Plungers will be “freezin’ for a reason” at ocean beaches in East Hampton Village and Wainscott on New Year’s Day, their mad dashes into the frigid surf arguably motivated by desires for personal renewal and for their fellow citizens’ well-being, inasmuch as the proceeds from the usually very well-attended events go to food pantries in Sag Harbor and East Hampton Town.
Colin Mather of the Seafood Shop in Wainscott — who heartily recommends cold showers to begin every day, by the way — christened the tradition on Jan. 1, 1999, running with a few friends the some one-and-a-half miles from his Montauk Highway shop into the ocean at the end of Beach Lane.
Soon after, the Ryans, John Sr. and Jr., who were in Mather’s inaugural company, went out on their own, first holding a New Year’s Day plunge at Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett, and then, at the suggestion of Eddie McDonald, who made it a fund-raiser, at Main Beach in 2004.
John Ryan Jr., chief of the town’s lifeguards, estimated that last year’s Main Beach plunge attracted more than 600 plungers and probably 1,500 onlookers over all. Of those who demurred, he said, “They don’t know what they’re missing — when you do it, you come out saying ‘Wow!’ “
To which Mather added: “After a cold shower or a New Year’s dip in the ocean, you do not need coffee — you’re set for the day.”
The 2024 Main Beach plunge was said to have raised $35,000 for food pantries throughout East Hampton Town, and the Wainscott plunge $7,000 for the Sag Harbor Community Food Pantry.
“This year,” Mather said this week, “Wainscott plungers will have even more support, with donations already coming in from several Sag Harbor businesses. As they say, ‘It takes a village!’ ”
Mather added that “the importance of this money for the Sag Harbor Food Pantry can’t be overstated. It’s the food pantry’s one and only fund-raiser for the year. So, please give what you can.”
East Hampton plungers will be asked to donate $40, Wainscott plungers, who can preregister online through sagharborfoodpantry.org, $25.
Registration for the East Hampton Village plunge is to begin at the beach at 11:30 a.m. The participants are to be unleashed at 1. Mather’s run to the beach in Wainscott is to set forth from the Seafood Shop at 2 p.m. About a half-hour later, he and those who run with him will arrive at the Beach Lane road end. About 150 or 200 plunged there last year, cheered on, Mather said at the time, by a roughly equal number of spectators.
The Main Beach event, according to a flier, will include “a 50/50 raffle, prizes for best costumes, apparel for sale, and complimentary hot food and refreshments for all participants.”
The Wainscott plunge’s organizers, according to a release, will give out “an official Wainscott Polar Bear Plunge winter beanie to all registered plungers . . . Colin will offer hot soup at the Seafood Shop to all participants after the swim.”
“One thing I will say,” John Ryan Jr. said after the village plunge, “if you aren’t here early, you’re going to be late. . . . If you don’t get to Main Beach by 12, you might end up parking at Town Pond.”