Baptism & Christening 101

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Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers January 2, 2008
By Doug Carroll

Paul Martinez came all way from Orange, Calif., for a baby’s baptism.

He got one, too — in the dirty, icy waters of Lake Michigan.

Click here for a photo gallery of the polar plunge in Sheboygan

Click here for a video of the polar plunge in Sheboygan

 ”I scream like a little girl when the hot water goes out in my shower, let alone this,” said Martinez, 36, one of those who heeded the call to jump in the lake Tuesday as part of the annual New Year’s Day Polar Bear Plunge in Sheboygan.

“This is so not normal for me,” he said. “But I’m coming back every year. I’m addicted now.”

The event, which has been staged since 1971, drew a few hundred intrepid souls to North Beach on a sunny, 21-degree day that felt much colder with gusty winds. Many of the participants brought cameras or a support crew to testify to their folly.

“It’s … not … cold … enough!” went the group cheer before Justin Bohn, president of the Polar Bear Club, counted down by bullhorn to the 1 p.m. start.

Most agreed, however, that it was colder than last year’s plunge, when the high temperature was 46 degrees. Many of Tuesday’s participants emerged from the lake with algae plastered to them.

“Maybe we’ve got Milwaukee to thank for that,” said Tom Jens, 56, of Sheboygan Falls, a dairy farmer who was part of the first frigid dip years ago with fewer than a dozen pals from the University of Wisconsin-Sheboygan.

“We’ve had years where we’ve had more ice,” Jens said. “That would have been nicer. If you’re gonna go in, you might as well have it cold, right?”

Veteran “polar bears” grieved the loss of the Sheboygan Armory as the event’s base camp, saying it wasn’t the same to convene at Dave’s Who’s Inn, 835 Indiana Ave., and then drive several blocks to North Beach. The armory, within walking distance of the beach, closed about a year ago.

“At the armory, it was like a polar bear death march,” said Christian Lindau, 18, of Sheboygan, a sixth-year “polar bear.” “It was a big gathering point for a lot of people.”

Dave Repinski, the owner of Dave’s Who’s Inn, said his place became headquarters for before and after parties only within the past week. He said he plans to open the upstairs next year to families with children, which would give the tavern a capacity of 550.

Even with “bears” everywhere, hoisting beers and watching the Wisconsin-Tennessee Outback Bowl football game on TV, it was a mannerly zoo.

“These people are fantastic,” Repinski said. “Everyone has been in good spirits.”

Martinez accompanied his friend Paul Koene to Sheboygan Falls for the baptism of Koene’s 11-month-old daughter, Stella Rae. Koene, 39, who has lived in California for 10 years, extended a polar-bear challenge even though he never had taken the plunge. 

“This morning he had the look of a dead man walking,” Koene said of Martinez. “It’s one of those things that if you do it, you check it off the list.”

Martinez said he called a former high school coach for a pep talk beforehand.

 “Your lungs could collapse in your chest,” Martinez said the coach told him, perhaps intentionally adding fuel to Martinez’s raging fears, which proved completely unfounded.

“Polar bears” who have been around the block say that getting loaded is no longer part of their regimen.

“If we’ve got to drink to go in, then we shouldn’t be going in,” Jens said. “When you go in sober, you come out and warm up real quick.”

 Steve Kovacs, 45, of Sheboygan Falls, has participated since 1984 but this was the first time he wasn’t in costume. Over the years, Kovacs and his friends have dressed as hillbillies, cavemen, sheiks, castaways, gangsters, cannibals and bums. In 1989, with a temperature of 10 below zero, they rented a limousine for 17 hours and partied hard.

 “It became Halloween and New Year’s Eve rolled into one,” Kovacs said of the old days. “Getting older, getting kids and getting busy makes it a lot harder.”

This year, most of his fun came in seeing his wife wade into the water for the first time.

“I had no more excuses,” said Jen Kovacs, 34, who was pregnant for the last two plunges. “I wanted to see what all the craze was about.”

 

This article was originally posted at:
http://www.thenorthwestern.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080102/OSH/301020047