A New Year’s polar bear dip might just be the push you need to kick start your New Year’s resolutions, says a UVic student who has persuaded hundreds of his peers to take a chance on cold-water swimming this past year.
“The more you do these things, the more your body will want to be open to experiences. It’s almost a door to exciting new experiences and challenging yourself,” said Pierre McGeough.
McGeough, a fourth-year undergraduate student in business and psychology at the University of Victoria, said he took a gap year to travel and came back to school “really open to new experiences.”
So when someone asked him to go swimming in the ocean last fall, McGeough said yes, despite having little previous experience.
He quickly got hooked on the cold-water experience and is now the co-president of the UVic Polar Dippers student club, which brings students together in the ocean water twice a week during the school semester.
To encourage more people to come, McGeough occasionally puts on party-style events replete with DJs, glowsticks and live music, and then posting the ensuing results on social media.
McGeough estimates that one of his club’s events, the Dip Fest, saw 700 people gather in the waters of Cadboro Bay this April.
“It’s just super great at bringing people in, starting conversations,” he said of cold-water swimming. “When you’re freezing cold, it’s really hard to have small talks and [put up] this social barrier.”
”It’s definitely something where it relaxes your body and puts you in this different physiological state,” McGeough said.
McGeough said being able to conquer the initial fear of getting into the cold water can lead to self-discovery and empowerment.
Cold-water swimming has been taken up in Greater Victoria in ever-greater numbers ever since the pandemic. Many choose Jan. 1 as a day to take a plunge.
While the UVic Polar Dippers are still on winter break and won’t be reconvening until next week, there are plenty of other groups across 91原创 Island that will be looking for participants to take part in a sea dip on New Year’s Day.
The Lido Club, a Victoria-based ocean cold water swimming club, is advertising a polar bear dip that starts at noon at Willows Beach.
In Sidney, Peninsula Celebrations Society is bringing back its polar bear swim at Glass Beach off Beacon Avenue from noon to 12:30 p.m.
At Otter Point, the volunteer fire department is sponsoring a polar bear swim at Whiffin Spit Park. Registration starts at 11:30 a.m. and the swim begins at noon.
In Port Alberni, the annual Polar Bear Swim has been renamed the John Douglas Memorial Polar Bear Swim in memory of the late Port Alberni councillor who died this year. Registration for the event, at John Douglas Park at t虛iipis, formerly known as Canal Waterfront Park, begins at noon. The race to the water starts at 1 p.m.
A published in the U.S. National Library of Medicine referenced health benefits to mental health, blood pressure and the immune and cardiovascular systems, but also noted that those unfamiliar and not acclimatized to the water are at risk of shock, hypothermia and death.
Sea water temperatures around Greater Victoria are typically between 6 to 8 C in January, down from an average of 11.2 C in July.
The Capital Regional District does not conduct water-quality sampling at recreational beaches during the winter.
For those looking to check bacterial counts before they go into the water, more recent water testing results are available from the Surfrider Foundation.
The non-profit group’s interactive map can be accessed at .
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