After two years of often mind-meltingly hot weather in the Middle East, I never knew how much I could miss leaping into almost-frozen water through a large hole cut through 2 foot thick ice. The Special Olympics Polar Plunge has more or less become an annual tradition for my family, with me starting it back in 2007, my little brother Josh joining me in 2008, and then him taking over in 2009 and 2010 with his own team. It takes a special kind of person to do this jump, which some people might aptly define as “absolutely nuts” or “better you than me, you lunatic.”

Ready for freezing with plastic weaponry for all

In the video above, some interesting things of note are:

• How much farther away from the ice-cut hole the spectators are kept. Is this for safety reasons, or because Special Olympics has acquired a lucrative rights deal for specific corporations to do the video and photo work, and allowing family and friends to do the same (or *cough* better *cough*) would potentially damage this contract?
• Not to complain, because I know she’s working hard, but I really wish that the announcer woman doing the countdown would have stuck to the basics for our jump. She had been saying “3…2…1…Pluuuuuunnge!” for the past hour of us being there waiting, so that’s what we were going to time jump-with-synchronized-punch for. Instead, she mutters something into the microphone along the lines of “3…2…1…*muttermutter* sensei!” Yes, we get it…sensei…we’re ninjas…we know what you were trying to do, but it wasn’t appreciated. This completely threw all of us off and we sprang into the water not with the grace of ferocious deadly ninjas but rather with the comedic value of a bunch of young adults falling into cold water.
• I obviously won a bet with Josh about staying in the water. “I’ve been in the desert for so long, I’ll need to stay in the water extra long to make up for the years I’ve been gone,” I boasted. “You can’t,” he scoffed back. “Your body will make you get out; you won’t be able to help it.” Ha! I said to myself – I’ll prove him wrong! So when I say to my buddy Collin while we’re still in the water “This is just like the Middle East,” what I’m really saying is “In your face, little brother!”
• How quickly most of the girls separate themselves from the men as we’re exiting the water – by the time Collin and I are high-fiving after getting out, four of the five women are practically up the hill in the hot tub by that point. Was it even colder after getting out of the water and into the windy air? Come to think of it, I didn’t notice 😉
• I apologize that some of our jumpers aren’t very well shown off in the video. The Special Olympics people keep so many support, security, and safety personnel standing around the pool that it’s a wonder that anyone is able to get any pictures of anything at all. I chuckle whenever I hear my dad’s voice behind the camcorder muttering “Move your butt!” to the oblivious guy standing right in his line of sight as we line up on the plank. Even better is that I timed the music to it. Move your butt! Hey!

As always, thank you to our donors! As I mention in the video, all nine of us combined raised a whopping $1,888 this year for the Special Olympics. We’re already planning for what the Ninjas might do for 2012! (Possibly front flips)