Swimmers take icy New Year's Day dip

Swimmers braved the cold water on Jan. 1 for the first annual Osoyoos Desert Dip at Gyro Beach. (Vanessa Broadbent photo)

By Vanessa Broadbent

Osoyoos Times

Osoyoos now has an official annual polar bear swim and it’s all thanks to discussion on Facebook.

Osoyoos resident and owner of Okanagan Construction Group Glenn Senft said he saw a post in the Osoyoos Loop Facebook group asking if there was an annual New Year’s swim in Osoyoos.

Other than a few commenters who said they knew people who did their own jump on New Year’s Day, and some saying that there used to be an annual dip, Senft said there was no organized group that did the icy plunge every January 1.

So he decided to fill the gap.

“I put it together on a whim and this is what we came up with,” Senft said.

The event, called the Osoyoos Desert Dip, took over Gyro Park on Tuesday morning and Senft said over 40 people signed up to be part of the “Osoyoos Polar Bear Swim Club.”

Swimmers endured the cold water which sat at a temperature of 4°Celcius while outside temperature was 1°C.

“It was very brisk,” Senft said.

Participants got a certificate saying they braved the cold and made the plunge, and Senft said t-shirts are being designed and will be sent out as well.

Despite having only been organized in a few days, the event even included a warm up tent complete with hot chocolate and a paramedic onsite, as well as dozens of warm onlookers.

Senft said he’s already planning for next year’s Osoyoos Desert Dip, and has plans to make it bigger and better.

“I was listening to people say there’s nothing going on in the winter here so I thought we could turn this into a winter festival.”