Hundreds make the chilly New Year’s Day plunge off La Jolla

For most people starting the new year Tuesday morning with the Polar Bear Plunge at La Jolla Shores, the chilly water — 56 degrees — was the biggest obstacle.

John Shannon did it with a broken right leg, too.

The 56-year-old real estate agent fell off his electric skateboard six weeks ago, but he wasn’t about to miss the annual La Jolla Cove Swim Club event, which he’s been participating in for a decade. So he made his way into the ocean and back on crutches.

“If I don’t start my year off with the Polar Bear Plunge,” he said, “how am I going to live up to the rest of my New Year’s resolutions?”

Shannon was among about 250 people who got wet Tuesday morning as part of a tradition that dates back more than 30 years here, and more than a century in other parts of the country.

Some just ran up to their knees in the surf and dashed back out. Others swam for a mile or more. All pronounced themselves invigorated.

“It’s the energy,” said Terry Millán, gesturing with her arms toward the dozens of smiling people wrapped in towels afterward, bouncing around to get warm.

The San Diegan was there with relatives from Nashville, who decided after years of coaxing by her to add the plunge to their holiday-visit itinerary.

“It was freezing,” said René Millán, her brother-in-law, “but I would do it again.”

Of course, “freezing” here is different than freezing in, say, Lake Michigan, a distinction that Brigham Joffs expected to be hearing about later in the day from his Chicago friends.

“I send them pictures and they think it’s a joke,” he said. “A Polar Bear Plunge in San Diego?”

Joffs, 36, an electrical engineer from Poway, embraces the levity. A year ago, he donned a handlebar mustache. This year, it was a full-length faux mink coat that he kept on until the last moment.

Like many of the swimmers, he did the event with friends. This was his fifth straight plunge since moving here from Dallas.

“It’s a tradition now,” he said.

Alexander Rogers might understand. He’s done the plunge every New Year’s Day of his life.

At 14 months old, that means he’s done it twice. Clad in a polar bear suit, he was brought to the beach by his parents, Chelsey and Jason Rogers of Mira Mesa.

“This is the only way to start the New Year,” said Chelsey Rogers, who works for a publishing company and was participating in her sixth plunge.

Lai Pham, 66, a retired mechanical engineer from Tierrasanta, was a newcomer. He happened across the gathering a year ago and decided to come back this time to swim. Before going into the water, he wore a top hat with the words “Happy New Year” on it, and he couldn’t stop smiling and taking photos of people with his cell phone.

“This is a good way to wake you up, give you a fresh start for everything,” he said.

Jack Robertson was smiling, too. Swimming is one of the few things he can do without his wheelchair, which he’s used for almost 50 years, ever since a car crash in Ohio paralyzed his legs.

The 68-year-old retired teacher from La Jolla is a marathon swimmer — he’s gone around the island of Manhattan, crossed the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain to Morocco — so Tuesday morning’s plunge was child’s play to him.

But that didn’t make it any less satisfying, he said.

He stroked through the water for about 15 minutes while his son, Riley, waited on the beach with the wheelchair and his wife, Elaine, carried his towel.

Afterward he beamed, even as goose bumps rose on his arms. “That’s freedom,” he said, nodding toward the ocean. “Happy New Year!”

john.wilkens@sduniontribune.com