Roughly 100 brave cold sea at Hollywood Beach on New Year’s Day

PORT ANGELES — A horde of revelers plunged into the new year at Hollywood Beach on Wednesday, braving the frigid waters of Port Angeles Harbor to begin 2020 with an invigorating swim.

A crowd of about 100 ran three times from the beach into the 47-degree water to submerge their heads in the 32nd Port Angeles plunge.

“Oh my gosh, it was exhilarating,” said second-year dipper Christine Paulsen of Sequim.

“What a great way to start a new decade and a new year but come jump in, wash off 2019, come out clean and brand new?”

For Jennifer Frazier of Port Angeles, the triple-dip polar plunge represented a year of personal achievement.

“I lost 80 pounds and I decided that I was going to do new things,” Frazier said. “This is my year.”

Frazier, a first-time polar bear dipper who took the plunge with several family members, said the water was not as cold as she expected it to be.

“I’m from Colorado so this isn’t cold yet,” Frazier said. “My feet are cold, but that’s about it.”

Longtime Port Angeles polar bear dipper Dave Lasorsa was warming up near a fire that organizers had built on Hollywood Beach.

Lasorsa, who estimated he had participated in 25 polar bear plunges, posed for pictures with friends and family.

“The cold water feels good on the joints on an old guy like me,” Lasorsa said. “It’s just a really good way to start off the new year. We just love it because we get to see our good friends.”

Lasorsa broke down the three stages of cold in the annual plunge.

“The first time’s fine,” Lasorsa said. “The second time it hurts a little bit. The third time is completely painful, but I think by that time you’re body’s in such shock you don’t know any more, you don’t care.”

Event organizer Dan Welden said the 2020 Port Angeles plunge was held in a “perfect weather window” between periods of rain.

“It’s the eye of the hurricane,” Welden said.

The 32nd Port Angeles plunge doubled as a fundraiser for Volunteer Hospice of Clallam County, which provided pastries for the participants and their supporters.

Another New Year’s Day plunge was taking place simultaneously at Lake Pleasant.

Organizer Carin Hirsch said four people, all adults, took part in the West End polar bear dip at the boat launch in Beaver.

It was the lowest turnout in the 13-year history of the Lake Pleasant plunge, which has drawn as many as 31.

Hirsch said most of the beach at Lake Pleasant was submerged Wednesday.

“The lake was really full of water because of all the rain we got yesterday,” Hirsch said.

Elsewhere on the North Olympic Peninsula, about 65 people jumped into the cold water at Nordland in East Jefferson County. Further south was a jump in Hamma Hamma on the Hood Canal.

Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.