since 2001, MOC has been holding the 'polar dip' on that day of trickery and jokes.
every year, on the last day of march, a small group of us meet at the town beach up on canaan street lake to cut a hole in the ice. with an auger, saws, and iron bars, we chunk up the ice, strap it up, and haul it out.
well, almost every year. in the last 10 years, 5 of them have been 'run ins'--4 of those with the lake totally ice free. while that is not as fun as jumping through a hole in the ice, it is a heck of a lot easier to prep than cutting through 2 feet--give or take a foot--of ice. this year was a bit odd with one side of a 10'x10' hole about 18" thick and the other over 24".
two feet thick is probably about average, though we have seen thicker than three feet. another odd part of this year was april 1st came on a sunday, easter sunday. that made for a leisurely dip, but lowered the numbers a bit. a full crew of canaan's emergency team were the first to show up.
the guys in the orange dry suits and the woman on the left are all former students, but i don't think they had ever polar dipped while they were in school.
current students, a guest, and one alumni, started showing up around 12:00, not all that anxious to go in, but at least willing. MOC co-president/secretaries, olivia and justin, had been there to cut the hole saturday. olivia and ethan, the alumni, had both dipped before, ethan two or three times. kerrigan and dirk were first time dippers, like justin and his ski buddy john, from kearsarge rhs.
it was a great line up. looking at the 'before' picture, nobody is hunched and shivering--yet. it is indeed a sunny day, almost 40°F. what you can't see is the blustery wind, steady between 15-20mph. maybe it was the wind chill that made that first dipper in a cold challenge. i think ethan broke that ice, so to speak. soon after we caught a good series of olivia going in.
i had featured olivia's 'run in' two years back, the year she moved to new hampshire from tennessee. it was an extreme cold experience that i promised would be better as a 'jump in'. even though she climbed out the ladder shortly after that last picture, she had a bigger smile than when she ran ashore in 2016.
just so you don't think i kept my boots on, here is a series of my cannonball.
my goal is to splash the dry-suited crew enough to encourage them to jump in after me. this year i had to up on the ladder for a second a splash dive.
that got some of the early dippers excited enough to take their own second jump before we lined up for an 'after' picture.
we were able to warm up enough that four of us stayed around to slide around the ice pulled by my kite. justin and john put on their skis and each had a couple of sweet runs.
it was a grand day to be outside and playing!
every year, on the last day of march, a small group of us meet at the town beach up on canaan street lake to cut a hole in the ice. with an auger, saws, and iron bars, we chunk up the ice, strap it up, and haul it out.
well, almost every year. in the last 10 years, 5 of them have been 'run ins'--4 of those with the lake totally ice free. while that is not as fun as jumping through a hole in the ice, it is a heck of a lot easier to prep than cutting through 2 feet--give or take a foot--of ice. this year was a bit odd with one side of a 10'x10' hole about 18" thick and the other over 24".
two feet thick is probably about average, though we have seen thicker than three feet. another odd part of this year was april 1st came on a sunday, easter sunday. that made for a leisurely dip, but lowered the numbers a bit. a full crew of canaan's emergency team were the first to show up.
the guys in the orange dry suits and the woman on the left are all former students, but i don't think they had ever polar dipped while they were in school.
current students, a guest, and one alumni, started showing up around 12:00, not all that anxious to go in, but at least willing. MOC co-president/secretaries, olivia and justin, had been there to cut the hole saturday. olivia and ethan, the alumni, had both dipped before, ethan two or three times. kerrigan and dirk were first time dippers, like justin and his ski buddy john, from kearsarge rhs.
it was a great line up. looking at the 'before' picture, nobody is hunched and shivering--yet. it is indeed a sunny day, almost 40°F. what you can't see is the blustery wind, steady between 15-20mph. maybe it was the wind chill that made that first dipper in a cold challenge. i think ethan broke that ice, so to speak. soon after we caught a good series of olivia going in.
i had featured olivia's 'run in' two years back, the year she moved to new hampshire from tennessee. it was an extreme cold experience that i promised would be better as a 'jump in'. even though she climbed out the ladder shortly after that last picture, she had a bigger smile than when she ran ashore in 2016.
just so you don't think i kept my boots on, here is a series of my cannonball.
my goal is to splash the dry-suited crew enough to encourage them to jump in after me. this year i had to up on the ladder for a second a splash dive.
that got some of the early dippers excited enough to take their own second jump before we lined up for an 'after' picture.
we were able to warm up enough that four of us stayed around to slide around the ice pulled by my kite. justin and john put on their skis and each had a couple of sweet runs.
it was a grand day to be outside and playing!
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