To kick off the new year, hundreds of people swarmed Fisherman’s Beach for the annual Polar Bear Plunge, hosted by the Swampscott Yacht Club.

    According to Jill Hartman, this is the sixth Plunge’s sixth year and it has grown significantly each year. The first year there were only thirty people who “plunged.” This year, there were over two hundred participants.

    At eleven o’clock on the dot, the countdown hit zero and a herd of over two-hundred people charged the ocean screaming with excitement. Some quickly escaped the cold of the ocean, while others floated for minutes near the buoys.

    
    “It feels awesome,” said Stephanie Collins, with a sarcastic tone. “I’m a little chilly; I can’t really feel my legs.”

            
    No one was really in the mood for talking after taking a dip in the icy water, Collins rushed to get a towel, along with the hundreds of other participants.

           
     “The water felt terrible,” said Scott Powell. “It was probably around forty degrees, which isn’t that bad. But it was very very very cold.”

            
    Some, more experienced plungers were not affected by the cold waters, in fact Susan Kline embraced the waters this year with a warm hello.

            
    “It wasn’t that bad,” said Kline. “The first year I did it, it was sixteen degrees and we had a foot of snow, and it was freezing. It was really cold.”

          
    This year was not nearly as bad, according to Kline. The air temperature was thirty-seven degrees and the water was even warmer at forty-four degrees. This years Polar Bear Plunge was the warmest year yet; according to Roseanne Blum this would have affected her decision to participate.

           
    “If I knew it would be as warm as it is today, maybe I would have done it,” said Blum. “The first year I came, I got a t-shirt and wore it around school and pretended that I went in but…”

            
    The out of season warmth, however, was not the only thing attracting a crowd to the Polar Bear Plunge. A competition among the Swampscott High School grades brought eighteen SHS students to Fisherman’s Beach at that early hour.

            
    “They’re doing a contest for all the classes versus each other, right now it looks like the junior class is going to win,” said Kelsey Lombard, president of the class of 2014. “The winner gets some of the money because the money’s going to Swampscott Education Foundation and then they will give it to the class with most participants.”

            
    With money as a prize for their class, student councils from both the Sophomore class and the Junior class faced off. The Junior class was determined to win, and succeeded in beating the Sophomore’s with nine participants. The Sophomore’s had three.

            
    “It feels really good to be able to come back from break having raised our class so much money,” says Julieanne Marquis, president of the class of 2013. “I don’t know how much money we will receive yet, but I know it will definitely be helpful to our class, especially since prom is coming up.”

            
    Along with the excitement from the Junior class, a second wind came from a group of men. They screamed out to the crowd of people, begging them to take a “double dip.” A chant of “double dip, double dip” went on for a minute before they got a sufficient amount of participants who were willing to go in for a second time.

            
    “I don’t know, I just thought it would be fun,” said Powell. “My friend wanted to go in again, so I thought why not?”

            
    “I just think it’s a great thing, look at all these people that are here, its very community oriented,” said Kline. “I don’t know, its just something that I do.”