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VIDEO: Fort 91Ô­´´ Polar Bear Swim marks 11th year

Icy event has become a family affair for founder

Fort 91Ô­´´'s polar bear swim remains an informal, loosely organized success story that has brought hardy swimmers to the frigid waters of Bedford Channel to embrace the cold and welcome the new year for more than a decade.

On Wednesday, New Year's Day, at noon, hundreds of swimmers turned up to take advantage of the relatively mild weather, and take the plunge.

Aldergrove teen Elizabeth Growchowski was celebrating her 13th birthday with her parents Jon and Shannon, who went in the water with her, and younger sister Maggie, who opted to stay on shore and record the event.

"It's my third time," Elizabeth said.

"[it's] something fun to do."

Fort 91Ô­´´ resident Ton Welsh has been taking a new year's dunk in the channel longer than the polar bear swim has been happening.

"There was about maybe six of us," he recalled. 

"I was new in town in 2012 and saw a poster on one of the telephone poles and so I came down and it was fun. Just a few of us, kind of informal."

It has grown every year since, Welsh said, with the exception of the pandemic, when he was part of a much smaller number who "did our social distancing and stayed about 20 feet apart or so and all went in at various times." 

"It's just a lot of fun."

 

This year, thanks to the relatively mild weather, an estimated 400 swimmers took part, and there were a few hundred more observers who turned out to watch from canoes and the dock on the south side of the channel, as well as the pathway on the north side and the bridge overlooking the stretch of sand where the swimmers gathered.

"One year we had to chip away the ice, because it was so cold," organizer Darian Kovacs recalled. "That was the worst one, because of the danger of people slipping [but] no one got hurt, it was amazing."

Kovacs  and some friends began organizing the informal dunk into its current incarnation in 2014.

"Every year's different," Kovacs observed. "It's all very organic."

"A guy brought a DJ system in the past, mayors come out, and a local MLA came out last year. We've had people bring big hot chocolate stations."

Kovacs said that every year, he thinks about making it more organized, but the thought passes.

"I always kind of have a thought of, Oh man, I should get it organized next year, or should find an official sponsor, or someone should take this over, but it's never really happened," Kovacs told the 91Ô­´´ Advance Times.

"We've just always let people know, and gotten the word out for friends that want to join, and anyone else who wants to join along with us," he explained.

"It's such a great way to start the new year, and it's become a nice kind of family tradition, and community tradition, where you get to see people, and, you know, good friends and family you get to start the new year with." 

That includes his own family, with Kovac's oldest son, Caedmon, among the swimmers.

"He is now 18, so he actually came back out from UBC for it, and then my 10-year-old did it last year,  [and] my nine-year-old helped with the countdown."

While there haven't been any serious talks about having someone take over organizing the event, Kovacs isn't ruling it out, either, "if like, the Rotary, or the Lions might want to take it over, and use it as like, a little fundraiser."

"If the folks at the Rotary, and the folks at the Lions, they want to take it over, and make it like, official, where you register, and they get insurance, and all that good stuff, I'd be all for that."  

READ ALSO:91Ô­´´ residents brave the cold for annual Polar Bear Swim

READ ALSO: 91Ô­´´ Polar Bear Swim cancelled two-times in a row

READ ALSO: Biggest turnout yet for 91Ô­´´ Polar Bear swim





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