As the calendar year moved into 2022, winter-swimming enthusiasts took part in multiple events, including Coney Island’s Polar Bear Plunge, Edinburgh’s Loony Dook, and several Christmas Day swims and New Year’s Day dips. Many of these organized events returned this year after being on hiatus last year because of COVID-19 restrictions. Gathered below are recent images of chilly fun being had at lakes and beaches across the Northern Hemisphere.
Starting the Year With an Icy Swim
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![People in bathing suits walk near a shoreline as winds drive large waves.]()
Read morePeople leave the water after participating in a traditional New Year's Day swim at Blackrock Diving Tower during severe wind, in Galway, Ireland, on January 1, 2022. #
Clodagh Kilcoyne / Reuters -
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![Several people stand waist-deep in water, wearing costumes. One holds up a cutout of a heart with "2022" written on it.]()
Read moreLoony Dook swimmers take to the waters of the Firth of Forth in South Queensferry, on the outskirts of Edinburgh, Scotland, on January 1, 2022, as they celebrate the new year with an icy dip. #
Andy Buchanan / AFP / Getty -
![A man wearing bunny ears and a woman dressed as a mermaid swim in a rectangular hole cut into lake ice.]()
Read moreMembers of a local winter-swimming club take part in festive bathing in the icy waters of Boyarskoye lake outside Tomsk, Russia, on December 26, 2021. #
Taisiya Vorontsova / Reuters -
![Dozens of costumed people run into the surf in a seaside town.]()
Read moreParticipants, dressed in costumes, run into the North Sea as they participate in the New Year's Dip charity fundraising event in South Bay, Scarborough, in northeast England, on January 1, 2022. #
Paul Ellis / AFP / Getty -
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![Four people wearing costumes splash in knee-deep water.]()
Read moreParticipants wear costumes as they splash in the North Sea during the New Year's Dip charity fundraising event in South Bay. #
Paul Ellis / AFP / Getty -
![Several people are seen swimming in a harbor; the one at center wears reindeer horns.]()
Read moreParticipants enjoy the Christmas Day swim across the harbor on December 25, 2021, in Weymouth, England. About 450 swimmers were watched by thousands of people lining the harbor to witness this annual Weymouth & Portland Lions Club event. #
Finnbarr Webster / Getty -
![Several people in bathing suits and costume hats are seen running into cold surf.]()
Read morePeople run during the annual Polar Bear Plunge in Coney Island, in New York City's Brooklyn borough, on January 1, 2022. #
Stephanie Keith / Getty -
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![A man floats in a large hole cut into lake ice.]()
Read moreA man bathes in an ice hole during the annual New Year's swim in a lake near Vilnius, Lithuania, on January 1, 2022. #
Mindaugas Kulbis / AP -
![Dozens of people in costumes and swimsuits run into the ocean.]()
Read morePeople wearing costumes participate in a traditional New Year's Day swim in Calais, France, on January 1, 2022. #
Pascal Rossignol / Reuters -
![Three girls dressed as grapes (purple balloons clustered on their bodies) jump for their friend, who is taking a photo, on a beach.]()
Read moreThree girls dressed as bunches of grapes jump for their friend as they enjoy the Lyme Lunge New Year's Day swim on January 1, 2022, in Lyme Regis, England. The Lyme Lunge, organized by the Lyme Regis Rotary Club, has become an annual tradition in which hundreds of swimmers wear costumes to raise money for charity. #
Finnbarr Webster / Getty -
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![Several people run into a shallow bay, with a city and snowy mountains visible in the background.]()
Read moreA group of people take a New Year's Day dip at Kitsilano Beach in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on January 1, 2022. #
Andrew Chin / Getty -
![Several people, two of them wearing shark costumes, cross a street.]()
Read morePeople march to the beach to plunge during the first swim of the year at M Street Beach in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 1, 2022. Plungers joined in with the L Street Brownies, a group that has been swimming year-round almost every day, no matter the weather, for more than a hundred years, for the first swim of the year. #
Joseph Prezioso / AFP / Getty -
![Several revelers wearing New Year's hats and glasses run into the water.]()
Read moreA group of revelers wearing New Year's hats and glasses run into the water as hundreds of people take to the 44-degree-Fahrenheit ocean water at M Street Beach in Boston. #
Joseph Prezioso / AFP / Getty -
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![A woman wearing stars on her head plunges into the surf.]()
Read moreA woman takes her first swim of the year during the New Year's celebrations at Carcavelos beach in Oeiras, on the outskirts of Lisbon, Portugal, on January 1, 2022. #
Patricia De Melo Moreira / AFP / Getty -
![About a dozen people are seen, wearing Santa hats and swimsuits, in waist-deep water.]()
Read moreWinter swimmers take part in a traditional Christmas swimming event in the partially frozen Orankesee lake in Berlin, Germany, on December 25, 2021. #
Markus Schreiber / AP -
![A man is seen underwater, and a person wearing a winter coat is visible above the surface.]()
Read moreA man bathes in an ice hole in the Neva River in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on December 28, 2021. The temperature in Saint Petersburg was –7 Celsius (19 Fahrenheit). #
Dmitri Lovetsky / AP -
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![Two women in Santa hats and swimsuits take a selfie while standing in waist-deep lake water, near ice and a swan.]()
Read morePeople take a dip in a lake in subfreezing temperatures in Warsaw, Poland, on December 26, 2021. #
Czarek Sokolowski / AP -
![Five people hold hands as they run into the surf.]()
Read moreA family takes a dip in the North Sea on January 2, 2022, in Wassenaar, the Netherlands. #
Michel Porro / Getty
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