Although the difficult decision was made by the Polar Bear Swim Club, the Isle Of Man frigid plunge went ahead with this year’s Swim Despite COVID
Normally, thousands would be plunging into the ocean on the New Year’s Day Polar Bear swim in Coney Island. This ritual would have been the 117th annual tradition.
The following written content from Nolan Hicks
The “Polar Bears” will be hibernating this New Year’s Day.
The coronavirus pandemic — and mounting efforts to stave off a second wave of infections — have sunk Coney Island’s annual plunge into the frigid waters of the Atlantic Ocean, organizers said Monday.
“While we are deeply disappointed that our great New Year’s tradition will not be taking place in 2021, we know this is the right decision to make for the health and safety of our members, thousands of attendees, and tens of thousands of spectators who show up for this event every January 1st,” said Dennis Thomas, president of the Coney Island Polar Bear Club.
“We will be back bigger and stronger in 2022,” he vowed.
In a normal winter, thousands would line the beach at Coney Island to take a dip in the water amid typically freezing conditions as one way to ring in the new year — and to help raise money for charity. Read more from NYPOST
The Isle of Man Frigid Dip
The Isle of Man is a self-governing British Crown dependency in the Irish Sea between England and Ireland. It’s known for its rugged coastline, medieval castles, and rural landscape, rising to a mountainous center.
The following written content from TMZ
The tradition started back in covered wagon days … 1983, where 4 dippers jumped in the icy water to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis.
Ever since then, there’s been a growing number of dippers and more charities have been included in the mix.
This time around the folks ran into the water at Peel Beach, but there were new concerns — COVID. Obviously, no masks and no real social distancing.
There are certain traditions that persevere, even in COVID times, and one of them is jumping in freezing cold water on New Year’s Day.
It went down per usual in the Isle of Man, where hundreds of folks said shrinkage be damaged and jumped into water with temps below 50 degrees.
The tradition started back in covered wagon days … 1983, where 4 dippers jumped in the icy water to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis.
Ever since then, there’s been a growing number of dippers and more charities have been included in the mix.
This time around the folks ran into the water at Peel Beach, but there were new concerns — COVID. Obviously, no masks and no real social distancing.
The island has handled the pandemic better than most. It went into total lockdown in March, and since June they have avoided massive outbreaks and the kids are back in school.
They’ve also closed their borders, to further protect the 85,000 residents. Read more from TMZ
Happy frigid New Year ! ! ! From News Without Politics
Follow similar interesting non political news stories from News Without Politics
