The annual Penguin Plunge on New Year’s Day at Port Moody’s Rocky Point Park may be all about frozen frivolity but safety is never far from the minds of the event’s organizers.
After all, loping down a slippery boat ramp into icy water in varying levels of sobriety and costumes can be fraught with danger.
Yet Karen Gray, the city of Port Moody’s lifeguard supervisor, who’s charged with keeping participants safe, can’t remember as much as a bandage being deployed in the years she has worked the event.
Gray said her team of lifeguards has perfected a triangulated system of watching over the boat ramp from the piers on either side of the ramp and communicating with one another over the din of excited swimmers.
“It’s chaotic,” she said of the rush of brave bathers looking to test their New Year's resolve or wash away challenges of the year just passed.
For Gray and crew, planning for the plunge begins days before, when the lifeguard team has a meeting to detail duties and procedures, which include a systematic scan of the water by three lifeguards every five seconds. They’re on the lookout for body language or signs of panic from a swimmer that might indicate they’re in trouble. They’re also vigilant for hypothermia, especially amongst the hardy few who try to endure the frigid water for minutes rather than seconds.
“There’s always someone trying to set a personal record or something,” said Dave Stuart, the president of the Pleasantside Community Association, which has been organizing the annual event since it began in the 1970s.
A bonfire that was first built in the parking lot by firefighters for the 2013 plunge has helped warm frosty swimmers. But Nicki Forster, who leads the group of 10 or so volunteers who work on the event, said a recent innovation has been the advent of coolers filled with hot water that swimmers have brought to immerse themselves immediately after exiting the icy inlet.
“They’re like miniature hot tubs,” she said.
Forster said after last year’s snow and ice kept the numbers down at the Plunge, she is already keeping a close eye on the long-range weather forecast for Jan. 1. She said ideal conditions are a cool day with no snow or rain.
Stuart said some years, the water temperature is actually warmer than the air temperature. But lest anyone think they’ll be running into the winter’s equivalent of a warming bath, the tradition of dipping a block of ice into the inlet before the Plunge endures.
Once that happens, though, the charge down the boat ramp is on.
“Our biggest challenge is holding people back,” he said.
• The 2018 Penguin Plunge begins at 1 p.m. on New Year’s Day at the boat launch at Rocky Point Park. Registration is $5 per person or $10 for a family of four. All money goes to support programs at Old Orchard Hall, Play Pals, Can Can dancers and seniors' badminton.
