Polar Bear Plunge

Today I participated in the Polar Bear Plunge held in the Chesapeake Bay. It is an annual fundraiser held where the proceeds go to Special Olympics. A couple guys in our ward, Clark Hartley and Haloti Ngata (NFL player) were our team captains, and as a team we raised over $8,000. Can you believe people pay to watch crazy people like us jump into freezing cold water? Insane. Oh well though, it was for a good cause.

Well, Bryce Carter and I drove down together this morning and nearly froze to death waiting to get in the water. The atmosphere surrounding the event was exciting. There were tens of thousands of people there. Tons of tailgaiters, barbeques and onlookers. Even the crazy drunk people were there, including the psycho duo of guys running around in nothing but a speedo and beer helmet. The air temperature was a frosty 31 degrees, and the water was a stinging 36 degrees today. You can see some video on the local news network if you like. Check out the link on the right for- Sky Team 11: Saturday's Noon Big Plunge (you can see our group running in with our white t-shirts. I'm one of the first ones to go running in).

Here is a picture of some of the ward members on our team about 5 minutes before plunge time. For all of you who wussed out, shame on you. For the rest of the courageous and valiant men who stuck it out, congrats! Remember, it's only 31 degrees and we are standing around in t-shirts and swimming suits right now.

Here is a view of the Bay with the Bay Bridge in the background. Check out all the police boats and divers that they had on hand in case of an accident.
This photo was taken immediately after the plunge, and I think we were all officially numb at this point. Getting out of the water was so hard because the muscles were no longer working, so Jeremy Skinner and I were falling all over each other just trying to escape the frigid clutches of the Chesapeake. Man, it was painfully cold.

Flex those muscles Bryce!

This is what a frozen skeleton looks like, in case anybody was wondering.