Polar bears are coming to the North Olympic Peninsula on Sunday as annual dips into the cold waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Admiralty Inlet are scheduled in Port Angeles and Jefferson County.

The annual Port Angeles Polar Dip, a New Year’s Day rite of passage for at least the past 18 years, is set for 10 a.m. Sunday at Hollywood Beach.

In Jefferson County, the 12th annual “polar plunge” at Nordland Store on Marrowstone Island will begin at noon Sunday.

“I came back from my trip to California to do this,” said Bobbi Croxford, who has been one of the driving forces behind the Port Angeles event.

“This will be my 15th.”

Standard changes

The standard for becoming a certified Port Angeles polar bear used to be running into the water and fully submersing oneself twice, but the ante has been upped.

Croxford said the requirement changed because we are now in the third millennium.

“That’s why it’s called the annual Polar Bear Triple Dip, because of the third millennium,” she said.

“We’ve switched over from the second.”

Refreshments will depend upon what individuals bring with them, but there will be a bonfire on Hollywood Beach and participation certificates for chilly survivors, Croxford said.

Of course, beyond the organizational details of when and where, the big question on many observers’ minds is “Why?”

Why leave a perfectly good, heated home on New Year’s Day to put on a bathing suit and run into very cold water, not once but three times?

“I’ve done marathons, but it’s definitely different from marathon running,” Croxford said.

“It’s such a quick thing. You’re in and then out, three times.

“The worst part is being seen in a bathing suit, not necessarily the water temperature.”

But it could be very un-polar-like weather for Sunday’s event. The forecast calls for temperatures in the upper 40s and rain.

About 100 usually attend

Croxford said the crowd is usually about 100 “polar bears.”

Participants range from as young as 4 years old to people in their 60s and 70s, she said.

In Jefferson County, the frigid dip will take place across from Nordland General Store, 7180 Flagler Road.

Tom Rose, owner of the general store and organizer of the Marrowstone Island Polar Bear Dip, said that 80 people have already signed up, but he expects a lot of people who aren’t planning to take the dip to get pressured into it.

“A lot of people will challenge other people who might not have been planning to do it,” said Rose.

In the past, children as young as 4 years of age and one woman age 80 have participated, said Rose.

He said knit stocking caps with an embroidered polar bear will be available for purchase for $12 to commemorate the event, but said “you’ve got to be wet to get one.”

At Marrowstone Island, polar bears have to jump off a pier to dip.