The Vancouver Park Board wants your body to be in top condition if you plan to be part of the annual Polar Bear Swim.
Chairperson Stuart McKinnon told CKNW’s Jill Bennett it’s probably not the best hangover cure and anyone with health concerns shouldn’t participate.
“We like to say that children must swim and stay with an adult. If you have a heart problem, please just watch. And one of the things that I think is really important – please don’t bring your dog down,” McKinnon said.
“It’s going to be more than a thousand people down there and not a very good place for dogs.”
He also advised swimmers limit their time to three or four minutes in English Bay.
“Don’t stay in the water longer than 15 minutes because you’re body heat is lost 25 times faster in the water than in the air. That’s something that I didn’t know,” he said.
The City of Vancouver offers some other tips including warming up with a coffee of hot chocolate after getting out of the water, not to remove clothing until it’s time to swim and reminding that alcohol accelerates hypothermia.
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About 1,500 people participated in last year’s event. The largest one was in 2014 when 2,550 people entered the frigid waters on Vancouver’s coast.
Vancouver’s inaugural Polar Bear Swim took place in 1920 where nine swimmers joined founder Peter Pantages for a dip in English Bay.