Thursday, January 01, 2009

Polar Bears

We went downtown at noon today for the Polar Bear Swim. It happens every year, but this is the first year we had a reason to go.

Pablo and his current host father, Greg some how got roped into the swim today. I don't know the whole story, but I believe Pablo was volunteered by another Rotarian and then the whole thing turned into a fund raiser. If $1000 was raised for a charity then Greg agreed to swim as well. Naturally the club raised the money.



They both turned out to do the swim but lady luck it seems was on their side. You remember how cold it was a week ago? Well it has frozen over some of the river (the most I have ever seen frozen). I guess by the time you walk out on the ice to jump in the water is about 10 feet deep. It was decided by the city that the conditions were unsafe to do the swim. There was concern about the ice breaking and about the swimmers being able to get out the water once they were in.

Pablo and Greg did earn the $$ anyway, they rolled around in the snow in their swimsuits. As you can see in the picture above it was cold enough for Pablo.



We had fun playing in the park for a little bit. It is a nice day to play outside, about -5C and snowing. Very pretty and mild.





Some folks decided not to heed the safety warning and go for it anyway. I snapped a picture of this guy thinking I might be capturing the picture to accompany the Darwin award for 2009, nice to have that out of the way early in the year.

I like the idea of wrapping a rope around his middle. Ouch. He was able to get in and out on his own accord. And others followed. Lemmings.



Pablo and Greg after snow diving:



A picture of the railroad bridge I have never been able to get before. I am standing 10 feet out on the iced river to take it.

4 comments:

Shannon said...

I think they are crazy to go swimming in that kind of weather.

Wudas said...

Great pics! Hmmm, were there women involved or were they too smart?

angie, party of one said...

I'm voting too smart.

memoriestoremember said...

Oh boy...... I don't think I know of anyone who does the polar bear swim here in Kamloops (too cold). I know a couple of people in Vancouver, a little warmer.
Pretty crazy pictures of the contestants.
Good pics of the kids.