The Santa Clarita Aquatic Center’s 14th annual Polar Plunge was more challenging than last year’s, with temperatures topping out at 60 degrees, but for the plungers who’d come for exactly that purpose – to be challenged – that was a plus.
That was especially true for a group of plungers from the Aquatic Center’s water exercise classes, who showed up Saturday to slough their way across the Aquatic Center’s activity pool dressed as bananas, fairies and car dealership inflatables.
“This is aging insanity,” said water exercise class regular Shelley Carr. “Aging ungracefully.”
Fellow regular B. Clark, who’s logged more than 500 water exercise classes with the Aquatic Center and made the polar plunge in a tomato-themed ensemble, said the group had become friends under unusual circumstances.
Clark said that, a few years ago, the Aquatic Center’s water exercise program was looking at a reduction in the exercise program.
“They started reducing our number of days to do water exercise, so we kind of organized and wrote to the city council, politely asking that they continue the program and not erode its number of hours or number of days, and we did a petition,” Clark said. “So that’s the way we got everybody’s names and phone numbers.”
Since then, the dynamic between them has changed into something more like a fellowship, Clark said.
“Then people started going out to lunch together and dinner holiday parties,” Clark said. “It’s nice how community activism can foster social engagement.”
While Clark has participated in the polar plunge for a few years, 2026’s plunge also had newcomers. Of the 120 registered participants (plus walk-ins), there was an unusually high number of kids, said Aquatic Center employee Samantha Shere, with several there for the first time.
“The goal is to create an opportunity for the community to come together regardless of the weather. It’s a fun way to start the new year,” said Lance O’Keefe, the city’s Recreation & Community Services Manager. “(It’s) something exciting to do, and we love it.”
Lance and his wife Kelly, along with their daughters, 11-year-old Presley and 8-year-old Emmie, were no strangers to the Polar Plunge, but their friend, 10-year-old Sadie Pratchard, the decision to tag along this year was basically spur of the moment.
“We were hanging out in the car yesterday, and they told me about it, and I said ‘Sure,’” Pratchard said.
However the 100-plus participants found themselves at the Aquatic Center at the start of the new year, the goal and the format of the proceedings has been consistent since around 2020, said Pete McJunkin, the Aquatic Center’s Recreation Coordinator.
“We did miss a few years during the COVID time, but it’s been running strong for the last four years or so,” McJunkin said. “It was a New Year’s Day event that we held just to give people a new way to celebrate (the holiday) … at a time of year when they don’t usually think about aquatics.”
The polar plunge used to be held on the very first day of the year, McJunkin said.
“That was the format for the first ten or so years,” McJunkin said. “We brought it back after COVID and we moved it to the first Saturday after the new year.”
The schedule change has allowed families to both celebrate the New Year on their own terms and carve out a morning for the sake of the Polar Plunge – a move this year’s newcomers can be thankful for.
