New Year, same great time at the 2017 Nelson Polar Bear Swim

Dec 31

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By Nelson Daily Staff

The man at the microphone said it all prior to the start of the Kootenay Co-op Radio 2017 Polar Bear Swim — “it’s 32 C in Honolulu, Hawaii."

However, that didn’t seem to bother the 60-70 brave souls from jumping into Kootenay Lake to kick off 2017 in style at the annual Polar Bear Swim Sunday at Lakeside Park Beach in Nelson.

“This is such a great community event,” said Stephanie Myers of Kootenay Co-op Radio.

“When we heard the Nelson Rhythm Ropers were not going to host it, we decided to take over the event.”

“We have such a great volunteer group, so this was very easy for us,” Myers added.

Nelson Rhythm Ropers hosted the event the past couple of years, taking over from the Kootenay Lake Hospital Foundation.

As per usual, people started showing up to Lakeside Park about a half-hour before the noon start.

There were the traditional costumes — even Spiderman showed up this year — as well as a lot of great chatter as swimmers tried to convince themselves that jumping into Kootenay Lake on the first day of the New Year was a good idea.

“My wife convinced me to doing this,” said one participant.

“We decided during the summer,” he added with a chuckle.

There was no official countdown this year.

One woman simply took it upon herself to lead the charge as she gingerly walked into Kootenay Lake around noon.

Once people saw the first person in the water, everyone, in a mass sprint, followed.

Of course the sprint out of the lake was a little quicker than the start as participants quickly hustled out of the water before slipping into dry clothes, robes and coats.

Temperature was 0 C, however it was the wind coming from the north through the Big Orange Bridge that reduced the temperature to balmy minus 9 C.

Along with an army of Kootenay Co-op Radio volunteers was a Nelson Search and Rescue boat patrolling the waters on Kootenay Lake and lifeguards on the beach.

The almost 200 person crowd made this year’s Polar Bear Swim a community event that has the legs to continue for many years to come.