I've done the Polar Bear thing in Nova Scotia when I was a young man. It was on New Years day, a very large hole was cut in the ice at a local lake. There were about 50 of us standing around the hole, and the ice started sinking. The mere act of standing was quite difficult as the water swirled up to mid calf. There was a very buxom young lady standing beside me who couldn't take it, and leapt into my arms, where she stayed until the bell rang, signifying the plunge. I jumped in with her still in my arms, but she didn't stay there long. As soon as people hit the water, they exited with Olympic speed, and ran for the changing cabin. Only one had been provided, and people were so cold that nobody respected the usual norms of concealing nakedness from strangers. The women must have thought they had arrived at the Shrinky Dinky convention or perhaps they were seeing a bunch of turtles in danger. In any case, a good time was had by all, and we made it onto the local news that night for our 15 seconds of fame.
Previous to that, me and two of my chums had taken a sportspal canoe down a local river in the middle of March. The river had just opened up, but there was still a lot of ice clinging to the shores. The water was very high, so there were trees normally on the banks in the middle of the river. We were around 15, and our paddling skills were very minimal, so we broadsided the first tree in the middle of the river. The sportspal folded in on us like a soft taco. Two of us managed to extricate ourselves, but the canoe wrapped around the third guy and was sucking him down. We had him by the arms, and we thought we were going to lose him, but he had on hip waders, and they suddenly got pulled off his feet by the sportspal taco, releasing him from its deadly grip.
It was a long walk home through the snow in our sock feet.
