They couldn’t “bear” not to.
The annual New Year’s Day “Polar Bears” swim for Coney Island was officially canceled Friday, but that didn’t stop a few hundred renegade die-hards from pulling out to their bathing suits and taking the plunge.
“A lot of things I normally do every year were canceled – the mermaid parade, baseball, all the things we normally do, that’s traditional,” explains Chris Geiger, 45, who has traveled from Glendale to the 50-degree Fahrenheit Atlantic. to jump. .
‘I said,’ I don’t care. We’re going to do this. It will be soon. We are safe, ” said Geiger.
“This is actually safer than ever before. Normally it is so packed you cannot even walk on the beach. This is nice. This is much better than usual. “
The Coney Island Polar Bear Club announced in November that it would be ending the event due to concerns about the coronavirus, so the 200 to 300 people taking the plunge were unlicensed and violated city rules prohibiting swimming without a lifeguard.
Still, they maintained social distance and spread their frigid frisky over the space of a few blocks and hours.
“It was breathtaking,” Rachael Pollina, 39, from Ridgewood, told The Post.
“I think we just knew we were going to do it anyway because we love it, and frankly, canceling it brought in way less than a crowd. So I think it is actually safer. “
Typically, thousands of people are doing the dunking while thousands more are watching, organizers have said.
But on Friday, only about 200 spectators lined the promenade or stepped out onto the sand to see the subdued event.
Among them were three NYPD agents, one of whom shrugged when asked about the apparent violation of the no-swimming rules. When a Post reporter pressed, “The crowd is too big? Can’t you arrest everyone?” The officer replied, “Exactly.”
Friday was especially missing the president of the Polar Bears Club, Dennis Thomas, who said he was sleeping in for the first New Year’s Day in 30 years.
“It’s a great New York tradition, started in 1903,” said Thomas, 65.
“And some people will continue anyway,” he added. “But next year we will be back bigger than ever.”
On a typical New Year’s Eve, more than 3,000 people go for a swim while another 10,000 people watch, he said.
A 35-year-old rapper from Coney Island who goes by the name of Gorilla Nems called the annual rite a “baptism.”
“The Polar Bears can’t do it officially because of the coronavirus, so we’re here to show that we’re New York strong, and whatever obstacles come our way we’ll get over them. We persist through it because that’s what we are. We are New Yorkers. “
A 21-year-old rapper from Flatbush, who goes by Danse, agreed.
“We have to leave 2020 behind us. It’s been a tough year, but you know what it’s like – down with the old, in with the new, ”he said.
‘We’re New Yorkers, we’re back. And we owe it to those people who couldn’t come out here – some who died in the last year and were annual members – to come and do this. “
Emmett McElory, 19, of New Milford, NJ, wouldn’t let COVID get in the way of an annual family tradition.
“It’s very different this year, not a huge crowd,” he said. “But after what we’ve been through in 2020, it is hopefully a better start to a better year.”