The Salty Dogs Friday morning swim is normally an energetic group plunge in the frigid waters of San Francisco Bay, rewarded by hot coffee and music from a battery-powered speaker on the East Beach at Crissy Field, with a restorative portable sauna set up in a tent.
But last Friday’s 7 a.m. plunge was comparatively quiet. Between 50 and 100 people in bathing suits went out, dunked under and stood around in the shallow water as long as they could stand it, then came back in and dispersed.
There was no coffee, no music, no sauna. It was not even an official Friday plunge.
That was because the Salty Dogs Club San Francisco, formed in 2024, has been warned not to gather until they secure an event use permit from the Recreation and Park Department, putting in doubt a growing saltwater tradition that usually draws hundreds of people.
A member of the Salty Dogs Club San Francisco wears the group’s sweatshirt on the beach before its Friday morning plunge off Crissy Field. (Jana Ašenbrennerová/For the S.F. Chronicle)
“Officially we are not plunging until the permit is approved but we can’t stop people from their weekly ritual,” said Aleks Chojnacki, spokesperson for the Salty Dogs Club. “It can’t be an advertised group of people.”
The weekly dunking, which is announced on a website and social media under the motto “Cold Plunge, Warm People,” happens on the shoreline at the northern end of Yacht Road, just west of the St. Francis Yacht Club. The beach there is operated as a city park by the Recreation and Park Department, and it was a city park ranger who asked to see an event permit on March 27 for a gathering of some 300 people. On that particular Friday, the gathering also had a DJ playing amplified music, and a volunteer cook flipping pancakes on a camping grill.
There was no permit, as typically required for gatherings in parks with DJs, temporary structures or cooking equipment, and an official warning was issued.
“They were very respectful and by the book. They weren’t aggressive in any way,” said John Barnes, one of the five Salty Dog founders. “We’ve always done our due diligence to be respectful of noise and to leave the place better than we found it.”
Recreation and Park Department spokesperson Tamara Aparton confirmed Monday that the group applied for a special event permit on April 1, and that they are determining what the parameters of that permit should be. “Our permitting staff is going to discuss it with them and see what makes the most sense with their plans,” Aparton said.
Members of the Salty Dogs Club San Francisco head into the water at around 7 a.m., then typically drink coffee or warm up in a portable sauna. (Jana Ašenbrennerová/For the S.F. Chronicle)
The Salty Dogs posted an Instagram video last week appealing to supporters and Mayor Daniel Lurie in hopes he would intervene on behalf of the event and expedite the permit process.
“We want to do this the right way, for all of you,” the club wrote. “But permits for recurring free community events in this city can take many months and we want to move faster.”
A spokesperson for Mayor Lurie said he was aware of their situation and that the mayor’s office has been in touch with organizers of the event. Further comment was deferred to the Recreation and Park Department.
The Salty Dogs Club was formed by five strangers who had moved to San Francisco from Dublin, Sydney, Anchorage, Ohio and Wisconsin, where Barnes is from.
Members of the Salty Dogs Club SF gather in the water during their Friday morning plunge at Crissy Field East Beach in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, April 3, 2026. (Jana Ašenbrennerová/For the S.F. Chronicle)
Members of the Salty Dogs Club gather in the water during their Friday morning plunge. The group has grown into a popular social gathering since it was formed in 2024. (Jana Ašenbrennerová/For the S.F. Chronicle)
Through in-person connections they agreed to meet one Friday in 2024, and that was the start.
“Word spread. People showed up. Strangers became regulars. Regulars became friends,” is how the evolution is described on the website.
The group is informal, with no membership fees, though many sport a $55 Salty Dogs hoodie. The standard Salty Dogs Friday starts at 6:20 a.m. when a small segment of plungers gathers to stretch before a 3.5-mile run out toward Fort Point and back. Everybody meets back at the beach at 7 a.m. and they go into the water for the cold plunge at 7:10.
Most wade to chest level and there is a unison dunk before they hurry back ashore. By 7:30 a.m., they are out of the water and drinking coffee. By 8:30 they are gone without a trace.
“The whole ethos of Salty Dogs is to bring people together and do something difficult that is out of their comfort zones,” said Barnes. “People crave rituals and the ability to connect with other humans.”
Members of the Salty Dogs Club have typically gathered for a chilly plunge on Friday mornings, but now the future of the group is unclear. (Jana Ašenbrennerová/For the S.F. Chronicle)
Unlike the Dolphin Club and the South End Rowing Club, both of which swim in the protected Aquatic Cove further east along the shoreline, the Salty Dogs are not swimmers. They launch from a public beach and wade out into open waters. Get in, dunk under, get out. Shiver and shake and drink coffee. Nobody wears a wetsuit.
“Every Friday rain or shine” is how Chojnacki, the co-founder from Sydney, described it – at least until the warning in March.
Since then, and going forward, the group emphasized it won’t have official meetups.
“We very carefully communicated that there was no event on Friday,” Barnes said. “It was ‘hey, it’s shut down for now but this is what we want to show with our actions.”
The Salty Dogs club has become a social outlet for many, including the group’s five founders, who were relative strangers when the started their plunges. (Jana Ašenbrennerová/For the S.F. Chronicle)
In an email exchange last week, Chojnacki said the issue was complicated by the fact that the plunge is on the border between areas under the jurisdiction of the city and areas that are part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
“Given the nature of our plunge location, it’s been a bit complex,” she wrote, “but we’re working closely with support officers to move things forward.”
Chojnacki said that she hopes Lurie would see the weekly cold plunge as a positive in his relentless city promotion campaign. And if the permit is granted, she went on, he would be invited “to join the official return plunge of the Salty Dogs.”
This article originally published at Hundreds joined their weekly S.F. cold plunge. Then came a warning from the city.