EDITORIAL

New Year shock treatment

Warmer than usual, but still chilly start to 2023

By JOHN HOWELL
Posted 1/3/23

Jo-Anne Schofield wore a heavy coat.

Sunday, January 1 had to be the warmest day for the annual Obstaplunge and Frozen Clam Dip in its history of people running into the chilly waters of Greenwich …

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EDITORIAL

New Year shock treatment

Warmer than usual, but still chilly start to 2023

Posted

Jo-Anne Schofield wore a heavy coat.

Sunday, January 1 had to be the warmest day for the annual Obstaplunge and Frozen Clam Dip in its history of people running into the chilly waters of Greenwich Bay for the benefit of Mentor RI. The forecast might explain why more than 160 pre-registered this year and at least another 20 to 30 showed up in their bathing suits prior to the noon countdown to sprint into the bay.

Yet while the temperatures hovered in the 50s, the wind off the water was cold. Schofield, president and CEO of Mentor RI, hair blowing, pulled her plaid coat tight around her.

“I’m excited it’s about 55 (degrees), but I didn’t realize we’d have white caps,” she said.

Mentor RI started the New Year’s Day ritual about a dozen years ago on the sands of Oakland Beach. Back then it was surely one of the state’s smallest benefit plunges, a shadow of the Penguin Plunge at Mackerel Cove in Jamestown run by Special Olympics of Rhode Island. Bus loads of people, some dressed as penguins and many of them still under the effects of the night before swarmed the beach before charging in behind the king and queen penguins.  The actual event was over in minutes and it took far longer to hike back to the car and get off island – the bus was the way to go with a built in party of friends and ample refreshments.

The Frozen Clam Dip transitioned into a family event and much more of a challenge with the partnership of Laid Back Fitness and its founder Ryan McGowan. McGowan introduced the Obstaplunge that sent people jumping, swinging , crawling, running and finally throwing themselves into the water. No one keeps time – well, certainly some participants keep their own time – and there are helpers along the way to steady those who would otherwise f all off the balance beam or provide a lift to get over a hurdle. Kids love it, but there’s no stopping many adults ready to greet the New Year with gusto.

The plunge is the finale to the half-mile American Ninja Warrior style shoreline obstacle course that takes participants down the beach and back.

With the Obstaplunge concluded, those who turned out for the dip assembled on the beach. They shed garments, shoes, hats – even parting with their cell phones – stamped their feet in the sand, arms folded across their chests and huddled. McGowan, wearing his signature clam hat, swim trunks and acting like it was a blazing August day turns on the hype.  His voice cuts through the wind as he get the dippers to recite the Frozen Clam oath that if anything should befall them that “it’s my own damn fault.” Then it’s the countdown with everyone chiming in. The charge follows , the screams, the splashing and the scramble to get out, find a towel and take that selfie to send to disbelieving family and friends.

plunge, dip

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