I believe she was wondering - now which of my friends would be nutty enough to do this with me? Ding Ding! Jami of course!
"You want to come check out this Surf City Splash? It's HB's version of the Polar Plunge"
"I'm in! Are there costumes?"
"Costumes? I guess. I do have a USC Band Trojan Helmet."
"Awesome. I have a couple of boxes of costumes, I'll find something."
That is something close to what our text message convo was.
I signed up online - a $20 fee that benefits the Surf Museum. I dig through my costume box wondering what would be ok to run into the ocean wearing and decide on a neon green tu-tu, some new wacky Xmas socks from my sis in law, some green beads and a tiara.
To explain to those who have no idea what I'm talking about - I have heard of this Polar Plunge thing. I have also thought - who in their right mind would purposefully run into the freezing cold ocean in January!!! Well when you are in a new place as I am now you'll try almost anything once! I love the word adventure and that's exactly what this was.
The idea behind it is you run into the ocean and wash off the old year and are fresh and clean for the new year. I don't know how clean we got in the waters of HB but hey - it's the idea right?
I had a wonderful NYE with one of my besties but was in bed by 12:30 knowing I had to be up bright and early to meet my friend down at the beach. Check in was at 10am to be followed by a pancake breakfast, a costume contest and the Plunge at noon.
I headed down early not sure of the crowds and barely made it through the ridiculous fog. I parked pretty close in the residential area and sat in my car for a moment wondering why the hell I was doing this. It was freezing outside, you can't see 3 feet in front of you, it's early and the world isn't awake. Grumbling to myself I headed over to the area where it was supposed to be and curled up against a wall, freezing, waiting for Fatima. The sun was trying to break through but it wasn't looking good. I started thinking, well maybe I"ll just dip my feet in. Just a symbolic dunk.
Fatima arrived and we watched the set up happen and the cluster fuck begin. Oh. My. Lord. These folks did not know what the hell they were doing. When they finally got going and we were given our 2 tiny pancakes, 2 sausages and nasty orange juice (Where the hell is the coffee!) we sat at long tables with syrup on them. People were now arriving, some in costume, most annoyed. As we forced down the food we looked at each other and wondered if this was such a good idea. "Well it's an adventure!" Fatima said laughing.
Lord.
Since we had a little time, we headed to Starbucks to get some warmth in our bodies and then watched as more people arrived. The sun was now winning the battle with the fog which thrilled me to no end. About 11 or so we headed over to Fatima's truck and got ourselves dressed. Photo op!
We headed back over and of course Fatima and her friggin 6 pack (Do you see her abs! Jesus!) were a hit. They started doing the costume contest and I kept hollering at her to get in there. She was protesting but did take part. Well guess what - SHE WON! Ha ha ha! They gave out a few different prizes but she won one of them. We died laughing but then she looked in the envelope and there was a $50! Holy shit! If I had known I would have put more effort in! (Although how many people do you know happen to have tu-tu's and tiaras just lying around....). Fatima said we would share it since the costumes were my idea an I nagged her to be in the contest so I suggested lunch after.
Here was some of the other kids:
As we headed down to the spot for the plunge the excitement started to build. The messy breakfast and chaotic check in was forgotten as we all started to get ready. I would say there was maybe 100 or so folks doing this. The sun was now totally out. It wasn't hot but it was warm enough for me not to cry.
We got our before shot and I tried to catch some of the action around us.
They had us all bunch up behind a sign and the guy started pumping us up from the lifeguard jeep.
The guys pumped us up and counted down. I don't know why but I was so excited!!! When he said go - we all shot out into the ocean, screaming and laughing! Fatima and I both were thrilled!
A bunch of people were watching from the pier:
We got a few aftermath shots as well:
I was surprised that the water wasn't actually as cold as I thought it was going to be. I couldn't feel my feet for the first few minutes but then I acclimated. I wouldn't stay in any longer than we did of course. Fatima didn't dunk due to the helmet but I went all in. If I'm gonna do it - well I'm gonna damn well do it! We got out, dried off, headed to the truck to change into dry clothes and spent our winnings at Ra Sushi for lunch.
I felt really good that I actually did something wacky like this to kick off the new year. I'm all about new experiences no matter how random they sound! If it's not freezing cold outside I would totally do this again!
Talk about the perfect New Year's Day!
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