Birch Bay\u2019s polar bear dip on New Year\u2019s Day did not break the world record, the chamber of commerce said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite appearing to have more than enough people to break the 3,134-participant\u00a0record\u00a0held by a group in Sola, Norway\u00a0(4,917\u00a0people picked up their bibs\u00a0in Birch Bay, according\u00a0to Pacific\u00a0Multisports), Guinness World Records said the attempt was unsuccessful.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
There were two issues with the attempt: Guinness couldn\u2019t verify an accurate starting count due to \u201cnon-participants being present within designated plunge zones at the beginning of the attempt.\u201d Many participants also didn\u2019t \u201cfully meet the required guideline of being submerged at least waist-deep for the full duration,\u201d the Birch Bay Chamber of Commerce said in a news release.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite falling short of the official record, the event achieved its original and most important goal: bringing the Birch Bay community together in celebration while welcoming thousands of new visitors to the bay during the traditionally quiet off-season,\u201d the chamber said in the release. \u201cBirch Bay was filled with energy, community pride, and goodwill as residents, businesses, volunteers, sponsors, and visitors came together for a truly memorable day.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
As for another attempt next year, the chamber\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0be organizing one, said Mary Jane Thompson, the visitor center coordinator. Birch Bay\u2019s regular polar bear dip,\u00a0which\u00a0has been taking place on New Year\u2019s Day for more than 40 years, will return.<\/p>\n
Charlotte Alden<\/a> is CDN\u2019s general assignment\/enterprise reporter; reach her at charlottealden@cascadiadaily.com<\/a>; 360-922-3090 ext. 123.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Birch Bay\u2019s polar bear dip on New Year\u2019s Day did not break the world record, the chamber of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-408824","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}