The Polar Plunge tradition: A dip for the hardy — or foolhardy

It’s the New Year, and that means thousands of people across the world took the plunge — the annual Polar Plunge that is typically planned for the first morning of Jan. 1.

On an ideal day for sleeping in, nursing a hangover or dismantling the Christmas tree, the ambitiously hardy — or some say foolhardy — instead take a communal dip into the frigid ocean.

From 2019: Polar plunges in Jacksonville Beach, around the world

In the United States, the oldest-documented New Year's Day polar plunge took place in 1904 when the L Street Brownies swim club in South Boston took the first icy-cold endeavor together into Dorchester Bay.

Many over the years also have been organized by law enforcement officers and others as a benefit for Special Olympics.

New Year's leap of faith: 600 make daring dash into 50-degree water in 2011 WaveMasters Polar Plunge

Locally the Polar Plunge tradition started in 1990 when a dozen WaveMasters club members and their families gathered on New Year’s morning in Jacksonville Beach to venture into the numbing Atlantic Ocean.

"It was just as a spoof, I guess you could say, on the real polar plunges," Barry Durden of WaveMasters said about the original event in a 1998 Times-Union story. “… It's grown and grown, and become sort of a tradition in the Jacksonville Beach area.”

Carrying on tradition: 400 brave the chilly (for Florida) morning to go into the ocean New Year's Day 2009

Now plungers come out in Santa hats or in tutus, bloomers, superhero capes and other fun costumes as well as swimsuits.

On the first day of 2010, Times-Union reporter Paul Pinkham put it this way: “It was gray, cold and rainy — just the sort of meteorological nastiness that made Leigon Moore's first Polar Plunge a memorable one Friday morning. ‘I can't feel my face! That was awesome!’ the Atlantic Beach 14-year-old exclaimed after darting in and out of the ocean with about 400 other brave swimmers.”

New Year's 2013: More than 600 take Polar Plunge at Jacksonville Beach

That year, Durden said plungers came from as far as Australia and ranged in age from 2 to 91-year-old Louise Sorensen, who took the chilly dip in her wheelchair. 

Five years later TU reporter Dana Treen would write that Robby and Teri Finklea sealed their first Polar Plunge with a New Year's Day kiss.

"'We just got a house in Atlantic Beach yesterday,' Robby Finklea said after he and his bride of six months scrambled from the Atlantic Ocean after their dip and a smooch in the waves."

The water was 59 degrees that day and a 6-mph wind enhanced the chill.

"It was freezing," Teri Finklea said.

New Year's 2016: Polar Plunge was fun, even if not polar-like

For Fran Read, a 63-year-old veteran plunger at the time, it was always something special.

"I can sleep in any day of the year," she said. "I can only do this one day."