I’ve been invited to take part in the Polar Bear Plunge at Hidden Valley Lake for the last three years. The tradition goes on each year on New Year’s Day…and it’s terrible. I’ve declined the previous two invites, but for some reason I decided to give it a go this time around. At 1:11pm on 1/1/11 we ran and dove into the near freezing lake for no good reason at all.

Waiting around was cold enough, but I had no idea just how freezing I was going to be a few minutes later.

And I thought I was cold…

Time for the plunge!

My ability to breath was momentarily removed from me. My whole body went into shock and I fumbled around trying to remember how to swim. So this is what it feels like to fall through the ice.

To fully understand what I was feeling – take a look at my face.

That’s right…utter disgust at my own poor decision.

We did our weekly video announcements from this location and you can catch some video of the irresponsibility.

Announcements 01-02-2011 from Josh Emerson on Vimeo.

Never listen to your friends.