradition, they said.

Another first-time-plunger, Diane Stewart said she was hooked.

The Seabeck resident jumped in with fellow Edmonds Uplift Society members.

“It was a blast!” she said. “I can’t wait to come back next year.”

Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @dcatchpole.