The Polar Bears: The Icemen Swimeth

New Year's Day, all Polar Bear Club members across the country indulge in a frigid dip in the local waters.
The genesis of this traditional is a mystery, but the Coney Island Polar Bears first took the plunge in 1903 and the Milwaukee Polar Bears, not much later, in 1916.
Onlookers watching the insanity always outnumber the swimmers. As I wonder what makes the Polar Bears do it, I also admire the fortitude that propels them. Even in summer heat, I am a toe-dipper. Getting into a pool takes me ten minutes or more to get wet up to my waist. Then I hop up and down for a couple more minutes until the ridiculousness of the dance forces me to plunge underwater.
As I admire these brave, foolish men and women of the new year, I ask which polar bears are the fiercest? The Coney Island Polar Bear club might be the oldest, but aren't the waters of Lake Michigan colder than the Atlantic? Doesn't that make the Chicago and Milwaukee Bears tougher? According to the National Oceanographer Data Center, the water off The Battery, New York is 41 degrees today. Lake Michigan surface temperature around Milwaukee is 32.5 degrees. Watch this video of today's Chicago Polar Bear swim, with the air temperature at 14 and the water at 33.
Hypothermia, a condition to be avoided, can set in at water temperatures lower than 70 degrees. So the best place to be a Polar Bear today is in Key West where the Gulf of Mexico's bath water temperature is 78 degrees.
Even in all the crazy fun, whether you're a swimmer, an onlooker or an at-home skeptic, don't forget our real polar bears. Their arctic homes are becoming real swimming pools.