It’s been 100 years since a few brave swimmers joined Peter Pantages for Vancouver’s first Polar Bear Swim.
There were just nine or 10 swimmers that first year, said his granddaughter, Lisa Pantages, and the group became known as the Vancouver Polar Bear Club.
Taking a dip in the waters off English Bay was more than an annual celebration for her grandfather.
“When he first came to Vancouver as a young man, he was determined to swim [in the ocean] in honour of his home island Andros in Greece at least once a day, often he did it three times a day,” she said.
He never owned a car and would walk from Pantages Theatre, which was opened by his uncle Alexander Pantages in 1908, or from his restaurant the Peter Pan Café on Granville Street, for his daily dip in the ocean.
In fact, in the early years, Peter Pantages would invite everyone who took part in the Polar Bear Swim back to the restaurant, which closed in 1972, for a party.
“The swim to him was a very important event to help him create community for himself and his family, as well as help Vancouver kind of identify what their community was going to be as they went forward in the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s,” Pantages said, standing on English Bay beach wearing one of her grandfather's vintage swimsuits.
The event, which was initially held on Christmas Day, grew quietly those first few years but really started taking off on the 1940s and ’50s. Partly, Pantages said, due to her grandfather’s notoriety.
“When my grandfather would travel, he was so committed to his swimming in the ocean every day that he would only travel by steamship,” she said.
He came to an agreement with the steamship company that would allow him to dive overboard every day to swim before climbing back onto the ship. When he was unable to dive off the ship, he had an agreement that ship staff would fill a bathtub with water matching the temperature of the ocean that day, put in an equivalent amount of salt and he would lie in the briny bath for 20 minutes to half an hour. The company would then provide him with an official letter documenting his swims.
After Peter Pantages died in the early 1970s, his brother Basil Pantages took over running the swim along with the Vancouver Park Board.
“That was kind of the flamboyant era of the swim where more and more costumes came down, people really taking it upon themselves to make the swim their own and it’s just grown ever since,” Pantages said.
Park board commissioner Dave Demers, who took part in the swim for the first time last year, noted that the annual New Year’s Day event typically attracts about 8,000 people, half of them taking the plunge.
“While I was a bit reluctant at first, I must say that I am now a full-fledged fan,” Demers said.
The park board is planning on creating a bit of a splash to make the centennial Polar Bear Swim.
There will be live music, performers and food trucks, as well as a slew of commemorative merchandise for sale, including hoodies, scarves, toques, T-shirts, tote bags and cups.
New this year, the event will feature a special area just for families, a bit removed from the main crowd, which will include a warming tent for the littlest swimmers.
“We’re trying to make it as fun as possible for everybody,” Pantages said.
Long-time participant George Pajari has “three great reasons to be a polar bear swimmer.”
“First of all, it’s a heck of a lot of fun,” he said. “I can’t express the enjoyment of joining several thousand other screaming, excited Vancouverites as they run into the water to greet the new year. The adrenaline rush has to be experienced.”
Secondly, he said, it’s a chance to celebrate silliness.
“If John Cleese gave us the Ministry of Silly Walks, then the Vancouver Park Board and Pantages family has given us the Ministry of Silly Swims.”
And lastly, he said, he likes to think of the Polar Bear Swim as “Mother Nature’s life coaching lesson.”
“Before the swim, you might think, ‘The water’s going to be so cold, I’m going to be uncomfortable, this isn’t going to be fun,’ and then you pull it off and you realize those were imaginary gremlins, it wasn’t what you feared. And like many of the things holding you back from your other objectives in life, you can do it.”
Pajari is such a fan of the annual Polar Bear Swim tradition, that one New Year’s Day he was “sufficiently silly” and did four in one day — starting at 10 a.m. in White Rock, Port Moody at 11 a.m., Deep Cove at 1 p.m. before finishing off the frosty tour with the English Bay swim.
“I used to love calling it the best non-event event Vancouver had because there were no expectations of everybody, people created their own traditions,” Pantages said. “You’ll see. If you’re down here on New Year’s Day, so many families that have done it for so many years with so many generations.”
Pantages, who participated in her first Polar Bear Swim at just three months old (she had her toes dipped in) and has done the swim every year since, will be doing her 58th swim this New Year’s Day along with three generations of her family.
This year’s Vancouver Polar Bear Swim festivities will run from noon to 4 p.m., with swimmers taking the plunge at 2:30 p.m.
Anyone planning on participating is encouraged to register online at vancouver.ca/polarbearswim in order to receive a commemorative certificate.
The park board will have about 17 lifeguards on duty in the water in rowboats and on paddleboards, as well as watching from elevated chairs and stationed at the first aid station, to make sure everyone stays safe.
@JessicaEKerr
