In 1989, West swam around the island of Manhattan. In 1991, he became the oldest person (at age 59) to swim the Catalina Channel and, in 1996, he completed the English Channel, setting the age record for that at 62. At 82, here he is today, swimming to The Cove because, he says, \u201cthat\u2019s what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n
The entirety of my training, as I explain to West, consists of taking a cold bath last night and almost immediately switching to a hot shower in a panic. \u201cWell,\u201d West replied, \u201cjust get your head in the water and (expletive) swim then.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jumping into a cold ocean to kick off the new year has been a thing since millionaire health advocate Bernarr McFadden decided it should be in 1903 \u2014 something about curing New Year\u2019s Eve hangovers and announcing the triumph of man over nature. His Coney Island Polar Bears still do it every Jan. 1 in their original New York location, where the water temperature usually hovers just above freezing. (This year, it was 37 degrees.)<\/p>\n
The local version was launched in the mid-\u201960s by a group of divers \u2014 believed to be the famed Bottom Scratchers \u2014 who decided to plunge, wetsuitless, off the Children\u2019s Pool sea wall. In 1993, the newly incorporated La Jolla Cove Swim Club took over the expanding tradition, moving it to The Shores after the surf proved too treacherous in 1998. Today, about 300 locals and residents gather at Kellogg Park to socialize until Steve Dillard blows his trumpet, indicating that it\u2019s 10 a.m. and time to pose for a group photo and then hit the waves.<\/p>\n \u201cI just thought it would be something fun and interesting,\u201d said Richard Williams, a San Diego resident who plunged along with his wife, Janette, for the first time. (Newbies here are called \u201ccubs.\u201d) <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m originally from North Dakota, so I\u2019ve swam in cold water before.\u201d<\/p>\n Some donned costumes for the celebration, such as the fluffy polar bear hats San Diego resident Karen McCord and her friends ordered on Amazon. Or the wetsuit worn by downtown resident Brad Michaels that was just a wet suit. (Get it?)<\/p>\n Many of my Facebook friends wondered how much of an accomplishment a Polar Bear Plunge could really be in San Diego, where neither ocean nor morning air temperatures in January dip below 60 degrees. (\u201cYou mean the Koala Bear Plunge?\u201d one mocked.) <\/p>\n McCord told me she felt similar pressure from outside the region. \u201cOne year, we changed the water temperature on the lifeguard sign to make it look like 38 degrees, so we had a little more credibility,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n As I wade further in to the Pacific, however, nothing seems wimpy or melodramatic about the pins and needles stabbing my feet. Sixty-degree water sounds warm but still quickly attempts to lower your core temperature to an equilibrium with it. All around, people are screaming things like \u201cI can\u2019t feel my legs!\u201d and \u201cThis is (expletive) cold!\u201d<\/p>\n In fact, earlier, La Jolla Cove Swim Club vice president Doug Burleigh told me he knew of one swimmer who died of a heart attack about 15 years ago suffered halfway between here and The Cove. (He couldn\u2019t provide any specifics, only that it wasn\u2019t during a Polar Bear Plunge.) By the way, Burleigh took one gander at me and declared that my pineapple Speedos ($30 at La Jolla Swim and Sport) would not suffice for an attempt to swim all the way to The Cove and back. I required a swim cap so that the heat won\u2019t escape my head \u2014 and those just happened to be for sale at his club\u2019s booth for $10. (Good thing I remembered to bring my first-grade daughter\u2019s pink swim goggles, because $40 was all I was spending on this story.)<\/p>\n Most plungers splash in the water for just a few seconds, then run back out, screaming and patting their stomachs with towels \u2014 before patting their backs with social-media photos of their bravery. For more serious plungers, swimming toward a white marker about 25 yards from the shore is popular. But I am a warrior. I stare at The Cove, ignoring the screams of the weak and calling upon the sea gods for stamina. When the water approaches my waist, I dive. My mind is fully prepared. This is going<\/em> to happen.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, my body did not consult my mind beforehand. About 20 strokes is all it will provide before nearly running back to shore without me. The needles in my feet are now a thousand daggers stabbing all over my body, and I can\u2019t be sure, but I think I just saw Jack and Rose from \u201cTitanic\u201d float by on a door. Shock, it turns out, is not so much fun.<\/p>\n Of course, the only thing worse than returning to the launching pad of your mission a failure, fewer than six minutes later, is seeing the people to whom you boasted about your mission heading out to accomplish their own. \u201cNice job,\u201d says Burleigh, who slaps me an emasculating high-five as he begins a 2.5 mile round-trip swim that will take him in several circles in front of the Marine Room. (Burleigh gave his age only as \u201cover 60.\u201d)<\/p>\n At least I\u2019m not as cold as I thought I would be. I feared a bone chill that would last days. Instead, it lasts mere seconds in the 70 degree sunshine. I suppose it\u2019s still better to live in San Diego without credibility than in Coney Island with it.<\/p>\n [\/pl_text] [pl_row pagelayer-id=”x7uk9wdmht2nhchh” 0=””] [pl_col pagelayer-id=”qxr6wk6ut99k3635″ col=”12″] [pl_text pagelayer-id=”g1wo7ww84qb8co2o” 0=””] By COREY LEVITAN I wade slowly out into the Pacific from La Jolla Shores, my eyes on La Jolla Cove to the south. I have come to swim the mile there and back today, returning triumphant \u2014 like many of the real men around me at … <\/p>\n
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