Savannah Guinness World Record Attempt 1/1/2012

I will be participating in a Guinness World Record Attempt on 1/1/2012. My wife will be there to take pictures. Wish me luck :-). The story is cut and pasted below. I plan on the Polar Bear plunge also as a bonus.

The past time I did a Polar Bear plunge was around 1977 in McCullough County. I was working with an archeology crew as we were building Highway 765 (?) across the north side of the county. On brand new highway construction, the Texas State Highway department sends in an archeology crew to excavate for Indian ruins and artifacts. In December of that year, several of us guys dared each other to dive into a creek. The air temperature was about 35 degrees. Swore I would never do that again, but an opportunity to participate in a World Record attempt and dive into the Atlantic Ocean for good measure on New Years Day sounds like fun for me.

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The Tybee Polar Plunge has become Savannah’s coolest – as in frigid – New Year’s tradition over the past decade.

The 2012 edition of the annual dip in the Atlantic Ocean should literally be one for the record books.

Plunge organizers revealed Wednesday plans to challenge a Guinness world record for the largest gathering of people wearing swim caps. The current record is 546, set by a group in Osaka, Japan’s Hirakata Park on July 3, 2011.

Guinness, recognized as the global authority on cataloguing and verifying world records, does not recognize marks pertaining to polar plunges. Hence, the swim cap goal.

“I was skulking around looking for something unique,” said Don Ernst, who founded the plunge along with three friends on a dare on New Year’s Day 2000. “I went to the Guinness World Records website and evidently, the largest polar plunge was too unique. But then I came across the swim caps and thought, ‘Yep, that’s perfect.’”

Plungers who choose to participate in the official event will receive a plunge T-shirt, a swim cap and – assuming a new record is set – access to a special part of the Guinness website where they can download a world record certificate.

A Guinness “adjudicator” will attend the event to verify whether a record is set.

Ernst and fellow organizers Richard Adams and Jim Kluttz predict they will set a new mark. The event attracted 550 paid participants last year and 2,500 more who charged into the ocean from the beach nearby.
 
Current air temperature at Tybee Island is 43 F.
Projected air temperature at Tybee Island will be around 62F at World Record attempt.
Water temperature at nearby Fort Pulaski is 57 F.
Gonna have to grit mah teeth for this one.
 
We obliterated the old world record of 546. The Tybee organizers sold 2000 swim cap / T-shirt kits. We will find out later what our official world record count is. Since it was a world record attempt, I wore a tie (Texas Flag Tie). Dang water was a mite chilly.
 

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While working in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, my husband got the bright idea of joining the Polar Bear club, so he and a few co-workers took the plunge into the chilly waters of the Arctic Ocean. I can't remember what the temperature of the water was that day, but I do know it was too cold for me!
 
6manfootballmom, we were lightweights, the Tybee Beach water temp and air temperature hardly qualify as a "Polar Bear Plunge". Too bad they can't add the water/air temp as one of the qualifiers. All ya gotta do is just in the water on Jan 1st and you are a polar plunger.
 
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