Nobody Was In Hot Water at New Year's Day Polar Plunge

Annual event lures dozens into the Atlantic

Jan 02, 2024

SAND BEACH—Here’s how it happens: People congregate in an area. They say hello. They shiver, maybe. They talk to each other, maybe, or just contemplate what they are about to do. Some sit on towels. Some stay standing.

A moment passes.

Another.

Then, they start stripping off their clothes until they’re no longer wearing parkas and hats and boots despite the scattering of snowflakes coming down. They bare their skin to the cold Maine air, wearing just swimsuits, and then they make a decision and jump or run or slowly walk into frigid water.

No, very frigid water.

Let’s revise that. They head into the extremely frigid water of the Atlantic where the temperature is in the low 40s Fahrenheit, and somewhere between 6 and 7 degrees Celsius.

It’s a challenge. It’s a ritual. And though the people gathered on Sand Beach on January 1 were clustered in groups ranging from one to more than a dozen, it is a community.

“I’m getting rid of the evil spirits,” said Ed Hawes, a twinkle in his eye before he headed into the water just a bit after 10 a.m. He bellowed and dove with his childhood friend, Steve Boucher. Evil spirits gone.

Next to them, a family rushed in, dad leading the way. Beyond them, groups of friends, couples, solo adventurers, made their way past the algae and into the increasing waves.

The polar plunge has happened in Bar Harbor for decades. Some years, it’s crowded. Some years, there has been a bull horn and a massive wave of humans all jumping into the water together to meet the less stoppable waves of the ocean. Some years, one group scraggles in after another with no fanfare really, just their own shouts of torment or joy as the water crashes against ankles and shins and torsos. Some dive in. Some keep their arms above their heads. Some laugh. Some shriek. Some giggle. Some are completely silent.

“This is wild,” one kid said to her mom as they worked up the nerve to run in.

“You don’t have to do this,” her mom said.

“Oh, no, I have to.”

She did it just a few moments later.

There’s a resilience to this, a challenge, a way of meeting the elements. This year, the event was loosely organized by Cold Tits, Warm Hearts, a local group of women that gathers to enter frigid waters together throughout the season as well as raise money for local nonprofits. Many of them wore gloves and booties for the swim.

Often, polar plunges or “polar bear plunges” are held for charities. People raise money by going in frigid water. But they are also traditions for no reason at all other than to jump into super cold water on New Year’s Day.

In Boston, a polar plunge began in 1904 and its considered the first polar plunge in our country. However, another is recorded a year earlier in Coney Island. In Vancouver, Canada, an active club has existed since 1920 and has 1,000 to 2,000 people plunging into the English Bay on January 1. In the Netherlands more than 30,000 have participated in Nieuwjaarsuik, the New Year’s Dive. The Netherlands hosts multiple sites across the country for the dive.

There weren’t quite that many plungers in Bar Harbor, but there were well over fifty attendees, and Tremont’s volunteer fire department had a record-breaking crowd this year with over three dozen who took the plunge in Tremont.

“Members of the Tremont Fire Department, Southwest Harbor-Tremont Ambulance and Town Officials were on hand for the event. This event was established to allow our members to interact and/or meet community members, as a volunteer membership campaign and as a ‘FUNraiser’.

If you’ve considered doing something spectacular for the new year, please consider volunteer at one of our local emergency service teams,” the Tremont Volunteer Fire Department’s Facebook page explains.

Back in 2000, at a Sand Beach plunge that involved about 15 people and brought in the millennium, the Bangor Daily News quoted then-Bar Harbor Harbormaster Eddie Monat as saying, “Wow, that felt pretty good.”

Pretty good? Pretty cold? It’s a matter of perspective.

Monat went back in a second time.

Heading into cold water is potentially dangerous for people who have heart conditions or may panic. In the cold water, blood pressure raises and so do heartbeats. For others, it can feel invigorating and give clarity and joy.

Plunges are tradition on Mount Desert Island now, but also celebrations of a new year, of community, of people coming together and wanting to be together, of enthusiasm for a place and for those emergency responders in Tremont, it’s also a celebration of a calling, of service, of giving back and being there for each other. It’s hard to imagine a better way to start a new year than that.

OTHER EVENTS

Revelers chose to greet New Year’s in multiple ways across the island. On New Year’s Eve, some gathered in restaurants and pubs to dance into the new year, hoisting up champagne toasts at the Barnacle, partying on the dance floor at Side Street, singing along with That Maine Band at Finback or the smooth jazz tunes of Bob Lombardi at Havana (until 10:30), or enjoying a good meal at McKay’s and other restaurants.

The next day, the creatively adventurous headed over to ArtWaves for an open house or the Criterion Theatre for an improv class. Some walked in the park or greeted the sunrise despite the overcast conditions, another MDI tradition.