A Day at the Beach

Yesterday was the 22nd Polar Bear Swim at Haeundae Beach. Naturally, I joined. The forecast called for temperatures in the low-40s on Sunday, but we got lucky. It was in the mid-50s. When the wind wasn't blowing, it wasn't too too cold. It cost about $16 to join. The entrance fee included a nice T-shirt, a swim cap, hot tea and soup, a bag of seaweed, free entry to a public bath house, and a very nice towel.



I joined the non-competitive event just before noon. In the picture below, you can see a bunch of dots in the water. Most of those are life guards. They wore wet suits and each had a small beach ball. When people made it out to their line, they threw out the balls and let people fight for them.

A few years ago, I joined a race across a bay in Japan. My team's color was florescent yellow. I wore that swim cap so that Rie could keep track of me from the beach. (She declined the invitation to participate - I am not sure why.)

Even though I knew it would be cold, I was not quite prepared for how cold the water actually was when I jumped in. It was a bit painful, but after a minute or so, my body went numb and I began to enjoy my first Korean swim. I made it out to the lifeguards, but did not collect a prize. On the way back in, I did some body surfing and spoke with a few of my fellow Polar Bears.


I spent about 15 minutes playing in the ocean before the line of lifeguards collapsed our swimming area. They tightened their line and herded all of the people out of the water.



Surprisingly, I was not too cold when I got out of the ocean. But, after about ten minutes, I was shaking and having a hard time using my chopsticks.


After the fun event, a big group of people started the serious competition. They made two laps around the buoys in their race. It was an interesting race to me not because they wore wet suits, but because they wore flippers and snorkels. The snorkels were swimming snorkels - instead of coming up the side of the head like recreational snorkels, they rose up in front of the head where they would not interfere with serious stroking.


After the swim, Rie took me to a Mexican place she found nearby. It was very small and very good.


After lunch, we saw a movie, relaxed at the public bath, ate dinner at an Oriental restaurant, had hot chocolate at an Italian cafe and took an evening stroll before heading home.